Trout

As the leaves begin to turn and the weather gets colder people start to shift gears from fishing to hunting.

Everyone loves to fish a thick hatch of aquatic insects where trout become frenzied in their feeding. But if the truth be known, finding a good hatch is not a common event on many waters throughout North America today. And when you do encounter such heavy emergences, they are usually short-lived affairs that last for an hour or two if you're lucky.

Like most anglers, I enjoy fishing experiences of many varieties. But ones that take place on small-sized streams hold a special quality, especially when it's the initial visit to such a spot.

It seemed fitting — on the day when we celebrate our independence — to not only go fishing, but to purse a native species. And in the northeastern United States nothing better fits such a description as the brook trout.

I'll never forget my first experience with the unique sport of back trolling for steelhead. I was fishing with Les Wedge and Cliff Creech, fishery managers for New York State, on the Salmon River with guide Ken Budd in his West Coast-style drift boat.

The other day a friend and I were fishing a backwoods lake that held lake trout and brook trout.

When discussing the best means of handling a freshly-landed trout, which will then be released, opinions vary as whether or not to net the fish.

Native Trout Adventrues: Episode 5

The TRCP fishes for coastal cutthroat trout in a clear mountain stream in Oregon’s Coast Range with Jim Martin, retired chief of fisheries for Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, and Dwayne Meadows with Trout Unlimited Alaska.

Native Trout Adventrues: Episode 4

Native Trout Adventrues: Episode 7