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3. Unidentified trout, Page 3

When one is not in trout country, those bluegills, perch, and crappie make fine fly rod quarry. See my "Perch on the fly!" thread - and those came out of a "Designated Trout Lake", in which the trout were not hitting because the surface waters were still to warm so they were down deep. Thus, they provided me with some action while the trout proved unreachable (though they won't be in another month or so as the waters cool).

On the other hand, there is another Designated Trout Lake that I fish for brookies around here that apparently got perch in it through a bait bucket introduction (this is the story I was told anyway) and apparently it was detrimental enough to the trout fishery that the pond was drained for several years to get rid of them. There are still some in there - I've caught a couple on flies and I've seen them on a snorkeling trip there - but the brookies are doing just fine right now. Next time I catch a big perch out there though he may be headed for the freezer, and I'm sure the MI DNR would like that just fine. [UPDATE: a couple of friends of mine told me out there last night that a friend of theirs took 21 perch out of the pond - my only regret is that they didn't end up in MY freezer!]

I've had a number of instances where I have caught trout and warmwater fishes side by side, including a largemouth bass, rock bass, and several sunfish from the Pine River where I have also caught brookies, browns, and rainbows, and also in Missouri and Georgia. But, of course, when one is after trout, it's pretty easy to label everything else as "trash". I pulled a great big creek chub out of the Pine on a grasshopper imitation a couple of days ago, big enough that I did indeed think he was a trout before I saw that big black stripe on his side...I didn't begrudge him though, as I had already caught three trout (a brookie and two browns), and I know his offspring just might end up as trout food!

Jonathon