First Day of Spring Brookies

Type: Nontidal
Region: Western
Location: Washington county stream

Spring is here and the brookies have finally started looking up again. I took advantage of the recent snow days and hit a favorite Washington county brookie stream with the hopes I could whack a few on some dries. There was a black stone hatch going on upon getting to the stream, and I spotted a couple risers, all going for probably a size 14 stone. I fished a short leader, down to 6x with a size 14 ant, and a size 18 black stone emerger as a trailer. I had a couple whacks on the ant, but they were more interested in the small stone. I started out matching the hatch with a size 14-16 stone, they just weren’t interested, so I dropped it down to a 18 and boom baby there she was, a beautiful brookie. I managed a couple more, but fish in this stream are so few and far in between. At a whopping 5” these brookies don’t put up a huge fight, but they make up for it with their unique colors and the alluring spots you find them in. Happy spring.