North America has had a 400-year love affair with the brook trout – Salvelinus fontinalis – its great native trout. In this newly revised and updated volume, Nick Karas offers the only major profile of this most beautiful gamefish. Brook Trout is a thorough look at the history, biology, and angling possibilities of the fish most anglers affectionately call the brookie. Through the eyes of a trained ichthyologist, Karas explores the brook trout's biology and the events that led to its evolution and distribution. He unravels the controversies surrounding the two largest brook trout ever taken. But the core of Brook Trout is the fishery: its past status, current condition, and future. And because the history of brook trout fishing is inseparable from the history of American fishing, Karas follows the development of the rods, reels, lines, lures and flies that evolved as anglers pursued their fascination with this great game fish.