Spiel

Some great shots Mike.

Congratulations, you gots a full house. Luke like a keeper to me.

Thanks again everyone. Well Fidel they have co-existed since the browns were first introduced into this stream several decades ago. The area of the creek I'm fishing is the lower limits for specks as summer water temps tend to become too warm. Since they are in direct competition with the browns the specks here tend to average over 13"s and upwards of 18" to 19"s. In 10 plus years of fishing this area I can count on one hand the number of specks I've caught (seen) that are under 10"s, anything smaller is just a meal for the big browns.

Oh boy do I hear you loud and clear Jen! Great shots of the boys. I need to get my son back out there and use up all this bait I bought last time I was there.

Enlarged and framed.

I'd have lost my nerve and a load....LOL Nice looking river (and fish), hope you get another crack at it.

This law has been printed in the Fishing Regulations Summary for the 40 plus years I've been reading it. Read your regualtions folks, thoroughly.

A new motor (awesome ) and first fish of the year also your first laker and that's the best smile you could manage for the camera....

Happy trails Mike and good fishing to you.

Niiiiiiiiice.

That is indeed truly sad!

You can look here for a start. But the real work is in getting permission to fish as most of the area creeks are on private property. Atlas of Brown Trout Waters in Ontario Do it soon, I'm sure you'll be glad you did. Takes me back to my childhood of fishing little stream brookies with my dad. Thanks Phil. In a word.....nothing! There's still time and I'm toatally motivated!

To make it simple I was just trying to convey they were not "annually" or "recently" stocked like the rainbows. Since they have not stocked them in those waters in several decades I just went with the term native, thus not needing to explain how the browns got there. And yes some of our now "naturalized" (Thanks Burtess ) browns came from Germany but not all of them. History of Brown Trout Stocking in Ontario

Wayne nailed, they fly 'em in. As far as fin clipping goes they do indeed clip the adipose and even partial clips of the dorsal fin (some do get missed in the process). Changing the fin clip each year allows them to identify when it was stocked, thus allowing growth and health info to be gathered. Specks can under ideal conditions spawn in upwelling springs as long as they can expose clean gravel that doesn't silt over before the eggs hatch. A friend has a cottage on a spring lake where I've wittnessed this many times. The trout will expose clean gravel on the lake bed where springs well up. Mind you these are wild specks and this trait is inherit, stockers may not do well in this type of situation. As far as splake or brookie? Even to the trained eye it can be difficult. Check these links. http://www.couplesresort.ca/Attractions/Ar...ish/Splake.html http://www.mnr.gov.on.ca/en/Business/LetsF...age/200080.html The thing to do would be to contact the local MNR and request stocking information on the lake, they will give it to you. I will say it again though, they are all magnificent fish.

I seem to recall that name, welcome back Roy.

Thanks everyone it was indeed a long winter for me and it felt good to get out and do a little fishing. Machette, well it would definitely be required Mike but useless against the skitters. The noise of struggling your way to the creek once the under growth is full would be like sirens going off to the trout. I've got a couple of weeks to make the best of it and then that'll be it till next opener. In time Bill, in time. I knew exactly where this trout was and I've thrown countless casts to him in the last few years and only now did I hit pay dirt. Funny creatures these browns and mostly nocturnal once the reach a significant size. I hope so Joey, just need a grey drizzley evening and I'll be back. These are definitely marginal waters, with them high and cool the specks are spread out and in many cases hard to even get a line at. As the levels drop and warm they'll stack up in the few deep pools that have riffles in order to take advantage of the higher disolved oxygen thus making it easier to locate them. In this type of situtation I find they also become very competitive over the food supply thus making it relatively easy to catch them. To long Wayne, far to long! I'd have never thought you'd be out "chasing oily fish" Brian. Took me totally by surprise. When the waters up it's time to chase browns.

It's been a few yerars but man O man does this ever look familiar. The speckies do as well but I'm sure that's just me. Nicely done Bill.

I'm still gunning for a speck of that stature, man they are all beauties! I did note however that your cousins fish (perhaps all of them) are from stock as seen in the absence of an adipose fin.

Well opener has come and gone and like I've done the last decade give or take a few years I hooked up with a buddy to fish a small creek for Specks. This creek is outstanding in that it produces healthy specks with an average size of 13 to 18 inches, like this one. This year though failed to produce even one specky. I believe this small creek may be in trouble and though I have suspicions as to why only time will tell. Admittedly though if the opening weekend water is high and cold like this year the fishing is generally tough. I hope to get back a few more times over the next week or two as the water warms to see if I can't get me a few big fat specks! Now stream conditions aside this is one tough stream to fish, it's literally choked with tag alder and cedars and log jams and almost impossible to wade so getting a bait to where the fish are is tough, extremely tough but not as tough as getting it back out again. Though as I said no specks were caught I didn't go fishless, in fact I caught my PB brown from this stream to date, not the biggest I've hooked there and certainly not the biggest I've seen by a long shot but a respectable fish none the less. I've had glimpses of this fish in the past as he raced for cover of an over hanging tree and figured it for a brown because of the size. It's a tough approach and the only way to get a drift to him his from atop a bridge making it easy for him to see you! As I carefully approached my position the refelction of the morning sun blinded me from glimpsing into the water and naturally leaving me easily visible. As quietly as I could I drifted a big fat dewy back under the tree to no avail. Thinking the fish had made my presence I was about to abandon my attepmts in favour of an easier pool when I decided to offer up a 3" Berkely Gulp minnow in watermelon pearl, one drift and "BAM" fish on! High res. image Was I happy, oh yeah. After he was quickly released and rightly so, took me two years to coax him out and it just wouldn't be right to kill 'em, besides he'll be bigger the next time we meet. A few more hours and lotsa walking produced no more fish but I did see another one make for cover in this tangled mess as I carefully approached.... I'll be back trying to coax 'em out soon, just for a photo op of course and then back into the water. Back in his garage over looking the creek valley we ended our annual event talking bout past years and the mornings venture over a few cold ones. What a great day!

As a father of three myself I gotta say "CONGRATULATIONS" and if you don't stop at three we'll soon be calling you Marty....LOL

I've done the marriage vows twice myself, mind you it was with two different women and combined the two were less than half your 27 years....LOL Congratulations.

Excellent!

Brian out trout fishing. I think I'm going to wait for the alarm to wake me up cause I must be dreaming.

Very, very nice indeed. I'd hoped for a few like that myself yesterday but alas it wasn't to be.

I just P'd myself....