The brook trout:  A male brook trout in full spawning attire is perhaps the prettiest of all trout, though not a trout at all.  Salvelinus fontinalis, the Latin name for brook trout, is actually a member of the char family, a close relative of trout.  The historic indigenous distribution of brook trout includes the northeast portion of the United States and Canada, plus down along the spine of the Appalachian Mountains.  It was the only true native trout in the Catskills and New York State requiring the purest and coldest of waters.  In most of its remaining habitat a nine inch brook trout might be considered big, anything over a foot a monster.

The brook trout appearing in the painting below was caught, and released, back into its East Branch of the Neversink, one of the few remaining Catskill streams that still harbors a good population of wild brook trout, much like the days Theodore Gordon roamed these waters.

Salvelinus fontinalis 11x14 (SOLD):