Brook Trout or Speckled Trout

Brook Trout or Speckled Trout are chiefly a freshwater game fish (Salvelinus fontinalis) having a dark body with light-coloured spots.

Brook Trout are native to Eastern North America and widely introduced elsewhere.

Brook Trout are also called Speckled Trout, Squaretail.

What Speckled Trout or Brook Trout look like:

• Back is olive-green, brown or black;
• Belly is silvery or white;
• Light wormlike markings and spots on dark background, some red and blue;
• White leading edge on lower fins, set off by black line;
• Square tail;
• Mouth extends backwards to well beyond the eye.

Size of Speckled Trout or Brook Trout:

• Length: 15-40 centimetres (6-16 inches);
• Weight: 0.45-1.36 kilograms (1-3 pounds);
• Ontario record: 6.6 kilograms (14.5 pounds).
  

  A Brook / Speckled Trout from Erin Ontario.

Similar fish to the Speckled Trout or Brook Trout:

• Splake;
• Lake Trout.

Where a Speckled Trout or Brook Trout is found:

• Much of Ontario from the small brooks of southern Ontario farmland to the larger rivers, ponds and lakes of the North.

Habitat of the Speckled Trout or Brook Trout:

• A year-round supply of cold, clear water;
• Plenty of cover from overhanging branches, logs and rocks;
• Streams with cool, quiet pools between runs of fast water and rapids;
• Clear, cold lakes and beaver ponds.

Angling tips for Speckled Trout or Brook Trout:

• Found near overhanging trees, submerged wood, rocky points and shoals;
• Inland-lake brook trout are most active during spring and fall;
• River brook trout stay in cold pools at the base of falls and rapids through the summer, spread out during the spring and fall;
• Worms and other natural baits are preferred during high-water periods;
• Use a flyrod and flies as water temperature rises, and trout move from deep pools into riffles in search of insects;
• Use a light-action rod and a spinning reel holding 4 pound test.

Common baits for the Speckled Trout or Brook Trout:

• Small minnow-imitating plugs;
• Spoons, jigs, spinners;
• Artificial flies;
• Worms, minnows, leeches, insects.