Ed Dentry Goes Brook Trout Hunting… Alone
By Tom Chandler on Aug 3, 2007 in News
No Undergrounder should be surprised to hear of my love for Brook Trout. After all, they’re The Official Char of the Trout Underground, and this spring I found myself heading for the backcountry to catch 7″ Brookies while fish three times that size were sipping Green Drakes on the Upper Sacramento River.
That’s why we want to kiss the ring of the Rocky Mountain News’ Ed Dentry, who writes a spot-on column about the wonders of the Brook trout — and the anti-social loners who pursue them. Great stuff:
It is creepy business, this brook trout curse. The afflicted lurk in shadows and peer from bushes. Sometimes they slither like salamanders and roll cast with half a fly rod.
You know the profile: loner. Necromancer interpreting dark secrets writ in burbling brooks. Definitely delusional, obsessed with bejeweled fish, some no bigger than cheroots.
The Official Char of the Trout Underground. We love Brookies. Apparently Ed Dentry does too.
What’s the attraction of “creeping” for Brook trout? Dentry nails it again with:
The best part about brook trout creeping has been the departure from commerce. There are no guides working the high-and-brushy, no fly shops. There are no fishing tournaments, no book signings or seminars, no angling celebrities with funny hats and sponsor patches quoting into video cams.
The truth writ large, Undergrounders…
Technorati Tags: brook trout, brookie, ed dentry, fly fishing, fishing
ijsouth | Aug 3, 2007 | Reply
Brookies rule…that’s where I got started in this madness, and while I like the other species, they’ll always be my first love. I know out West they’re often considered a pest, but not on this side of the Mississippi. I guess I like them because, where I fish for them, they’re the natives…there’s something about that - it isn’t something that can be defined, but they have IT, The Right Stuff, whatever you want to call it.
Tom Chandler | Aug 3, 2007 | Reply
They’re only available in a few places out here — mostly higher elevations. In that environment, they don’t often get too big, and we all know that today’s fly fisher tends to emphasize big fish over the experience. Bummer for them, but good for me.
They’re not natives out here, but then again, the Upper Sac used to host huge runs of salmon and steelhead (Keswick dam went in prior to WWII), so even with the brookies, I figure the government still owes me one more species…
Heddon17 | Aug 5, 2007 | Reply
Not only that but there are only a few brookie lakes here that you can drive to. Medicine Lake and a couple others but that is about it.
So bringing a float tube to the other lakes involves hiking in with the thing strapped to your back, along with fins, waders, etc.
Brian
Tom Chandler | Aug 6, 2007 | Reply
Brian: So true. A few of the alpine lakes are fishable without a float tube, and but most are ringed by trees and drop off quickly, so fishing from shore is difficult. Irritating even.
Matthew | Aug 6, 2007 | Reply
The loneliest stream I fish is a brookie stream near where I grew up, and it has to be my favorite. The best part of it is everyone tells me there aren’t any fish worth catching in it. For now I like it that way.
Tom Chandler | Aug 6, 2007 | Reply
The “nothing worthing catching” perception is one you’re legally obligated* to spread.
(*not a legal opinion)