Where The Wild Things Are

One of the original things that drove me to fishing was I wanted to catch a wild brook trout. Naturally, that has literally never happened. Along the journey I’ve expanded my palate to (in my opinion) simply superior fishing options such as bass, walleye, and catfish, yet I’ve always wanted to “complete the journey” so-to-speak.  The only problem is finding wild trout is dang near impossible… until it isn’t.

If you have ever read this blog (if not, welcome!) you’ll know I own a big brown lab named Bubz.  I like to walk Bubz and Bubz likes to go for walks.  Walks are a great time for me to step away from work and reset.  Walks are a great time for Bubz to find and eat poop and terrorize small woodland critters in their abodes:

By far and away our favorite walks are on Sunday where we drive up the road a few minutes to a park that’s really more like a state forest.  Bubz gets to be off leash and bound around chasing squirrels as much as he wants.  There’s a long winding creek that runs through the forest, but it’s pretty small so I’ve never that much of it in terms of fishing:

However, given its fishing season, last week I decided Bubz and I would hug the stream and look to see if there’s any fish at all.  After not too long, I glanced down at a deep pool that forms in the creek and saw a fish move.  Look at this bad boy!

Okay so maybe it’s hard to see (you literally can’t see it) but that’s where it was!  And I was willing to bet it was a wild brook trout.  Why?  For several reasons:

1. The creek has cold, clear, well oxygeneted water – all things trout need to survive (seriously, when stocked trout get put into ponds, they will actually die during August due to the warmth).
2. Trout typically lay low in these types of deep pools after rapid waters.  Its a great place to wait for prey to get washed directly towards you.  They just sit on the bottom until it’s time to strike.
3. This creek is so small it doesn’t even have a name.  Nor is it listed on the trout stock report (a report that lists all places non-wild trout get stocked).  It’s also not connected to any of the streams or rivers that do get stocked.  Thus, if this fish is a trout it’s likely wild!

Why does it matter if its wild versus stocked?  It doesn’t really if you are just trying to eat one, that’s why like a ba-jillion trout get stocked every year. They all just get eaten by either fisherman or (much more likely) other fish right away. But Brook Trout specifically are a fish actually native to the United States, as opposed to Brown Trout. In fact, Brook Trout aren’t even really trout, they just belong to the same overarching family (char/salminoid). Anyways, point being it is kind of cool that you can say you found and caught a wild one rather than a manufactured one (at least to me).

So it all came down to catching this dang fish and seeing what it was. I didn’t have a fishing rod on me so I knew I’d have to try again next week and just hope the fish was still using the spot to hunt…

I woke up bright and early the following Sunday, ready to go.  And by that I mean I was literally dragged out of my bed by a growling dog who wanted his breakfast (this happens every single morning).  We quickly jumped in the truck and went off to the park to enjoy a walk and hopefully catch a fish.  

I moved closely to the spot and immediately saw the fish again, naturally it darted out of sight as I appeared to spook it… or maybe the four legged thing running wild and sniffing everything did.  Either way, I lowered down off the bank and took in the situation.  This looked about as trout-y of a spot as you could imagine:

I cast out before Bubz had a chance to jump into the pool (which he attempted several times whilst I reminded him he couldn’t swim).  I immediately felt a bite!  I was unable to set the hook –  it had been a long time and I was really nervous… er, moving on. I cast out again, this time a little further out so the lure I was using had more time to cause commotion in the pool.  All of the sudden, WHAM!  The fish absolutely smashed the lure.  And best of all, we got ourselves a Brookie!

I was quite pleased with myself:

Even Bubz got into the fun!  And by that I mean he naturally attempted to bull-rush me over to get at the first fish he’s ever seen for a healthy snack.  Being extremely used to this, I was able to box him out while I removed the hook from the fish which took a little time.  After one last photo, I decided to release the fish and say goodbye:

Normally, I’d be all for keeping this fish and making a nice snack, but it was just so small.  Also, given wild brook trout are so hard to find I felt it would be kind of crummy to keep it and hurt the population at all.  Typically I’d never even target this fish since catch-and-release fishermen often kill the fish by accident anyways but I was too curious to see what it was.  Luckily this fish, after some time removing the hook, swam off strongly and didn’t appear worse for the wear.  I won’t be fishing this creek any more, but will still be able to enjoy the fact I know they’re in there.

After that, Bubz and I got to enjoy the rest of our walk with a great sense of accomplishment.  I had finally caught a wild brook trout and Bubz had seemingly overcome his fear of crossing the stream:

As the weather warms up I’m hoping the fish start waking up and bite my dang lures more often.  I’m excited for what should hopefully be a strong fishing season and half a few recipes I’m itching to try.  If you want to join in the fun, all you have to do is…

Cast and pray,

Jon (bonus pic of Bubz tuckered out after the hike)