Brook Trout
(Salvelinus fontinalis)

At Trout Fishing Basics I think Brook Trout is a very colorful fish that is a joy for anyone to catch, which makes brook trout fishing really fun! They are mainly found in cold moving water throughout the Rocky Mountains. Due to the cold water they grow slow and their life span hovers around eight years, depending on how pressured they are, and when caught are one of the tastiest trout to eat! Keep a eye out for our Trout Lures page coming soon!

APPEARANCE

With an overall dark olive body with a bluish hue, plus striking red dots with blue halos, it is one of the more easy fish to identify, but the biggest tell tale markers are the spotted dorsal fin and worm like marking along its back. You also notice that the fork in the tail fin is very shallow, other fins have a white and black stripe at the front, with the rest of the fin being orange.

PREY

Young brookies feed mostly on insects that live above water, or in water. Where as the adult trout feeds on almost anything the moves including the insects, these are also the victims of the brook trout;small amphibians, mice, snakes, worms, other fish.

PREDATORS

Despite its appetite brookies are not without predators of its own. Here are some of them; bears, eagles, herons, loons, osprey, and other fish, mink, otters. Oh yeah, us! There is nothing like a good trout feed to make you want to go out and catch more!

HABITAT

Unlike most trout, brookies are very choosy about where they live. They prefer medium to fast flowing water that is on the cool side with lots of oxygen. I have landed some big brook trout in a few high mountain lakes, there again the water is on the cold side.

SPAWN

Brookies usually spawn in the late fall. Gathering up in clean shallow pools with lots of gravel and with good oxygen and clean. The female will make a nest, referred to as a redd. After house cleaning the male and female will swim side by side until they release milt and eggs. When all that is done the female will stir up the nest and lightly cover the eggs with gravel. Below are some trout that you can learn about.

Arctic Grayling | Brown Trout | Bull Trout | Cutthroat Trout |
Dolly Varden Trout | Golden Trout | Lake Trout | Rainbow Trout

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