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Brook Trout
FRESHWATER FISH

Brook Trout are an indicator species for clean, cold water. Once plentiful in Twelve Mile Creek, Brook Trout numbers are dwindling.

OUR FOCUS

Once plentiful in Twelve Mile Creek, native Brook Trout serve as the best indicator of a healthy watershed

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While technically not a trout at all, but a char, Brook Trout are known by many names, including speckled trout, specks, brookies,brook char and squaretail.

Brook Trout (Salvelinus fontinalis)  are among the most beautiful of freshwater fish, exhibiting bright orange and yellow flanks with red and yellow spots. They can grow to over four kilos in areas where conditions are ideal, but in southern Ontario, a 12-inch “Brookie” is a large fish.  Brook Trout are easy to distinguish from other trout species, with characteristic blue halos around red spots on their sides and white leading edges with black stripes on their pectoral fins.

Brook Trout share cold water streams with two introduced species of trout, the Rainbow and Brown Trout, both of which outcompete and eventually replace Brook Trout in waters where they are found together.

Male Brook Trout chases Brown Trout away from its nest.

© Ian D. Smith, 01 November 2017

MORE TOPICS

LANDOWNERS
Resources For Landowners

Healthy Twelve Mile Creek aims to educate and encourage landowners to become 'stewards' of Twelve Mile Creek.

OUR FOCUS
Twelve Mile Creek

The last remaining spring-fed cold water stream in the Niagara Peninsula with a known native population of Brook Trout.

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