Brook Trout ("Brookies" or Brook Char) - Salvelinus fontinalis
Habitat requirements and life history: These native fish, the only trout native to Massachusetts, live in headwater spring ponds, and clear, cool freshwater streams. Because brookies require cold water (less than 68° F) and are intolerant of thermal and chemical pollution, self-sustaining populations are largely restricted to headwater streams and a few relatively pristine rivers. Brook trout spawn upstream in the shallow headwater streams and feed primarily on aquatic insects.
Assabet tributary streams are inhabited by both wild and stocked brook trout. Wild brookies rarely reach 10 inches in length, while the MA Division of Fisheries and Wildlife annually stocks fish 10-12 inches long. (Sources: Massachusetts Wildlife, No. 2, 2000, Special Fishing Issue and Fishes of Wisconsin.)
Learn about OARS research on brook trout.
Total length: commonly 6-8 inches (10-12 inches possible)
Pollution tolerance (US EPA): Intolerant
Classification: Fluvial specialist
Number of fish captured during Assabet River surveys*:
Location | No. of Fish 1954 | No. of Fish 2001 |
Assabet River | 72 | 2 |
Danforth Brook | 2 | |
Fort Meadow Brook | 1 | |
Great Brook | 18 | 6 |
Guggins Brook | 1 | |
Hog Brook | 14 | |
Hop Brook | 7 | |
Howard Brook | 1 | 12 |
Nagog Brook | 25 | 1 |
North Brook | 223 | 92 |
UNT Assabet River | 21 | |
UNT to A-1 | 19 | |
Total | 340 | 177 |
*Sources:
DFW. 2001. Assabet Watershed Fish Survey. Mass. Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (MassWildlife), Westborough, MA.
Schlotterbeck, L.C. and W.A. Tompkins. 1954. "A Fisheries Investigation of the Merrimack and Ipswich River Drainages." Bureau of Wildlife Research and Management, Mass. Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, Westborough, MA.