Brookie Fever: Part 2 of 3

The Catoctin Mountains and Frederick County has around 15 or 20 streams that contain self sustaining reproducing Native Brook Trout populations. This stream is one of them, and this stream is also very special, I will talk about that later though. Geared up and after a little hike, we made it up past the private property and I began to fish. There was a hatch of flies, whitish in color. Just sticked with an Adams and Elk Hair Caddis, and a couple other dry flies. Sneaking up is the most important part in Brookie fishing. I caught 7 Brookies and set the hook and missed on a lot of fish. It is really good water and plenty of holes and Brookies. One whole that was very interesting was where the rolled down along a steep rock wall, it was a very deep pocket. Unfortunately, there were branches everywhere and you could not make a cast to the hole, except by going up to it and making the bow and arrow cast (my fav. cast). I landed about a four incher, no size to any of the Brookies; most of them were in the 2-4 inch range. I saw a big one disperse to the deeper water when I was walking up to cast. After making my way upstream, the water got narrower and the pools were farther apart and not as big. I landed several small Brookies here. I wet waded on this day, it was hot and I was not going to wear or carry waders for about a 1/2 mile before you get to public property. Not many people know about this spot, that is why I will call it Stream X.

Interesting Facts Every Brook Trout Angler Should Know:

Now to the special part, why could this stream and these Brook Trout be so special?

Well, let's go over so surprising facts that you probably do not know...

Brook Trout were stocked in Maryland waters (streams, lakes, ponds) during the course of 40 years, 1948 - 1988. The Brook Trout were raised at many hatcheries across the state including our local Albert Powell Hatchery on Beaver Creek. Some Brook Trout were also raised and stocked by Federal Hatcheries like Bowden and Paint Bank, and some were raised at Commercial Hatcheries like Kriss Pines. There were fingerling, adult, and some brood Brook Trout stocked into our waters. So, you want to know the areas in Frederick County in which they were stocked...
   
     Bear Branch
     Big Hunting Creek
     Camp David Pond
     Catoctin Creek
     Cunningham Falls Lake
     Fishing Creek
     Frank Bentz Pond
     Friends Creek
     Lewistown Work Center
     Little Hunting Creek
     Middle Creek
     Owens Creek
     Talbot Run
     Toms Creek
     Tuscarora Creek
     Urbana Lake

Most likely, if you have ever been fishing in one places and caught a Brook Trout, it is a great-great-great (etc.) grandchild of the Stockers that were stocked there a long time ago. I'm not going to get into purebred genes and all of that stuff. I'm just going to say one thing...the Brook Trout in the above places are (most likely) NOT purebred Native Brook Trout. Their ancestors are from stockers which were raised in hatcheries. It's kind of like catching a "wild" Rainbow Trout, most likely it is not a "pure wild" fish because different agencies have stocked Bows that were raised and then they crossbred with other fish and so and so on. Most of the places above do not hold Brookies (anymore) but the ones that do, the fish are most likely not purebreds. For example, Fishing Creek was stocked with 33062 Brook Trout from 1948 - 1988. The fish can move into the tribs. too, Little Fishing Creek could be riddled with grandchildren of Stockers.

That is why this is a special place, never stocked, and the fish that I caught were "pure" Native Brook Trout. I don't think this really makes a difference in terms of native or not, they are Maryland's only native Trout, even if they have been stocked in the past and crossbred. It is really not too important, I thought I might share it though.

If this kind of stuff sparks your interest, or if you just want a great book to read about Rainbows and their introduction into the world...I suggest buying Anders Halverson's "An Etirely Synthetic Fish". There was a presentation in the March Potomac Valley Fly Fishers meeting about the introduction of Rainbows, based partly on his book.

Chart: Shows Brook Trout production statistics in Maryland, by facility, 1948 - 1988 (data presented is only for facilities which could provide data for both numbers and weight).


Facility                             Number of trout                 Weight              Trout per pound (range)
Bear Creek                                63704                        15370                  4.71  (0.5 to 64.3)
Albert Powell                            168145                       58886                   6.2  (0.3 to 125)
Cushwa                                    10250                         3973                     2.5  (2.2 to 2.8)
Federal – not specified               27264                         9187                    2.5  (2.2 to 2.9)
Bowden – federal                       93700                        15817                  21.6  (2.9 to 495)
Leetown – federal                      35957                        5146                     5.9  (0.3 to 36.8)
Paint Bank – federal                  117116                       36521                    3.0  (0.3 to 9.7)
Reynoldsdale – federal               26000                          65                          400  (400)
Kriss Pines – commercial           17668                        9098                    1.9  (1.4 to 2.5)

Tackle: 3 weight Lefty Kreh Pro Series rod, leading to 9 feet of leader, tapering down to 2 feet of 5x tippet. Variety of dries will work, but the key is a sneaky approach.

Summary: Most headwater streams in the Blue Ridge mts. contain some Brookies. Go out and explore, most of the time there is no one on the stream with you...solitude.



Fish Count: 7
Species: 7 Brook Trout
2012 Fish Count: 154