The Other Brown Fish

[Scott F]

Yesterday afternoon, while sitting watching TV with no other promising activities on the calendar for the weekend, I got a call from my friend Pete who asked me if I wanted to go to Milwaukee on Sunday to try and catch some brown trout. We'd both seen the John Gillespie Waters and Woods Show a couple of weeks ago where he was catching some browns in Milwaukee. Neither of us had ever fished there before but the weather looked promising and the potential for some nice fish was too good to pass up. 

  I met up with Pete and his son Cam in the morning and drove up. We weren't on the water 5 minutes, did not even have any rods strung up, when the Coast Guard pulled us over for an inspection. Pete was needlessly nervous, the officers were professional and helpful and we were on our way in a few minutes. Because neither of us had any experience with this kind of fishing except for info we got from a TV show. We trolled for a while with no hits, saw some fish on the depthfinder, and switched to jigging. I was using a 3/4oz Kastmaster. Turns out that was the best choice. I finished the day with 3, and Pete had 2. 

It was a long drive for a short day but I had a blast. I doubt we'll have another day this warm before March, I'm glad I was able to get out of the Lazy Boy and have a productive Sunday.

 

 

This was my best fish of the day, almost 30 inches, I did not weight it.

 

 

 

[Snakehead Whisperer]

Having a productive day on unfamiliar waters is one of my favorite things. Looks like you guys have mastered Milwaukee Nice fish! That first one is a real hog.

[A-Jay]

Nice Trout ~

 

Congrats

 

A-Jay

[Bluebasser86]

Jealous...

[SirSnookalot]

Nice looking fish.

 

The kastmaster has been my go to spoon this year, been a great producer for snook, jacks, cuda, runners, mackerel, just about any thing.

[WIGuide]

Nice work!

[ClackerBuzz]

Very nice!

 

"So me and buddy Pete both watched this show 'How to Become a Millionaire in 1 Day' so we packed our lunch and headed out.  Here's some pictures of our piles of cash

Edited December 15, 2014 by ClackerBuzz

[Chris S]

SWEET!!!!!!

[Catch and Grease]

Nice, pretty fish!

[Lucky Craft Man]

Nice Looking Fish!  That is one of the best accomplishments in fishing, going on an outing you are not familiar with and catch fish. 

 

I'm not an expert on identifying trout at all, but that last fish looks a lot like an Atlantic Salmon.

[Scott F]

Nice Looking Fish!  That is one of the best accomplishments in fishing, going on an outing you are not familiar with and catch fish. 

 

I'm not an expert on identifying trout at all, but that last fish looks a lot like an Atlantic Salmon.

It probably does look like an Atlantic Salmon. I could not argue that it was or wasn't except that there aren't any of those in Lake Michigan. That plus the anglers and guides who fish the "Big Lake" regularly say these are browns. Myself, I could not tell a Chinook from a coho from these big Browns. The only other brown trout I ever caught was much smaller and had more yellow on the belly.

We here in the Great Lakes region are lucky to have this world class fishery right in our back yard. Most of the year, you have to go out far into the lake and fish pretty deep to catch fish like this. In the winter, they come up close to shore in reach of those of us with small boats and budgets that can't afford the charters. The guy we saw catching them on TV was there last month when the air temp was a balmy 8 degrees. Much nicer fishing with temps in the 40's.

[everythingthatswims]

Jealous...

x2

[Catch 22]

_{^{Wow, imagine that trip if you guys actually knew what you doing. Nice catch}}

[OntarioFishingGuy]

Nice Looking Fish! That is one of the best accomplishments in fishing, going on an outing you are not familiar with and catch fish.

I'm not an expert on identifying trout at all, but that last fish looks a lot like an Atlantic Salmon.

Great Lake brown trout take on a more silver colouring, whereas river browns have the more typical orange/black patterning. It could also be a member of the seeforellen strain of browns, which are typically more silver than the German Browns.

One way to tell the difference by looking at th teeth of the fish. Browns will have teeth on the roof of their mouth that are in a staggered, zigzag pattern, whereas Atlantics have their teeth in a straight line on the roof of their mouth.

Nice fish regardless!

[OK Bass Hunter]

For a trip based on watching one fishing show, i salute the results. I wanna catch some brown trout and am amazed that you did that on your first outting.

[Scott F]

For a trip based on watching one fishing show, i salute the results. I wanna catch some brown trout and am amazed that you did that on your first outting.

It's not exactly rocket science. The guy on TV told us the harbor he was in, which is pretty large, and what baits were working. The officers on the Coast Guard boat told us the location where most guys were getting fish. We could see all the boats were in one general area. Without having to get too close to anybody else, we marked fish and started casting. Anybody could do what we did. I was just surprised there weren't a lot more boats there. The Packers were playing so that probably kept more guys from getting out.

[Ratherbfishing]

I'm envious of those trout (beautiful fish) but I'm MORE envious that you have a buddy who calls you up just to say "Lets go fishing!"  Priceless!

[Scott F]

......I'm MORE envious that you have a buddy who calls you up just to say "Lets go fishing!" Priceless!

That's what being in a fishing club brings to you. If you are active, go to meetings and events, and participate on the forums, these opportunities will be there. Without my (and now your) club, that trip wouldn't have happened.