# Discovering - What is it about Brookies?



## kingfisher 11 (Jan 26, 2000)

My best is natural fish is 16". Best planted brookie in a lake was 19". The planted trout tasted like cardboard. 
I still catch 8-10" brook trout in the NWLP. One thing on my bucket list is to go to Canada and fish for 3-5# fish.

Robert was the larger brook trout coasters? I know of a few large brook trout caught on the city dock in Petoskey. Not sure if they were coasters?


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## Far Beyond Driven (Jan 23, 2006)

I have a few places where I can catch brookies in SW Michigan. One in the shadow of an interstate highway. Also have a stream where it's possible to catch a trout slam if the steel pulled off a good spawn that winter and put some smolts in the system. Most are little punks but every now and then you stick one that doesn't move when you set the hook.

Dad in law uses a 10' 3 weight fly rod with a spinning reel. He breaks it down to move through cover, assembles it, and then dapples his tackle into pockets you could never cast to. I've seen him pull a 16" out of a stream you can jump across.


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## PunyTrout (Mar 23, 2007)

slabstar said:


> I actually think the state record brookie will be surpassed in the next few years..... it's out there.....


It's tough for me to imagine a Brook Trout over 9 lbs. 8 oz. - It would have to come from a lake for sure.

What length would a Brook Trout have to be for it to weigh that much? At least 30" with large shoulders and a fat belly...



Robert Holmes said:


> Just wondering how many people on this site have caught a brook trout over 20" long.


I'm still working on it Robert. Largest for me was 17.75 inches last year.

Again, I think they either have to live in or, have access to a lake in order to reach 20 inches or more.


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## ESOX (Nov 20, 2000)

I spent a LOT of time in my youth chasing brookies. (Or stalking them on my hands and knees).
My biggest in MI was in Antrim County in the mid 70's, 15.75"..
Caught a lot in Ontario L Superior watersheds that were measured by how many pounds...4# was nothing, 5 was a good start. 

The beauty of MI brookie fishing is they live in pretty, but sterile headwaters, once you get to them, they are sure to bite.


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## kingfisher 11 (Jan 26, 2000)

ESOX said:


> I spent a LOT of time in my youth chasing brookies. (Or stalking them on my hands and knees).
> My biggest in MI was in Antrim County in the mid 70's, 15.75"..
> 
> 
> The beauty of MI brookie fishing is they live in pretty, but sterile headwaters, once you get to them, they are sure to bite.


Sounds like we had similar hobbies as a youth in the same county


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## Robert Holmes (Oct 13, 2008)

There are plenty of those bigger Canadian brook trout that either enter Lake Superior or Lake Huron so I am sure that someone will get one sometime.


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## brookies101 (Jun 23, 2008)

Awesome videos, thanks for posting those!!!

Trout season can't get here soon enough


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## concentroutin (Jan 7, 2014)

I caught a 22" brookie in the 3-3.5 lb range in a Lower Pen NE unmentionable about 3 river miles from Lake Huron in September, 2007. I sent pictures to both the MDNR and USFWS. Definitely not a Splake, and they thought it could be a Coaster as there have been some historic reports of northern Lake Huron having some. Very cool and pretty rare; I was lucky. My largest known resident is 15.5". Mr. Holmes, not trying to knock your fish at all, but is there any chance that your large brookies could have been Coasters as well?


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## Robert Holmes (Oct 13, 2008)

My 20" brookie was caught only a couple of hundred yards from Lake Huron so I am saying yes. The 25" brookie was caught in Lake Michigan off from the mouth of a well known brook trout stream so I am going to say no to that one. I think that it was a resident stream trout that made it to the lake. I also believe that I hooked and lost the same fish 7 months earlier. I beached it with no net and lost it.


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## Robert Holmes (Oct 13, 2008)

I have caught good numbers of large brook trout through the ice on the UP side of Lake Huron while targeting steelhead. Most are 14 to 19 inches long. Although I have never caught one that broke the 20" mark I am sure that there are plenty of them out there that are that big or bigger. The DNR does not know about these fish because the creel census people will not walk out to where I fish for them.


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## B.Jarvinen (Jul 12, 2014)

several 14s last year for me, and not in stretches all that difficult to access. I think if I take a Kayak down a couple streams, one at each end of the U.P., I will reach the high teens. A canoe would work too but I need more of a conspiracy of a fisher folk or two, for either idea.

I caught a 16 that was probably an escapee from a lake planting


I have a couple new creeks to try for coasters next summer, looking forward to it. Might try some late fall Steelie tactics on the beach, but in late summer while they are still "coasting" theoretically. These aren't the BTRA streams but I am really looking forward to checking those out. Might finally start assembling a true suite of backpacking gear to pick a remote one. Though I camp a whole lot, I don't have the ultra-light gear for a long walk-in.


what it is about Brookies though - I fished some in Appalachia this winter, and will be again after this next round of winter this week. I have had some bad luck with trying known Brookie streams when they are pitifully low on water and the poor little Brook Trout probably have no choice but to hide out in the lake at the end of the stream.

But I would just rather go chase their little 5" Brookies than mess around with their double digit planted Rainbows. They tell me a great bait for the stockers is actually Power Bait, which I never understood for fishing in a stream, had always thought it was designed for lakes. But finally I realized that when you are fishing for Goldfish, the best bait is probably Fish Food. So just for giggles I think I am some day going to tie up a couple small spawn bags full of that flaked aquarium Fish Food, just to mess with the locals and see if I can catch a stocked Trout that way. I bet I can. 

I struck out on this one stream in February that I was a little incredulous was supposed to hold Trout. I was fishing too low down - I need to hike about 3 miles in to where it is more of a "gorge" that creates deep pools. Luckily, I will have a job coming up right on that mountain (Spruce Knob). I think I will be hoping for some rain days, because they say that back up in there, as they say, the Brookies reach 7 or even 8 inches. Incredible! Can't wait! Brook Trout!


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## grp (Jun 7, 2011)

Brookies ?
Their stunning beauty their secret places and having one for dinner. Maybe best tho is fishing w someone special who understands & feels all those same things


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## grp (Jun 7, 2011)

grp said:


> Brookies ?
> Their stunning beauty their secret places and having one for dinner. Maybe best tho is fishing w someone special who understands & feels all those same things


---
re-edit to UP Standard
Brook Trout
Stunning colors & beauty, secret hidden places, shadows dancing to campfire, smoke rising summoning the great spirit, eating trout w fingers, giving a bite to someone who understands it the same way
I think that's Brookies 
the image , an old painting by Winslow Homer
When I first came upon it I asked "what is it about this painting"


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## itchn2fish (Dec 15, 2005)

The Brookie is my favorite feeeeeeesh to hunt, bar none......Trrrrrrrooooooouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut!


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## Waif (Oct 27, 2013)

I watched Canadian Brookies caught. None for me though... l.o.l.. ( slight sobbing sound). Sure good fishing though with the environment a big part of it.
Brookies caught over the years from river and whizz sized creeks were all Brookies though.

Someone once described them as God' s ornaments.
Holding one and looking it over while hearing the water slip by..then finally feeling what has been smelled and mentally , maybe even spirititually tugging since reaching the bank; it does not seem to be my place to argue. 
Rather a near childish admiration for a pretty pretty that survives(d) , and suddenly I' m no bigger than a small fish.


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## wirespider (Mar 19, 2017)

I need 


Waif said:


> I watched Canadian Brookies caught. None for me though... l.o.l.. ( slight sobbing sound). Sure good fishing though with the environment a big part of it.
> Brookies caught over the years from river and whizz sized creeks were all Brookies though.
> 
> Someone once described them as God' s ornaments.
> ...


little help on interpretation. Are Canadian speckled trout also called brook trout???? I have caught brook trout out of the Nipigon River and they look different than the spec's I caught in Killala Lake. Help


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## neazor91 (Aug 4, 2008)

They're the same thing. You'll find color variations from river to river, and lake to lake. I sometime catch different color variations in the same river.

Mike


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## Waif (Oct 27, 2013)

wirespider said:


> I need
> 
> little help on interpretation. Are Canadian speckled trout also called brook trout???? I have caught brook trout out of the Nipigon River and they look different than the spec's I caught in Killala Lake. Help


They call them specs there.
"We " call them Brookies , putting a trout name to a char is debatable.

Nipigon is quite a place. Even the history of the Jesuits there is early. Natives ,French and others. Portages ,trade ,war and more.
The geenstone region in general is special ,( I miss seeing the palisades in spring even) ,regulations are keeping some of the pressure/ kills off enough to see such big o Brookies in a form we don' t see much of beyond...
Other fish too...but it can be a pilgrimage for some to see them Specs/ Brookies alone.


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## itchn2fish (Dec 15, 2005)

Yes, I agree, Waif. They evolved from land-locked Char....


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## Waif (Oct 27, 2013)

itchn2fish said:


> Yes, I agree, Waif. They evolved from land-locked Char....


A member had to remind me of that....
Ah well. Still pretty feesh.


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## kingfisher 11 (Jan 26, 2000)

Brook trout measured in pounds is still on my bucket list


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## ESOX (Nov 20, 2000)

Nipigon R


kingfisher 11 said:


> Brook trout measured in pounds is still on my bucket list


Nipigon River, Mousing at dusk. Crazy big fish, lots of them.


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