Started the new year off right.

[steveo27]

My girlfriend and I spent New Years weekend with some friends at a cabin in Cook's forest. She planned on hunting muzzleloader Friday and Saturday while I planned on fishing nearby.

She ended up being sick and spending most of the weekend on the couch in front of the fireplace with her book. She still let me out to fish though.

I got to check out a few tiny, tiny little streams Ive been eyeballing since the summer. The extra rain we received last week brought the streams up to fishable levels. All 3 of the streams are located within SGL's.


I finally got a chance to fish my new reel I picked up on here a few weeks back. 1000% satisfied with the reel -

A few highlights -

And this little dude was the most interesting of all the ones I caught. Ive never caught a brookie this dark before -

I love chasing these tiny little gems. All said and done, I got about 9 miles of hiking in over the 2 days and caught well over 3 dozen of the little dudes.



Cheers

 

[pabrookie94]

Nice fish steveo! I have caught one brookie that dark before although I have no clue what gives them that darker coloration.

 

[Trey]

That sounds like a great time! I absolutely love brookies.

Check out how dark this bad boy was!

 

[streamerguy]

Nice post and photos. I've always figured the dark ones are the fish that spend most of their time hidden under rocks, and in general places that get little sunlight. But then again you'll catch plenty of lighter/normal colored fish in these same places. Either way they're some cool looking fish!

 

[BrooksAndHooks]

Lots of things go into fish color, there is a good thread on here somewhere. look for it

I have caught a handful that were very dark, plenty that were darker, and one or two that were pretty much jet black. Very crazy. They look very cool when they color up yet retain the dark body color, which gives the fish an ever starker contrast and highlights the spawning colors.

 

[steveo27]

Thanks guys. Ill have to find the info and give in a read.

The stream I caught the darker ones in was a bit more discolored than the streams I normally fish. The majority of trees in the watershed were pines. The gradient of the stream wasnt as steep as most streams I fish. The rocks were stained a reddish color. The water had a slight tint to it as well. There was a good bit of sand and silt on the stream bottom. And there was some natural acid seeps (I think you'd call them that?) along the stream. Im sure all of these factors contribute to the coloration.

 

[Bosshog]

Speaking of dark brook trout. I caught this one a few weeks ago.