On assignment: In search of native brook trout

The West Virginia Weakly Wednesday Extra for July 17, 2024

Brook Trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) — the West Virginia state fish. Illustration by friend of the WV Weakly, Brian Pickens

I’m not going to name the tributary of the Cacapon River I scouted over the weekend. Don’t want to piss off the local fishermen by publicly outing a spot they may be trying to keep riffraff like me out of. But I had been told that brook trout have an outpost there, so off I went because I’ve become a brook trout obsessive in recent years.

Brook trout are beautiful fish, made so through the distinctive red dots surrounded by blue halos that run along their olive-colored flanks. Native Americans built a whole mythology around them, believing them to be a gift from Manitou, their supreme being. One of the best fishing stories ever involves Daniel Webster who is said to have sneaked out of church one Sunday morning in the 1820s after he received word that the huge brook trout that had eluded him for years had been seen in a nearby Long Island river. The congregation noticed and apparently went along for the ride, including the pastor, who — as the story goes — concluded his sermon on-the-go. The brook trout Webster caught that day turned out to be a 14.5 pound record setter.