Brook Trout

Where it lives

Brook trout require cold, clean, well-oxygenated water. They thrive in small mountain headwaters, beaver ponds, and northern lakes from Labrador south through the Appalachians and west to Minnesota. Sea-run forms — “salters” or coasters — inhabit coastal estuaries.

How to recognise it

Strictly speaking a char, not a true trout, the brook trout sports a dark olive back with worm-like pale vermiculations, flanks dotted with yellow and bright red spots set in blue halos, and white-edged leading rays on the pelvic, pectoral, and anal fins. Breeding males flush bright orange beneath.

Diet & behavior

Brook trout feed throughout the water column on drifting insects, terrestrial bugs, small fish, and crustaceans. Spawning happens in autumn over gravel-bottomed seeps with cool upwelling water. Most brook trout live only three to four years in the wild.

Fisheries & Conservation

Globally Least Concern, but native populations are pressured by warming, sedimentation, and competition from introduced brown and rainbow trout. Sea-run coasters have declined sharply.