Click on the fish below for a detailed view.

Brook Trout
Salvelinus fontinalis

The brook trout has several other names: speckled trout, aurora trout, sea trout, mud trout, or just "brookie." By any name, this is one of the most popular game fish in Canada.

What do brook trout look like? The brook trout is usually just under a foot long and weighs no more than a kilogram, but sometimes they get much bigger: the largest ever caught was 6.5 kilograms. They are generally green or dark brown with silvery sides and light spots. Like most fish, the brook trout gets more colourful at spawning time. The brook trout tail is quite square, and the males sometimes have a hooked jaw.

Where does the brook trout live?

You can find brook trout almost everywhere in North America. They like clear, cool lakes and streams with a lot of oxygen in the water. Although the brook trout now calls this continent home, and has adapted very well to life here, it was originally brought here from Europe.

What is the brook trout life cycle?

Brook trout, like brown trout are mature in about three years and spawn for the first time.They spawn in late summer or fall, laying hundreds or thousands of eggs in the gravel of shallow stream headwaters. Brook trout are carnivorous and may eat their own eggs and young. The young fish hatch in the spring and stay in the gravel until their yolk sac is absorbed. Most brook trout live 4 - 6 years, but some can live much longer.

Food for thought. . . If brook trout spawn in the fall, when do you think is the best time to catch them on your fly (when will they be the hungriest)?

Did you know that … The largest recorded brook trout was caught in Ontario's Nipigon River in 1915. It weighed 6.58 kg.