Took the wife to Colorado for a long weekend and managed to sneak away a few times to get some fly fishing in. Caught a few wild rainbows but this was by far my favorite.

He ate a parachute adams and put up a fine fight on the 3 weight.

Congrats! I have only caught one brookie, from a small stream in Michigan, and it was about the same size as yours. Hoping to get a chance at some larger ones someday, maybe in Maine or New Brunswick.

Thanks JC. I understand the brook trout in New Brunswick and Labrador get enormous.

caught my first brook trout couple weeks ago in Idaho, purty lil fish

Beautiful fish, congratulations!

Thanks Bass Bug and Capt. Mac for the replies.



Yes sir!

Nice post and cool video Will! Watching that video reminds me of the time you filmed the release of your Sabinal River Catch&Release Fly Rod Record! Good job buddy!

Thanks Chuck. It's fun to watch them swim away, but I admit that if there was a frying pan nearby I might have kept this one!

Will not be long when the Guadalupe River will be loaded up with Rainbow Trout! TPW stocking is right around the corner! Keep that frying pan handy!

Guessing you were on the Upper Thompson. Gorgeous place Congrats! I love Brookies !

4Weight, I planned on fishing the upper Thompson but it didn't happen this trip. This was actually a small creek above Adams Falls at Grand Lake.

Very cool. The whole place up there is special

Love some brookies. I've caught 'em all over the place. Back east in Va where they are native, in Kentucky where they were trying to reintroduce them, and out west where they are considered an invasive nuisance. They were put out in the mountain west to replace cutthroat that were extirpated by mining and logging.

They should be getting all colored up and aggressive this time of year. Nothing like seeing an inch fish with a huge khyp in his jaw. Fall is a time I like targeting them with classic wet flies like an Alexandra, they really get aggressive. They are fall spawners like browns hence why in some streams in Va and other places where there are both species they will natural hybridize and create what is termed a "tiger trout". Male brookies are like March hares and it doesn't seem to matter who or what they spawn with.

And yes they are delicious. Love to keep them in late fall or early spring when I can pick them out of a blue line high in the hills and pack 'em straight into some snow for the trip home or fry them hard in butter creek side in a little cast iron skillet.

Thanks Bones for the reply. How does the taste of a brookie compare to a rainbow trout?

Usually much better as they typically come from cooler cleaner water. Some rainbows are somewhat comparable if you are taking smaller naturalized fish from smaller streams. Most 'bows in Colorado are stocked though there are healthy reproducing populations on many of the major rivers and several of the lakes. Bows and Browns out of the lakes that have a high population of sowbugs and scuds have meat that turns orange from the high carotene and chitin in the forages exoskeleton in theory it shouldn't effect the taste or texture but in my experience those red/orange meat fish are the bows to keep and are the bomb on a smoker.
The stocked fish are usually dumped in at easy access fishing spots so they are the typical catch for most anglers. Stockers are fed liver pellets at the hatcheries to grow them to size quickly and in my opinion that makes them taste terrible and makes the texture something like paste. I typically only kept trout in the cooler months though so this also may have something to do with my experiences.