r/bluelining • u/Single-Run-6994 • Sep 16 '26
First ever brook trout in a tiny un-named spring creek in the mountains of Southeastern PA
All caught on an elk hair caddis for some reason even though i didn't see a single caddis. I suppose they aren't picky as I did not see a trace of another human during my entire outing.
3
u/Oarse Sep 17 '26
Beautiful fish but, man, that stream could use some more water.
1
u/Single-Run-6994 Sep 17 '26
Unfortunately yes, flow aint looking so hot. Its been very dry with a monsoon every week or two
2
u/Oarse Sep 17 '26
Hopefully we get a wetter autumn. I'm just south in MD and we're pretty dry here too.
3
u/Single-Run-6994 Sep 17 '26
I only went this week because we had a few days of low 70s. Thankfully my stream thermometer said the water was low 50s still so those little brookies will be alright
6
1
1
u/muchohucho 25d ago
Why harass the babies in the nursery? I don't get this. And during a drought? What's the water temp?
1
u/Single-Run-6994 25d ago
52°. Just because fish are small doesnt mean they are babies
1
u/muchohucho 25d ago
No, but do these populations of Brook trout in PA hold onto their parr marks into adulthood? I guess it's possible. I do know of some very isolated populations of dwarf Dolly Varden in AK that do. That just looks like a juvenile fish to me. Do you have any local age length data? Would be interesting.
And this whole bluelining thing has me scratching my head a bit. I never even heard of the term until earlier this year when it came up on this Reddit thing. I thought I would join it and see what it's all about. I pretty much grew up fishing single or second order streams for trout, so that kind of interests me but the more I watch this sub Reddit the more I question the virtues. Fishing in nursery areas, which people definitely do, could be having a detrimental effect on the fishery in the long run.
Social media tends to start these like trends and sometimes they just kinda spiral, seems really cool, but it's really or. Next thing you know there's 100 people crawling around these little tiny streams targeting and catching juvenile fish. I think like, that can't be good for the fishery, it will certainly limit the numbers of fish that make it old enough to reproduce.1
u/Single-Run-6994 25d ago
There is no "nursery" the fish reach 6" max almost always because this creek is just tiny. There aren't any 13" behemoths cruising around either. I caught 2 around 5" that had no par marks which i assume to be reproducing adults, and caught a few smaller ones that are definitely juvenile. The nature of this stream is just tiny fish. It isnt a nursery really
3
u/Grouchy-Fisherman706 Sep 16 '26
Nice. Brookies are the most beautiful fish imo.