Eastern Brook Trout

My favorite fish is the Brook Trout. It is also my favorite fish to fish. You can find them in tiny spring creeks, rivers, ponds and lakes. Wherever you find them, be prepared for some great scenery, because they only survive in the cleanest, freshest water.

My fondest memories of fishing involved going after brook trout. My Dad would have me out in the early morning dawn; mosquitoes swarming, black flies biting, nettles stinging. And...I loved it! Even falling chest- high through a beaver dam with my fishing hook snagged in the alder brush 50 yards back...I loved it!

The brook trout is a friend to children and beginning fishermen alike. Along with the bluegill, it's hard to imagine a fish that's hungrier or more opportunistic. Fly, spinner, or bait, the brook trout rarely discriminates.

As you can imagine, the range of the brook trout grows more and more compressed as property development continues. Coupled with the brook trout's need for cold, clean water, their numbers have been dwindling along the Appalachians up the East Coast for years. Recently, an initiative has been made to improve habitat and create public awareness. The Eastern Brook Trout Joint Venture (EBTJV) is the nation's first pilot project under the National Fish Habitat Initiative, which directs locally-driven efforts that build private and public partnerships to improve fish habitat. The long-term goals of the EBTJV are to develop a comprehensive restoration and education strategy to improve aquatic habitat, to raise education awareness, and to raise federal, state and local funds for brook trout conservation. Seventeen states are currently drafting strategies to prioritize policy changes and on-the-ground actions to improve water quality and restore brook trout habitat and populations in their individual state using locally-driven, incentive-based, and non-regulatory programs.

If YOU would like to find out more and see what you can do to help, visit www.brookie.org