Catch Trophy Brown Trout By Stacking The Odds In Your Favor

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how can this make you anything but happy? Photo by Louis Cahill

how can this make you anything but happy? Photo by Louis Cahill

By Louis Cahill

this fish has been all over the internet. Now I’m going to tell you exactly how to catch one like it for yourself.

Once in a while the “perfect storm” really is perfect.

My buddy Dan and I were throwing around some dates for a fishing trip the other day and when those dates started falling in November he said, “As you know, fall will be all about finding big brown trout.”

edit-5261Brown trout are addictive like almost no other freshwater fish. I can’t tell you how many anglers have told me, “I just want to catch a big brown.” We all want that but if you are serious about turning that want into real-life experience, you’ll need to work for it and you’ll still have to be lucky.

Brown trout are tough customers. Moody, smart and reclusive, they put trout anglers to the test. Especially the big ones. There are two ways to get one. Either you can be lucky and just stumble into it, which is awesome and I highly recommend it, or you can do the leg work and put in the time.

Your best bet is the combination of good timing, the right conditions, the right place and a great presentation. That and persistence will get you what you’re looking for. Here are some guidelines to start with.

Location

_DSF5324-Edit-EditYou must first be in the presence of big brown trout to catch big brown trout. Finding the right place usually starts with a tip, a fly shop conversation or a photo or article you found on the Internet. Some places are well known for holding big Browns. Reputation alone, however, is not enough to go on.

Once you identify the river where you think you can catch that big boy, you have to start narrowing it down. Brown trout are notorious homebodies, spending most of their lives in one run or even under one rock. There are certain events and times when they will venture out and, to catch them, you either have to know where they are or where they’re going, and when.

I talked to one angler who hunts for big Browns on a local tailwater, and catches them. He has a brilliant, and time consuming, method that works well. He learned from experience that these fish would only eat during high water flows. He goes to the river on low flows with binoculars rather than a rod. He finds big Browns and marks their location on his GPS and returns on high water to catch them.

You can increase your odds by getting after fish in smaller water when they are moving to spawn. Don’t target fish on redds. That’s short sighted and bad for the future populations, but there’s nothing wrong with targeting fish on the move. (Read all about that here.)

My point is, you have to make a plan and do the research.

Timing and conditions

_DSF6936-EditYou have to strike when the time is right. By identifying the times and conditions when big brown trout are most likely to be active and aggressive, you raise your odds immensely.

Fall is the peak of brown trout aggression. Browns are fall spawners. The height of their spawning season is around the full moon of November. This varies a little with geography and weather but in the month or so leading up to the spawn brown trout are highly aggressive. That’s your best shot at hooking a leviathan. Spring is good too, when the fish are putting weight back on after the spawn.

DSC_1173High water is always a good time to catch big fish and Browns are no exception. When water is high, and better yet a little stained, cautious fish feel safer and feed more casually. Rainy days are big fish days, as long as the water is safe and not total mud.

Low light is always a trigger for big Browns to feed. Early mornings, dusk and full-on night are great times to catch big fish. So are cloudy days and even places where overhead vegetation blocks out the light. Fish are more comfortable in the dark and they feed when they are comfortable.

Pressure is a huge factor too. Big brown trout don’t like crowds. Unless they are motivated by conditions, they will sulk when a lot of anglers are present. Look for places and days when you can have some water to yourself. It pays to fish in the middle of the week or the bitter cold.

Presentation

Presentation is always the most important part of the equation. There’s a lot that goes into a good presentation and I’m not going to waste time talking about drag-free drifts and line mending. I’ll assume that you know how to properly fish your chosen fly and get to some things that get talked about less.

Stealth is huge! Trout don’t get big by being careless. The fish you are after knows the game and he’s on the lookout for predators. Approach the water slow and quiet. Conceal your profile and stay in the fish’s blind spot. Make delicate presentations and minimize false casting. You’ll need every advantage.

Use your eyes. If you’ve chosen your water well, you know that you are in the presence of fish. Don’t get in a rush. Hang back from the water and look for fish. If you can see the fish, your odds go way up. Even fly choice is easier when you can see how the fish is behaving. Observe your target. Your best bet is to be a sniper; one shot, one fish.

Louis Cahill Photography

Louis Cahill Photography

Choose the right fly. Obviously, always important but here is your chance to get inside the fish’s head. It may be obvious. If the fish is sipping BWO’s don’t start with a streamer. If however, he’s playing grab ass with everything that swims by, a nice Sex Dungeon might be the ticket. It’s more likely that you’ll be guessing. Know what’s in the water. Whatever is most common is a good start but there are other considerations. You don’t want to fish the same patter every other angler has shown him. Sometimes a fly that just gets him curious does the job. After all, fish don’t have hands, there’s only one way for them to satisfy their curiosity.

There are some good guidelines to start with. Streamers or mouse patterns in low light. Worms or large nymphs on high water. Pale yellow sucker spawn patterns in the spring are like kryptonite for brown trout. Unless the fish is rising or there is an obvious hatch, start below the surface. A sub surface eat asks less of the fish and is a surer bet. Even in a hatch a dropper is worth your time. Check your leader and tippet. This is no time to have a wind knot or chafed leader.

So think of this list as a Chinese take-out menu. For the best possible odds combine one or more from each list. That way the odds stack up in your favor.

Justin and I did just that the other day. It was a Wednesday and with hurricane Joaquin hanging off the east coast, we’d had several days of steady rain.  Just enough to have the mountain streams running high and stained. That’s one from column A. It’s October and the Browns are in pre-spawn mode, that’s one from column B. We went to a stream where I know, from experience, three runs that hold big brown trout. That’s column C and it’s time for the fortune cookie!

First thing that morning, I hooked a monster brown trout and lost it just a few minutes into the fight. Run one was shot but we knew the Browns were in play. Run two, Justin hooked and lost a nice brown. That put us behind in the count but we were still motivated. The brown trout were eating well. The end of the day put us at run number three.

We spotted a couple of fish but we couldn’t identify the brown from the rainbows. They were all nice fish. I hooked and landed a big rainbow, which was great but I assumed that would put down the big brown I knew lived in that run. Justin tied on his favorite fly. He calls it a Trout Brain and it’s one of those flies that preys on the fish’s curiosity. He made a cast and came tight to a big fish.

_DSC3858It was several minutes before the fish turned and made a downstream run. It was one of those moments when your heart stops. When the fish went past we could see it was a big brown. The biggest I’d ever seen in this creek. We had lost two big Browns that day and we’d just talked about how, “sometimes it’s better not to know how big a fish you have on.” Justin was white knuckled.

When the fish went in the net we almost lost it. The big brown kicked his tail and back-flipped out of the net. By the grace of God the hook held. The second time he went in the net, I had his tail. Justin had a tape measure in his pack. The fish taped out at 29 inches on the nose. Way more fish than either of us expected.

Days like that are what we, as anglers, live for. I know I’ll never forget the look on Justin’s face when he held that fish. It can happen for you too. Just fish hard, fish smart and stack the odds in your favor. And call in sick on that Wednesday when it’s the perfect storm.

Read More about catching big brown trout.

Browns on the Move

3 Tips For Targeting Fall Browns

Streamer Fishing for Trophy Browns

Louis Cahill
Gink & Gasoline
www.ginkandgasoline.com
hookups@ginkandgasoline.com
 
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24 thoughts on “Catch Trophy Brown Trout By Stacking The Odds In Your Favor

  1. I pulled the hook on a gonzo sized brown last weekend. He was in a section of a stream that I visit often to watch flows and count bugs as we are finishing up on a dam removal, 12 years after we started. I don’t get paid for this stuff so more often then not I carry a fly rod. I’m pretty sure this brown isn’t a resident of this section. What we think we are seeing are big browns making their living in the main river, a pretty good smallmouth fishery, and moving into the cold-water creeks during hot spells in the summer, cold spells in the winter and like you said big flows and to spawn. We also see small to medium browns drop into the river during big hatches like the white mayflies that blanket the big water but not the smaller streams. Occasionally someone will land a big brown while fishing for smallies but they are pretty spread out and way out numbered by the bass so they would be tough to target on the river. Besides it is a a good bass river so why give that up? One of our local biologist is beginning to beleive we should probably emanating the system more like they manage coasters.

  2. Really good advice and it comes at a really good time for me. Every year I take a group of pastors, some who have never fly fished before, and we drift the Big Horn. This year I have scheduled 3 extra days in the first week of November, by myself for exploring other parts of Montana. So I have been reading up on the big fall pre-spawning browns and where to find them. So I plan on using your advice to catch a big brown this year. Thanks.

  3. Great advise. Landed some huge ones this past week on a stretch in CO well known for monster fish. I think it is so important to scout a stretch of water before you just cast blindly. Moving up river in inches rather than footsteps is crucial. Watch the water and you’d be surprised what you might see this time of year if you’re paying attention. Also, what you might think are weeds on the river bottom might not be. Its ALWAYS worth a cast or two…

  4. Pingback: Catch Trophy Brown Trout By Stacking The Odds In Your Favor | Fly Fishing | Gink and Gasoline | How to Fly Fish | Trout Fishing | Fly Tying | Fly Fishing Blog | The Ozark Fly Fisher Journal

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  6. This article reminds me of one of my favorite quotes:

    “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”
    – Seneca The Younger

    We all need a little luck when fishing.

  7. Great article. There is a local lake nearby where I live that has monster browns. I have used many of these tactics you have mentioned to catch them.

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  10. Great article, but I have one problem. You talk about being “delicate” with the presentation of the fly, but big browns are apex predators. Smacking the fly on the water triggers their instincts to hunt, thus more likely to strike.

  11. We are in the middle of Autumn (fall) here in New Zealand and the Browns have started to move. Due to warmer than usual temperatures and less rain, the majority of the lake run fish have not entered the river systems yet and those that already have are mostly paired up. Watching the weather and timing is important at this time of year, getting in just after a serious rainfall can reap the best rewards as fish are on the move, it is important to intercept them before they begin to school and pair up. I was fishing a pool on a small steam over the weekend, stacked with Browns over 8lb and most were unresponsive to our offerings, bar 2 monsters that we landed over 9lb in a tiny spring creek no more than 6 foot wide!

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  13. Excellent article, we mostly fish for Mahseer and trout in the Himalayas in North India. I have also observed that large browns are generally more aggressive during high water times and can be targeted effectively through streamers. The same holds true went it rains. The only problem is getting the correct presentation in the deeper sections

  14. As a member of the geezer hatch, I simply don’t understand why a young man feels the need to stick his tongue out while holding a large fish. It seems to me both disrespectful of the fish and the viewer. But then again any sense of decorum astream is becoming more and more rare.

  15. I remember seeing this article a few years ago…Unfortunately, most people aren’t going to put the time, thought or effort into it like they should. Social media has turned everyone into wanting something without working for it. They just want a big brown for ‘likes’ not for themselves. With all of the private ‘trophy water’ these days, a 30”er is pretty easy to find, if you are willing to pay for it. It’s sad what this sport is turning into….nice work on the article and GREAT fish!

  16. Pingback: Tips to Catch Trophy Browns | MidCurrent

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  18. Great advice!!! Great arcticle! Every nice brown I’ve ever hooked was in crappy weather! Water off color but,,, not muddy! I’ve gotten some really nice fish with the methods you’ve described! Excellent advice thanks!!

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