First Native Brookie...

[Paulson]

First one I've ever caught! I got very, very spoiled...

 

[djs12354]

Congrats!

 

[shirk81]

Congrats! Thats awesome! What were you using?

 

[shirk81]

Congrats! Thats awesome! What were you using?

 

[osprey]

Congratulations ........how large was it?

 

[Paulson]

Any help with posting a picture?

I was trying to nymph, so I flipped a few rocks and used a salamander on a midge. Call it cheating if you want.

 

[Paulson]

Here we go...

 

[Swattie87]

That's a heck of a Brookie for your first one...very nice.

I'd say the "salamander on a midge" is really just a "salamander on a hook"...the midge isn't really doing anything for you with a big, tasty treat attached to it, but hey you didn't say it was your first Brookie on a fly, just your first Brookie...no harm, no foul, and unless the stream doesn't allow bait fishing, not cheating.

If that Brookie took a salamander like that, try drifting a small Bugger (size 14ish) through there...I bet it would have taken that too. Any way you slice it, very nice fish though.

 

[shirk81]

Beautiful coloring on that fish.

 

[Paulson]

And yes It was legal, and unnamed tributary to an approved trout stream.

I didn't even think to use a bugger after it hit that salamander...let me just first say these fish are finicky and very spooky. I spooked about 7 holes before I was able to catch this one...I missed some big ones to. I watched the water on a quick back cast and they wanted nothing to do with it.

Over all I am very happy, using the same techniques even with live bait definitely improved my confidence in fly fishing...just need to imitate that salamander.

 

[barbless]

A small black Slumpbuster- basically a strip of black rabbit fur on a #10 hook with a beadhead- would work to imitate a salamander like that. Very effective subsurface brookie fly.

That's a very nice brook trout, by the way.

 

[Swattie87]

Yeah most little Brookie streams don't have any kind of special regs on them. The spookiness you noted is normal for a native Brookie stream, especially in low, clear conditions. Most of the time the battle is just tossing your fly/spinner/bait/whatever in there without spooking them first. If you can manage that, there's a good chance they'll eat your offering. Head back after a good rain when the flow's up and they'll be a little less cautious.

 

[Paulson]

I'll look into the slump buster, thanks!

Was definitely a new experience for me. Technique I was using to create some sort of realism was actually fishing upstream of a hole staying low. I was doing some sort of modified roll cast (would start a back hand cast and lift my rod tip up open my wrist and flip it out) and keeping the rod tip low, only about a foot of line out. Once the bait was casted, I kept the rod tip where the bait was (an artificial mend?) and just above the pool I let the current take it down to the fall and put the line just barely in the water, kind of trapping my leader and tippet in the fall. I believe it gave the impression he got stuck in the pool, swirling around.

If they didnt take, I let my bait slide to the back of the pool or down into another hole then put my rod parallel to the bank and repeated.

Not very technical in terms, but if helps, try it out!

I'm a bit far from any native streams around here but I've wanted to do nothing but fish for them since, a fun challenge.

Also, what other flies does everyone like to use for brookies?

 

[ryguyfi]

Top: elk hair caddis, royal wulff, hi viz adams

underneath: any basic nymph, small buggers, pink san juan worms.



I just recently bought a very small pack just for these small streams. I keep all the flies above in one box and just a few other basic materials. Packing light helps in these small streams.

 

[nealfish]

thats a nice fish! i wish i could get out to a little brookie stream again, i havent gone since two summers ago. +1 on light packing.

 

[dc410]

I've caught a lot of native brookies over the years but I never caught one with color the like your first native Paulson. Congrats. What a beauty! Work on that Slumpbuster pattern, you will surely catch many native fish on it and you won't have to waste time diggin' around in the rocks for salamanders. My go to pattern for native brookies over the past couple of seasons has been the "Pick Pocket", a version of the well known picket pin pattern.

Hook - size #12 2 XL nymph hook
Thread - 6/0 black
Tail - golden pheasant tippets
Body - peacock herl
Hackle - grizzly hackle palmered over the herl
Wing - fox squirrel tail hair
Head - peacock herl

Fish em' till they fall apart. The brookies absolutely love them! We are really blessed with the amount of native brook trout streams that we have in PA. Let's take care of them and keep those fish in the water. Good luck and have fun!

 

[Paulson]

Ill look into those patterns guys, thanks for the help!!

Yeah, I got really really spoiled. That's trophy in my book.