10 down, 40 to go

[Captain Obvious]

First day on trout fishing vacation, shooting for 50 total this week.

Calling for 10-16 inches of snow tomorrow and Monday, might head back to work and take the first week of May off and fish. I don't mind snow but fish get a little lethargic in cold water.

[Captain Obvious]

Northern PA, up near Erie/Buffalo.

Yeah, stockies. I also caught maybe a half dozen natives also, $#@!ing pain in the ass little fish. Gets to the point when I catch a native, I move on downstream.

Got 5 in the oven now broiling, the other 5 and whatever I get tomorrow will probably get smoked. The rest go in the freezer but we'll eat them fairly quickly.

Mercury poisoning all around.

[Captain Obvious]

Hear ya about the mercury, but typically the trout don't have that problem. You fishing in the river? Smoking works well, as the stockies tend to be a little bland.

Nah - all brooks. Tiny little waterways where you wouldn't think tadpoles would exist. It's a little trickier this year, with the mild winter they're all down lower than they normally are. I'm at the point where I'm visually spotting them before I catch them, the water is so shallow.

I'm in a state forest, near 3 or 4 stocked streams all maybe a mile or two from me. Don't get fished a lot though I saw more people today than I ever did, generally I'm the only one out there. Gotta learn to fish the holes and under embankments where they're sitting, I've gotten pretty good at it.

Yeah, they're a little bland. Take the flavor of whatever you cook them with. We've smoked them before, they're not too bad that way.

[Mister D]

I wouldn't say bland. Trout just has a neutral flavor.

[wingrider]

nice catch cap.. you say those are brook trout?.. look a lot like the ones we catch at Hasty Lake, In southeastern Colorado.. you fly fish or bait.?

[Conley]

Ooh, I just got jealous. I love them smoked.

[wingrider]

Ooh, I just got jealous. I love them smoked.

with a good stout beer

[Captain Obvious]

nice catch cap.. you say those are brook trout?.. look a lot like the ones we catch at Hasty Lake, In southeastern Colorado.. you fly fish or bait.?

Bait. Fly fishing is for posers.

"Baiters gonna bait"

Brook, brown but mostly rainbow.

[Captain Obvious]

Looks like some browns, some rainbows. Stockies don't have much color...especially when they're dead.

Yeah - exactly.

Brooks and rainbows kinda all look alike in the fridge. Browns are pretty noticeable though - live or freshly dead.

[Captain Obvious]

Yeah, they stock mostly brooks and browns and a not-too-distant third rainbows, I think. You can tell the brooks right out of the water, they have a sort of eyeball shaped pattern on them but after they're dead for a while, it kinda goes away. And yeah, they're kinda olive green.

The natives are native trout, they spawn naturally in some of the brooks where I fish. Weird fish also, very aggressive. Broad, sort of flat-ish nose with a vertical striped pattern - almost like a pike. Never caught one bigger than maybe 7 inches.

All of the LL Bean posers from out of town come up to fly fish for them in their $500 fishing outfits and $750 fly rods for the religious experience of catching native trout, at least I see some of them early in the season. Yeah, whatever. I'll take the stockies.