This cold beauty goes well with grits, bacon, coffee, and a campfire.
The first day we went without. We didn’t know where we were or what we were doing.
But we figured out the fly-fishing drill and went at it for a second day and waded our way to a spot in the Chattooga River with sun and shade and mountain cold rushing water and shallows and billabongs and nothing else. Just us and the fish.
There we cast accurately – not to where they are but to where they want their next snack.
The fish fear us – not really – but there is nothing in the world like feeling a slack line suddenly have life on the other end of it, fighting and not about to go easily into that dark night of the iron skillet.
We respected all we hooked and made as much use of them as we could, including the beautiful documentary photo shown above. Notice how the color pattern on the fish matches the mountain river rock behind it. Beautiful.
We also conducted a raccoon experiment on the distant side of the river with the fish guts and heads, which proved inconclusive.
according to
the big wiki / Brook trout, Habits_and_range
The brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) is a species of fish in the salmon family of order Salmoniformes. In many parts of its range, it is known by the name speckled trout.
The brook trout is of dark green to brown basic coloration with a distinctive marbled pattern (called vermiculations) of lighter shades across the flanks and back and extending at least to the dorsal fin, and often to the tail. There is a distinctive sprinkling of red dots, surrounded by blue haloes, along the flank.
Thanks Wikipedia!
