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Post by jonbo on Aug 4, 2019 16:13:23 GMT -6
Here's a topic for "Summertime Blues" conversation. It's something I've been wondering about. Someone awhile back brought up brown trout in the LMF and how there are brown trout, but you have to know how to target them. That got me to thinking (bad idea, I know.), "You know, it's been quite some time since I've caught a brown trout. How do you target browns?" The last good brown I caught was at the Little Red River here in Arkansas, oh probably, 3 years ago. I caught him on a sow bug which everything seems to feed on there. Except for that and since then, every halfway decent sized fish I've caught (say, everything over 11 inches), has been a rainbow. Some have been obviously recently stocked, others had nice fins and colors and all, some fairly decent-sized, most smaller, but only rainbow trout. Actually, I've caught a number of immature browns, 8 inches or less, but I'm not counting them for these purposes. They tend to hit anything you might throw and seem to need no special "targeting".
So, what tactics are best for increasing the odds of getting a brown trout take? My guess is, streamers. One reason I think this is that I don't throw streamers much, don't bring my 6 wt rod with sink-tip line along. I don't know why. I just don't think about it. It's been effective on rainbows when I've fished with wooly buggers or with these bunny muddler things I've tied. The other reason is that I think I've heard/read that mature browns are fairly predatory, preferring small fish to bugs. In any case, I've been tying up some minnow-type streamers, meaning to fish them some this winter. But that's all I've got. Try fishing streamers more. What I'm thinking of is bouncing near the bottom in some of those larger pools up on Spillway. Does anyone have any other ideas?
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Post by mirvc17 on Aug 4, 2019 17:44:41 GMT -6
Fish for browns in low-light conditions. Dark days, or before sunrise or after sunset...if you can. Even at night throw mice patterns near the bank. Strip/twitch....and hold on.....
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Post by mirvc17 on Aug 4, 2019 17:55:23 GMT -6
Not a brown but caught this cuttbow last week on a double articulated Nancy P streamer...decent size. It was in relatively shallow water and I can’t see how the fish would not have seen me. But it followed it and took the fly about 15 feet below me. Attachments:
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Post by jonbo on Aug 4, 2019 20:13:55 GMT -6
Nice fish, mirv! It's funny, alright, when the fish are spooked by us, and when they choose to ignore us, or even when they follow us around picking through the silt that our feet kick up. I plan this winter to fish streamers more. Not sure if or when I'll get to trying night fishing though. It seems kind of hard for an old guy to do.
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Post by dainw on Aug 8, 2019 9:18:10 GMT -6
I’m not trying to sound like a smart ass here, but in my experience, if you want to catch more brown trout, fish waters that have higher populations of brown trout. I don’t think the tactics used in fishing for browns is any different than fishing for rainbows, although browns typically choose to inhabit slightly slower water than rainbows. If I’m fishing rivers that have a lot of browns in them, they tend to eat nymphs or dries as well as anything.
I think the problem that you’re running into is that there just aren’t that many mature brown trout in the LMF. Yes there are some, and the guides that fish the river every day are really good at finding them and catching them. I don’t think I’ve ever caught a brown on the LMF myself tho, at least one larger than about 10 inches or so. I don’t have hard data on this, but my guess is that at least 95% of the fish population in the LMF greater than 10 inches is rainbow trout. Your highest chance at catching a brown on the LMF is to stalk the river, find them, and then sight fish to them. I’m not quite to that ability yet myself, so if I’m seeking brown trout, I go fish rivers that have higher populations of brown trout. For example, i fish the current river in Missouri probably 3 or 4 times a year. It has a higher population of browns relative to rainbows than the LMF does, and we always catch browns by nymphing same as we do any other river.
You can always fish streamers. I don’t think that improves your chances of catching a brown trout vs a rainbow though. It improves your chances of catching a bigger fish vs blind fishing nymphs, but it also decreases the numbers of fish you’re going to catch. At either rate, no matter what method you’re fishing, if 9 out of every 10 fish in a river is a rainbow, then there’s a 90% chance that when you hook a fish it’s going to be a rainbow.
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Post by breeden3 on Aug 8, 2019 15:29:15 GMT -6
Dain, you almost had a big one  |
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Post by turfdawg on Aug 8, 2019 15:46:39 GMT -6
Guess I’m just lucky because I’ve caught some decent Browns out of there and catch them more trips than not.
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Post by dainw on Aug 8, 2019 18:56:36 GMT -6
Dain, you almost had a big one I had a pretty good guide that day if recall. |
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Post by jonbo on Aug 10, 2019 7:00:58 GMT -6
But TD, HOW do you manage that? LOL! The thing I'm talking about, specifically targeting browns, started me thinking (there I go again) just because someone posted that, yes, there's some good browns in there if you know how to target them. That stuck with me. Every now and then I mull over "specifically targeting browns, specifically targeting browns, Hmmm, hmmm". I guess, it being the dog days here, I started thinking of it again. I've always had Dain's approach, fish for trout and don't worry about the species. I guess that's all of our approach, mainly, just fishing for trout being demanding enough. It was also when I read about "targeting browns" I realized that, since the flood, I really haven't caught a decent brown in the river. (I probably am going to wish I'd never read that).I'm just determined to explore whether Dain's theory is correct or not, that a low ratio of browns caught probably just means that there aren't many there. I imagine there's a lot in mirv's suggestion to go at night and pound the banks with a mouse pattern. I don't think I'll be doing that, though, being an old geezer who's growing more frail and with worse eyesight as time goes on. My alternative idea is to go extremely early and fish some minnow-type streamers. I remember before the flood meeting a couple of fellows around daybreak who were tearing it up with leech patterns near the Bluffs on very decent fish. In any case, I'm about to order materials to tie up
Baby Belly Scratcher Minnow
Really, it being off-trout-fishing-season around here, I probably just have too much time on my hands.
But, trust me, none of this is just an excuse for me to buy more tying sh**. Trust me!
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Post by turfdawg on Aug 10, 2019 12:39:52 GMT -6
Jonbo , you have to rub Donny Carter’s Head for luck. He is a brown catching machine. Every now and then I stand in the back of his truck so I can reach his noggin
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Post by breeden3 on Aug 10, 2019 19:45:41 GMT -6
Jonbo, you can target browns as opposed to rainbows. They do have many similarities to rainbows but they are different fish and have many different habits and preferences.
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Post by breeden3 on Aug 10, 2019 19:51:54 GMT -6
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Post by golferjeff on Aug 10, 2019 22:02:53 GMT -6
I love the Browns! In the LMF, if I am just going for a nice Brown, I tend to throw big dries along the banks. The best places that I have found are lower EH and the rockpile run. I am sure more are in there, but they are Wild* and tend to be shyer than any of the rainbows. I seem to catch about 1 per day. Mostly in the 10-15" range. Browns prefer more structure and as others have said, they do seem to be nocturnal. In the river I just came from, Browns have been documented to be over 25% of the population, but only make up about 10% of the catch. All C&R, all wild. They are just flat out harder to catch than Bows, Cutties, and Brookies.
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Post by dainw on Aug 10, 2019 22:38:16 GMT -6
So I never there were no browns in the LMF. There are definitely browns in the LMF. I only meant fhat there doesn’t seem to me to be as large of population of browns in the LMF as there are in some other nearby rivers, like the white, the little red, the current etc. My point was just that if you’re targeting browns, a good place to start is with a river that has better numbers of browns. Also I think it’s important to point out a few things here... 1. Peter is hands down the best fly fisherman I know. 2. Peter spends a lot of time on the water, and knows the LMF better than anyone else I know. For a comparison’s sake, I’ve probably fished the LMF 20-25 times in my entire life. That might be the equivalent of a month’s worth of guiding on the LMF. Hell Peter might get more time on the water in one season of guiding on the LMF than I have in the entire 6 years I’ve been fly fishing, and I fish pretty often, 1-2 times a month, with one or two longer trips mixed in per year. Not trying to say that the average forumgoer here should expect to catch a brown on the LMF. They are there and the population seems to be rebounding since the floods, but I do think it’s necessary to put Peter’s experience on the LMF into perspective compared to most of us. For example, I fished the LMF on the 3 separate occasions last winter, and on those 3 trips I easily caught 150+ fish. All of them rainbows. In waters that have better brown trout populations by comparison, usually at least a few of those 150+ fish are browns. I did hook one good brown in the evening hole....on a guide trip with Peter. |
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Post by breeden3 on Aug 11, 2019 7:36:36 GMT -6
Dain, I 100% agree that there are much better places to catch brown trout! Hopefully we can change that! You have a much better chance of catching them than almost anyone who visits the LMF! I just was mainly not wanting people to get discouraged from targeting them. It is rewarding when they make an appearance!
Side note, looks like y’all had a great time to the south of me a couple weeks ago! Gorgeous cutties!
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Post by turfdawg on Aug 11, 2019 7:40:04 GMT -6
Dain, I 100% agree that there are much better places to catch brown trout! Hopefully we can change that! You have a much better chance of catching them than almost anyone who visits the LMF! I just was mainly not wanting people to get discouraged from targeting them. It is rewarding when they make an appearance! Side note, looks like y’all had a great time to the south of me a couple weeks ago! Gorgeous cutties! Peter, how are the fingerling stockers doing |
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Post by dainw on Aug 11, 2019 13:24:05 GMT -6
Dain, I 100% agree that there are much better places to catch brown trout! Hopefully we can change that! You have a much better chance of catching them than almost anyone who visits the LMF! I just was mainly not wanting people to get discouraged from targeting them. It is rewarding when they make an appearance! Side note, looks like y’all had a great time to the south of me a couple weeks ago! Gorgeous cutties! I gotcha. Wasn’t trying to discourage anyone from fishing for browns. I think the brown population in the LMF is on the rise. Seems like more were caught this winter. And yes had a blast. Word from the locals was that the creek we fished that we caught all those cutties in holds 30 inchers down in the canyon stretch. Not sure if I believe that or not but going back to find out! |
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Post by breeden3 on Aug 11, 2019 17:20:12 GMT -6
Dain, I 100% agree that there are much better places to catch brown trout! Hopefully we can change that! You have a much better chance of catching them than almost anyone who visits the LMF! I just was mainly not wanting people to get discouraged from targeting them. It is rewarding when they make an appearance! Side note, looks like y’all had a great time to the south of me a couple weeks ago! Gorgeous cutties! Peter, how are the fingerling stockers doing They seem to really be doing well! The guides are seeing good numbers of them and people are catching them! I am excited to see when I get back! |
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Post by gui on Aug 12, 2019 9:38:23 GMT -6
Wow Peter, these browns... Man, I need to fish more.
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Post by jonbo on Aug 12, 2019 18:44:14 GMT -6
Well, come winter I'm planning to try stripping some minnow-type streamers through some areas like those big holes on Spillway, just to see what they do. The only problem with my plan is that winter is still several months away and I have a limited attention span. I'm liable to be on to something completely different by then. Ha ha!
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Post by jonbo on Aug 12, 2019 18:45:35 GMT -6
You know Gui, you really do.
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Post by hoss on Aug 23, 2019 13:06:14 GMT -6
Let's not forget about the state record brown trout. 17 lb plus a few years back....
Caught and released.
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