In essence, what affects brook trout anywhere in Maine affects trout that have access to the sea. Consequently, Maine’s brook trout have not had to deal with low water conditions and associated problems such as too-warm water temperatures, low oxygen content and loss of young-of-the-year to predation. While the fishery had at one point declined somewhat due to back-to-back years of drought, the last four seasons have been unusually wet ones, good for trout. Length of time at sea and, more specifically, the timetables of the runs, differ from watershed to watershed and this lends to the lack of across-the-board knowledge regarding sea-runs.
Of all of Maine’s fish species, sea-run brook trout are the least understood by fisheries biologists. That’s just one of the many mysteries surrounding these trout of lore and legend. However, even when afforded the opportunity to drop down to an estaurine habitat, not all brook trout do so. Sea-run trout are eastern brook trout that choose to spend at least a part of their lives in a marine environment. Shrouded in myth and mystery, sea-run, or anadromous brook trout have fascinated Maine anglers since time out of hand. A pair of anadromous brook trout, the 'holy grail' of trout fishing.
