First brown of the year

Alan and I went to one of our usual haunts yesterday, hoping that the warmish January weather had inspired the stream's fish to come out and play.  In spite of the nice weather, the residents were not out and about.  Just as Alan stated at Small Stream Reflections, only one fish responded to my overtures, the beautiful little brown that fell for the pinky.  Regardless of the outcome, it was a nice day to be roaming the woods.

As we moved downstream I noticed these prints left in the snow on a tree spanning the stream.  Any guess as to what may have left them?

Classic brook trout water

It is truly amazing where wild brook trout live.  This little guy and a good number of its buddies reside in the pool just downstream of this bridge.  It's a tiny brook, but home to many pint-sized wild brookies.  The one pictured was the biggest fish fooled by a small pumpkin head midge.

If you thought the last one was big....

This afternoon I returned to the small stream that produced the large wild brookie for me on New Year's day to see if there were any other residents willing to feed.  This time I started farther upstream where I know there are a few good pools that have produced for me in the past.  Nothing happened as I worked my way downstream until I got to the pool pictured below, situated right at the beginning of the first house one encounters along this beautiful little brook.  The fish struck my slowly retrieved Gartside sparrow somewhere between the two rocks.  To say that I was shocked by the size of what was at the other end of my line would be an understatement.  This may well be the largest wild brookie I've caught in CT.

The New Year's day fish.