Everything You Need to Know About the Brook Trout

The brook trout is not a trout. It belongs to the genus Salvelinus — the chars — alongside lake trout and Arctic char. Its closest relatives are not the rainbow trout or brown trout it shares water with. The name stuck. The taxonomy did not change. The brook trout is considered the most visually striking freshwater fish in North America. Worm-like vermiculations on the back. Red spots with blue halos on the sides. Lower fins that are ruby red with a crisp white leading edge followed by a narrow black stripe — a pattern so distinctive that a single fin in isolation is enough to identify the species. And it is the most threatened native salmonid in the eastern United States. Its range has contracted by an estimated 50 to 90 percent in many of the states where it was historically present — squeezed upward into colder headwaters by brown trout from below and warming temperatures from above. A 12-inch wild brook trout in an Appalachian headwater stream may be 5 or 6 years old. 00:00 Introduction 01:07 Section 1 — The Biology 04:10 Section 2 — Range and Habitat — The Appalachian Retreat 07:05 Section 3 — The Char — What Makes It Different from Trout 10:05 Section 4 — The Spawn — Fall Ritual in Cold Water 12:39 Section 5 — How to Catch Brook Trout 16:16 Section 6 — Conservation If you want to master the science, biology, and mechanics of fishing, subscribe to Fishing Lab and drop a Like. #BrookTrout #BrookTroutFishing #FishingLab #AppalachianFishing #TroutFishing #BrookTroutBiology #FlyFishing #NativeTrout #TroutFishingGuide #FreshwaterFishing