Neversink Natives

[TheIndian]

Small fish in small water but one of the best places I ever been!

 

[Boreal Birch]

Hooked some like that when I was five, in Meadow Brook in the back forty of my father's farm, been hooked on them 65 years. I think they are one of the most beautiful critters in the world. Sig Olson thought Brook trout fishing was like fishing for jewels. I try to make a trip to the lower 48 every year in the fall just to get a peek at them, when they are all dressed up for the big dance.
Thank you for sharing the photo!

 

[TheIndian]

Glad you like the photo BB...not too many things better than trout fishing on a freshwater stream. I tried to post other pictures but I not too swift when it comes to attaching things here.

You the first person I ever communicated with from Alaska! Hope to make it to your neck of the woods some day...long drive from where I'm at but I hope to do it some day.

 

[Boreal Birch]

From childhoodI had always wanted to go to Alaska also, I thought my military service time would send me here. No, they sent me to Battle Creek, MI and then to SE Asia. After the military, I was going to college on the GI Bill, in those days I was to poor to even go to the movies, much less 3,000 + miles to Alaska. One winter the little college town put on a sled dog race, the race organizers had ads up at the University asking for volunteers to help with the race. I helped the race marshal mark the race trail, build the starting chutes, and all kinds of other chores. I got sucked in to the sled dog world. I was offered a board and room job as kennel help at a college professor's wife's kennel. Life was great, I had most of my classes in the morning or evening, the professor drove back an forth to the college giving me transportation. I loved working with the dogs, and the wife was a great cook. I got to race her team on weekends, train the main team, and young dogs during the week. The next year a sled dog musher from Alaska, came to the race in Bemidji, MN, I was visiting with him, when I told him about my dream to come to Alaska, he asked me, "What's keeping you here?" Well nothing I guess, I wondered what I would do for work, he had plenty of that, he even knew another dog musher that was looking for help driving to Alaska. So, in February of 1974 I stuffed my worldly possessions into a Duluth Pack and headed north. I had only planned to stay until autumn, but that was 42 years ago.
Let me know when you are coming, I know some pretty good places to catch Arctic grayling, they are not as beautiful as brook trout, but, they are pretty in their own way.

 

[TheIndian]

Great story Boreal.
Thx!...I would love to catch some Graylings. Didn't know you didn't have Brookies by you. Figured you had it all. Do you have Rainbows and Browns? Probably not Browns, right?

 

[lowangle al]

I used to love fishing for those native brookies in Pa. It is the only kind of fishing I ever did that required crawling around on your knees, hiding behind trees and bushes and sneaking up on the fish.


No brookies up here but we have there cousins the arctic char and dolly varden. No browns either but there is phenominal rainbow fishing, lakes and rivers.

 

[Boreal Birch]

lowangle al is correct in the fact that we have the cousins of brook trout up here. There are two kinds of Dolly Varden, the southern ones end somewhere South of Nome. The Northern are in streams of Northwest, the northren coast and East into Canada. Arctic char in Alaska are native only in lakes, they have also been stocked in the road an trail systems farther South than their natural range. We are also blessed with Lake trout in the mountain lakes. There are a few lakes in SE Alaska that were stocked with brookies a long time ago, they managed to establish themselves and are procreating. No natural Rainbows North of the Alaska Range, but a very active stocking program in the Tanana River drainage lakes by the Alaska Dept. of Fish & Game. Many, many places to fish, some of the best places are hard to reach without a airplane, the areas easy to reach are somewhat crowded, especially when the salmon have returned to spawn. Another little know species of fish is a Sheefish, present in Yukon, Kuskokwim, and Kobuk drainage systems. I would suggest googling them for more of their life history. I have enjoyed fishing for them many times, hard to get to where they are.

 

[TheIndian]

I used to love fishing for those native brookies in Pa. It is the only kind of fishing I ever did that required crawling around on your knees, hiding behind trees and bushes and sneaking up on the fish.

LOL Funny...I find myself doing the same thing sometimes saying "who the heck does this for a fish?" LOL But it great when you out there with no one else around...

 

[GearFreak]

I think of fly fishing as hunting fish, but with no real streams close by its stocked waters. I like going for them with dry's on the surface as opposed to trolling a fly.

It's way more fun than hard tackle but jigging for walleys has its place too.