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Show Brook Trout Prefers High' Cold Waters Salvelinus fontinalis (Mitchill) j by Jim Smedley The brook trout gets its name from the East Coast where it dominates many streams and brooks. However, in Utaji it might well be called the lake trout because it is most commonly found in the Uinta and Boulder Mountain lakes. "We're careful not to get them in cutthroat streams because they have a tenden-'cy tenden-'cy to overpopulate and stunt," said Glenn Davis, Department of Wildlife Resource Re-source (DWR) program coordinator co-ordinator for fish management. manage-ment. If you visit the Uinta lakes closest to the highway you may think the rainbow is the dominant trout there. Act ually two-thirds of the 600 lakes there are managed for brook trout and only 30-40 are stocked with rainbow. The majority of Boulder lakes also feature brookies. Brook trout are high elevation elevat-ion fish and Strawberry Reservoir, at 7,500 feet, is the lowest spot in Utah that they are stocked. "Brook trout are more resistant to winter kill than the other trout and don't need as much oxygen," David said. The DWR lost all of its breeding brookies a couple of years ago to disease according accord-ing to-Davis and have to get all its eggs from the Federal Government. Currently the DWR is trying to get its own brook fish and devlop a more disease resistant stock. The brook trout is very streamlined as its depth is only one-fifth of its length. The fins are soft rayed and the anal fin has nine rays and the dorsal 10. The caudal fin is slightly forked. The head is large but not long and the mouth reaches behind the eye. The brookies color ranges from blue-grey, olive to black on the back to white on the belly. Red spots, that may have bluish rings around them, appear infrequently on the sides and they have way marks on their backs. The most common distinguishing marks are white and then black stripes along the fore-edge of the lower fins. Under favorable conditions the brook trout will grow three to six inches the first year, up to 10 inches the second year and to 13 inches the third year. The world's record sport catch of a brookie is 14-pounds. 8-ounches. The Utah record is held by Milton Taft who caught a 7-pound, 8-ounce fish at one of the Boulder Mountain Lakes. According to Davis, Taft refused to say which lake he caught the beauty. Brook trout are voracious feeders feasting on insects throughout their life. When the brookie reaches four inches it prefers mayfly nymphs and caddisfly larvae. After four inches it will add fly larvae, and stonefly nymphs to its diet. Occasionally Occasion-ally it will eat worms, mollusks, crustaceans and l other fish. I Male brook trout mature j younger than females and ! about 50 percent mature one j . year faster than the female. Most females mature as yearlings and their egg production is determined by size. The average female produces 300 - 400 eggs. As the spawning season approaches, the brookie seeks gravel riffles in spring fed tributaries or spring seepage areas in lakes. A redd" is excavated by the female and eggs extrude into ii while simultaneously being fertilized, by the male. The eggs are then covered by j gravel. j The normal spawning period per-iod is late in August in the High Uintas through early December in the lower elevations. The water temperature temp-erature is usuly 40 to 50 degrees F |