Hi everybody,

What are the best techniques to use if you want to catch brown rather than rainbow trout when they co-exist in a given body of water?

Brown trout have been stocked for the first time in the small mountain reservoirs I fish for trout. All fishing is done from the shore, either spinning (my preferred method) or bait (paste, powerbait etc) fishing. Fly fishing is not an option. Since I have yet to catch a brown trout, I would be really interested to know of any method that is preferable for them...

Thanks!

P.S. Thanks to all who replied to my thread about bass lures for trout - it was really helpful!

German brown trout LOVE jerkbaits, especially in rainbow trout colors!

(LC Pointer, Aurora Black and Rapala X-Rap Rainbow Trout).

One of the reasons big brown trout are so rarely caught is because they (generally) feed at night. Last summer I had a TREMENDOUS evening on the White River in north central Arkansas fishing with an X-Rap. Seven strikes and four trout over 5 lbs in two hours. Woo-hoo!

I've had too little experience with brown trout on artificials to recommend any lures for browns.

From what I've read though, brown trout become almost totally carnivorous when they reach adulthood.

In my experience, the best natural bait per trout species goes something like this:

Brook Trout:   Worms

Rainbow Trout: Salmon Eggs

Brown Trout:  Minnows

Roger

Start fly fishing. You'll catch more browns with flies.

I caught a brown while I was fishing for smallies this past week. It was on the first cast with an X-Rap worked EXTREMELY fast. I also had another one follow the lure up to the bank but it backed off when it saw me. That was my first trout, so I have absolutely no expertise in the matter, but what happened to me seems to agree with what others have said.

Thanks to all for your replies!

I guess I will have just to wait a few years though! Brown trout of a good size are only found in one reservoir (biggest we know of was a 5lber cauht on a tiny thunderbolt spoon) and even there they are very rare. They were considered extinct on Cyprus, having bein stocked in the few permanent mountain streams back in 1948, until a friend managed to catch two (4lb and 5lb) about three years ago. The particular reservoir where he caught them has a permanent stream feeding it, but it is also heavily stocked with rainbows. When a small (8") brown was again caught in 2005, the Fisheries Department decided it was worth re-stocking browns, so in December they stocked the various mountain reservoirs with yearlings (5-7" long).

I have caught hundreds of rainbows during the years in Cyprus, and also in the US, as well as brook trout in the US. But I have never caught - or seen for that matter! - a brownie except in photographs.... Hopefully this will change sometime in the future...

dont worry  u ll catch em soon

I have 2 say its one of the most beautifull fish i ever got except our green friends ahahahahahahahaha

I'll tell ou a little story: there is a spanish reservoir up north (Galicia) called Villagudín. It's a small impoundment (about 50/60 ha - metric system) that holds only three predator species: salmon, brown trout and rainbow trout. It 's a pay-per-fish reservoir meaning that not only you need to buy a daily fishing permit but also you pay for EVERYTHING you fish, wich is about 6/kg (mandatory harvest). I've been there a couple of times and cought both brown and rainbow with the same lure: bluefoxe's minnowspin in mullet collour (7 cm) on a spinning outfit. Being a stocking reservoir, you pretty much fish for whatever they've put in but I recall brown trout having a noticeable preference for minnow (streamer) type flies.

Here's a brownie

Pretty cool!

Never really got into fishing lakes for trout, only really fished streams and rivers around where I grew up. Most of the time, as RoLo said, brown trout were caught using minnow rigs. The will relate to structure in current, much like bass do. I have caught countless brownies working a rigged minnow past a current break such as large rocks and downed trees. Bonuses to this type of fishing in PA is that smallmouth also live in a lot of the rivers we used to fish for trout. You never really know what you are going to hook into.

Good luck.

Wayne

tugabasser, great pics and welcome to the boards!!!!!!

Tugabasser, NICE brownie 8-)

I agree with what you said about streamers mimicking "minnows".

Here in the states, the "Muddler Minnow" and the "Mickey Finn"

used to be the hottest streamers for brown trout.

Roger