I love brookies. I think they are the most regal of all fish. Their beauty is unmatched in the natural world in my mind. I love where they live and how tough they must be to survive. I love that they’ll take many different types of flies. Most of all, I love how they still readily take traditional wet flies that were popular between the 1830’s  to the 1950’s and beyond. Some of those traditional wet flies were made famous by these little creatures and because of that fact are eternally inseparable.

 

This is not a  traditionally tied Paramachene Belle. My wing is a bit long and made of goose and not duck.  I have more wraps of tinsel than should be on a traditional fly ( 5 is the gold std ) but, it still resembles the original and  was just as effective.  My goose wings were not married as well as if I used duck and were more flimsy, too. That being said, I will still fish a poorly constructed fly because presentation matters most !

 

 

I love the spunk that they have no matter how small they are and will take a fly almost too big for their mouths. This one wacked a #10 Grizzly King in 20 degree weather, today.

 

I love that even though it is winter, brookies are usually active and will take flies on the bottom, come up through the water column to take wets, or even rise to a dry fly if conditions are right. Most of all, I love how they equally match if not surpass the beauty of a snow covered stream in January.