Backroad Brookies & Browns

[MJL]

Yesterday I managed to get the car for the whole day – First time in ages. Was planning to go carp fishing with my dad up in the Kawarthas yesterday but I had a feeling it was going to be a little slow. Decided to break out the ultra-lite tackle instead and go on the hunt for some new trout fishing holes.

 

Left the house at 5:30am and pretty much toured around farmland and forest areas looking for whatever streams I could find…My GPS wasn’t very reliable on the dirt roads and my maps were a little out of date. I got lost a few times, ended up on a few mud roads leading to nowhere and at one point there were 10 cows surrounding my car

 

Got to the river at 6:30am, walked upstream with the Panther martin and first cast underneath the log jam coughs up this gem

 

Another small one with some beautiful markings

 

Spinners have been my #1 producer for brookies so far

 

Perhaps the smallest brown I’ve ever caught - It took the biggest spinner I had with me

 

Getting bigger

 

 

Biggest of the day

 

Love the colours

 

The last river I hit, I got into some more brookies and I decided to keep my last fish of the day. My first time trying a speck.

 

Pan fried in butter, it was delicious!

 

I had a total blast yesterday. I was able to get out from 5:30am to 7:40pm (wanted to fish longer but the tummy wanted something more than granola bars). I managed to scout out 8 streams of which 5 I fished and 4 actually produced trout – Hopefully I’ll get to return to the others streams during the week to try my luck. According to my GPS, I walked approximately 14.74 km yesterday through some serious shrubbery along the rivers – At least there weren’t too many bugs.

 

Fishing was also a lot tougher than my 2 previous outings for trout. Seems the string of crazy weather we’ve been getting might’ve put them off the bite a little. They were really hunkered down into some serious log jams – Lost a lot of tackle in the process. In the afternoon I had to stop into one tackle shop to replenish my supply of spinners (My wallet got raped in the process - $5 each for a panther martin?! I was desperate and bought a few anyway). In total I landed a couple dozen small brookies, a dozen browns and a few giant chub. Gawd, this trout fishing is addictive!

 

Hope you enjoyed

[Zubris21]

Looks like a great day out there! Do you think the Browns will still be in the streams come mid July? I really want to add one to my list!

[johnnyb]

Awesome stuff!!! Very nice way to spend the day....next time try just gutting the fish....leave the skin on....dip it in flour on each side, and add some salt. THEN throw it in the pan with the butter....probably tastes just as good, and less work Meat will flake right off those bones

[blaque]

Thats how we used to do it back in the day when i would eat fish more often. Gut, cut of heads, pack the void with butter and lemon and whatever else you like to taste, wrap up in tinfoil and throw them on the bar-b-q. Open foil and flake away the filet from the bones...........eat as you go.

 

And by the way, those are some georgeous, georgeous fish. And your photo skills bring out that beauty even more-so. Its like high-def. trout pics

[BillM]

Some of those forked tails browns are most likely atlantics no?

 

My buddy Dave caught an Atlantic lastweek and until he showed me the tail, I would have sworn it was a brown trout.

[solopaddler]

Some of those forked tails browns are most likely atlantics no?

 

My buddy Dave caught an Atlantic lastweek and until he showed me the tail, I would have sworn it was a brown trout.

 

Yeah and he caught 'em on marshmallows too!!

 

 

(Really nice fish Mike well done!)

[wallacio]

Yeah and he caught 'em on marshmallows too!!

 

That's all I use Mike, on a single barbless of course!

[ehg]

Those backroad brookie trips do rock! Despite the bushwhacking, bugs, lost lures, etc....lol

Once hooked a large resident brown deeply so i kept it, best eating fish ever. Still put all back since however.

Thanks for posting your adventure.

[nancur373]

Looks like they've been feeding well.

[trapshooter]

Awesome day!! Those are good numbers of trout and getting fish in 4 out of 5 streams is fantastic. Thanks for the report.

[MJL]

Thanks guys and many thanks for the recipes

 

Looks like a great day out there! Do you think the Browns will still be in the streams come mid July? I really want to add one to my list!

 

Those browns are the resident ones that live up there all year round (I'm pretty sure). They should be good to go come July.

 

Some of those forked tails browns are most likely atlantics no?

 

My buddy Dave caught an Atlantic lastweek and until he showed me the tail, I would have sworn it was a brown trout.

 

Hey Bill, I think there might have been a small fold in the tail which gives it a forked appearance. I checked my salmon/trout ID chart and compared it with the pictures zoomed in. In the pics, the fish have spots on their adipose fin (which apparently Atlantics don't have) and there is some orange colouration on it too which according to a few web-sites is common in browns. Maybe someone more experienced in fish ID can comment?

[Leecher]

Great report and pics Mike

You certainly put in a lot of time and effort getting into these beauties!!! Congratulations

Now hope you're not going to become a brook addict after this little excursion LOL J/K

Again great job Mike and thanks for sharing

Jacques