Ice-fishing Friday: Your complete guide to icing winter brook trout

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Brook trout are a beautiful sight to behold, especially the males, with their hooked jaws, scarlet bellies and flanks peppered with ruby dots inside blue halos. And while they don’t live for a long time—any brookie eight years of age or older is considered ancient—they grow quickly.

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These trout are also easy to culture in hatcheries. That makes them a favourite with provincial fisheries agencies that use fast-growing brood stock, such as the world-record Nipigon strain, to produce fingerlings and juveniles for stocking lakes. Here’s what you need to know about location, tackle and presentation to go after these beautiful trout.