Tuesday, September 6, 2016

Small in Size, Huge in Beauty

Brook trout have been one of my favorite fish to catch ever since I started fly fishing.  In WV, they are plentiful, but by no means are they the biggest fish you will catch.  They make up for that in sheer beauty and lots of aggression in taking a fly.  Living in SE Ohio, we simply don't have brookies nearby, but we do have longear sunfish.  I catch them on occasion, usually when fishing for other species, and they are the most gorgeous fish we have in Ohio, in my opinion.  I recently discovered the mother load of longears right in my back yard (almost literally).  When you compare them to brook trout, there are actually a few similarities.  I tend to find longears in cleaner, flowing water.  They tend to be smaller than most fish I catch in the same areas.  They also take a fly with ferocity.  In terms of aesthetics?  I actually think it's a toss-up in the beauty contest.  Enjoy the photos of my favorite Ohio fish species.









3 comments:

  1. They also love big bushy flies just like brookies. I love fishing in the mountains for brook trout but the closest stream that holds brookies to me is about 2 hours, not terrible but not so much of a just go wet a line situation.

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  2. Nice comparison for those who fish warm water. They can be just as much eye candy, as you say. Readily available and fun on a light fly rod.

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  3. I'm about 3 hours from the nearest WV brookie stream (that I know). I'm hopefully heading to a new section of another stream I have never fished on Saturday morning. If the upper portion fishes like the lower portion, it should be another spotted bass/longear mix.

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