Need help with brown trout

[rat-l-trapper]

In a river I fish, there are cutthroats, rainbows, brookies and browns. My problem is that I always catch only stocked rainbows. I really want to catch some brown trout. I've talked to guys up there that say that there are some big brown trout in the river, but they aren't very abundant. I need some suggestions on lures and fly's to use for the browns. I normally fish with inline spinners, spoons, and small crankbaits. The only fly's I've gotten bit on have been wooly buggers and small nymphs. I also don't really know what kind of area's to fish for browns. I know for rainbows if there isn't a medium to fast current I usually wont catch them. Is this true with browns as well?  If anybody could give any tips on catching some brown trout I would really appreciate it. I haven't caughten one in years and would really like to.

[00 mod]

What river are you fishing?  Some thing you have to remember is Brown Trout are nocturnal feeders and are not as prevalent as rainbows!  They are fun to catch!  If you are fishing in a river I have fished, I MIGHT be able to help!

Jeff

[NateFollmer]

I'm only accustomed to catching Brown's in creeks, but Penn's is almost big enough to be a river so I'll give you some advice

Brown's like current, just like rainbows. Here's the difference, browns are 100x smarter than rainbows (stocked rainbows anyway, there are still some native rainbows, but not in my area).

I fish for browns early morning (before the sun's up) and just at dusk as a bug is coming off the water (browns LOVE drakes, blue winged olives, cahills... all kinds of bugs). Figure out what's hatching and match the hatch. As far as nymphing goes, find an area of deep but still pretty quick moving water. You can catch browns during the day, but they are going to be in either deep or very quick water. Wooly Buggers are a great fly, blacks, browns, olives and purples are great colors.

If you have an ultralight spinning rod, try throwing a minnow lure, like a Rapala X-Rap or Flat Rap. Look for browns in similar areas to where smallies may be. Browns like to ambush prey (they are like mini muskies HA). Look for wood or heavy cover near quick water.

Hope this helps! Stockies can be a pain in the butt, but at least your catching something! Wait until you hook into a big brown though, they fight like nothing else!

[rat-l-trapper]

The river I'm fishing is the upper Rogue River in southern Oregon. It may be misleading to some how I call it a river. It's like 20-45 ft. wide in most spots, so depending on where you live you may call it a creek or stream. For Oregon it's a river. It's a high mountain river. it's very cold year round, and most spots have strong current, although there are slow stretches.

[NateFollmer]

Two good places to start:

Fast current moving into deep, slow water and then slow deep water moving into fast current. Keep your lures in or right on the end of these transitions and you should be able to find some browns. Keep my other post in mind also and you should be good to go!

[webertime]

Browns spend an amazing amount of time against undercut banks.  My brother is a Trout guide in VT and New Zealand and he's caught Browns that are almost black on one side and bright on the other because they have lived for years against undercut banks and just swoop out to grab bugs, rodents and birds that fall in. 

The larger fish (any Trout) will usually be at the head of any given pool because that gives them first dibs on the food drifting down the river.  That position does make them harder to catch which is why you might be missing them.  If you are getting Stockies you are probably getting them at the bottom or tail of a pool where the current is less and the less "dominant" fish are.

Fishing at night with large mouse-type or streamer flies or if you are using spinning gear toss big floating Rapalas, UP stream and drag them down/across back to you.  Trout (any river fish of size) will rarely go upstream after a meal, it's just not efficient for them to do so, so they wait for them to get washed to them. 

Finally if there's rain in the forecast get out there and fish it as it starts to muddy up the water, Browns get waaaaaaaay more ballsy during that time.  Biggest Browns I've ever caught were where a stream emptied into a larger river (Your Oregon "river" is the same as my Vermont "river") in the first 2 hours of a rain storm.

Good luck!

PS Stocked Rainbows are called "Genetic Pollution" around here.   

[rat-l-trapper]

Thanks for the help everyone. I'll be going again in the next few days. I'm also gonna go to to the flyshop near there and ask them for suggestions. there are a lot of undercut banks, and I haven't fished them yet. I'll defenitly spend some time fishing them. I agree with you about the stockers webertime, I'd rather catch 1 native rainbow than 10 stockers. Unfortunatly, they stock this river like once a week with small aggressive rainbows. It is better than catching nothing though.

[Lund Explorer]

Thanks for the help everyone. I'll be going again in the next few days. I'm also gonna go to to the flyshop near there and ask them for suggestions. there are a lot of undercut banks, and I haven't fished them yet. I'll defenitly spend some time fishing them. I agree with you about the stockers webertime, I'd rather catch 1 native rainbow than 10 stockers. Unfortunatly, they stock this river like once a week with small aggressive rainbows. It is better than catching nothing though.

When you get to the fly shop, pick up a couple of Muddler Minnows.  My favorite for browns is a #6 size.

[A-Jay]

This freak of a fish was taken in mid-June from an under cut bank on the Au Sable River

here in Northern Mi.

A-Jay

[NateFollmer]

Ah, I love when the males get that hook jaw. It makes them look like they are going to beat someone up

That's a nice brown! I have never seen one that dark. The one's here in Penn's Creek are VERY light:

That's my cousins fish, not mine...

[A-Jay]

Ah, I love when the males get that hook jaw. It makes them look like they are going to beat someone up

That's a nice brown! I have never seen one that dark. The one's here in Penn's Creek are VERY light:

That's my cousins fish, not mine...

That too is a nice fish - but browns are All nice.

The toad I post is also not mine, my wife's uncle, the trout guide, landed it.

I'm half glad I did not hook that fish as I most likely would have had to be hospitalized for SHOCK !

A-Jay

[NateFollmer]

That's why I love the Green Drake hatch on Penn's, fish like that are standard during the hatch (only lasts about a week every year, the heat caused it to come 2 weeks early this year. That kind of made it nice because all of the people who come from the North weren't around for the hatch because they booked their rooms for the normal time ha.. thats mean, but it was nice to not be fishing elbow to elbow).

I'm used to catching the 6 inch browns though because I still haven't mastered my fly rod (I slap the water and scare the smart fish away ).

[J Francho]

We fish the ditches that drain into Lake Ontario for browns.  Action starts up after the king run in August.  Usually peaks around Thanksgiving.  In spring, you can catch them casting spoons near creek mouths, or imitating goby patterns near break walls.  We use centrepin reels and long, slow action, rods.  Really any rod and reel loaded with 6 to 8# mono will work fine, as I have both spinning rigs and baitcasting rigs for trout. 

The rig is a basic float rig.  Here's a great article on the rigging: http://www.anglersinternational.com/Shotting%20Patterns.pdf.

Spawn bags, redworms, crawlers, spikes, waxworms, along with plastic worms and traditional flaies work well with this rig.

On smaller waters, you can easily see where fish are holding, but for bigger water, you'll need to learn how to read current.  I recommend checking out some books by Bill Herzog.  Up here, night fishing is forbidden, and we have no trouble catching browns.

[rat-l-trapper]

Thanks for the cool pics A-Jay, Nate and J Francho. It really shows the diffirent color variations. The ones with the hooked jaw are really cool looking.

I went out again the other day. I still only caught stockers. Oh well, at least I was able to gain some confidence in flyfishing. I'm pretty new to it but have been enjoying it a lot.

Thanks to everybody who replied to this thread. I've gotten good advice. I don't think this river has many brownies in it. I'm going to try fishing other rivers and lakes around the state that are well known for brown trout.

[NateFollmer]

Nice fishes J Francho haha! I was doing some looking the other day and saw some guys throwing mouse patterns! I would love to find a brown that big I'm sure they are in Penn's somewhere, maybe I'll have to throw one once it gets cooler