Brown Trout in pit lake

[Guest]

Hello,
I've been fishing an abandonned iron ore mine pit that has been stocked with 1500 brown trout per year for the past 10 years at least. Very few people fish the lake, maybe less than 100 a year an nobody fishes it regularly except me. I know of only 3 fish that have been caught out of it, one on a worm, one on a small spoon, and one on a small rapala. I have not caught any of these fish, but I have personally talked to the people that have. All three fish were over 24" and caught right in front of the landing were the old mine access road goes down into the water. I have seen several fish while fishing the pit (all in 24" range) and mark them with my depth finder regularly. Now, these pit lakes are kind of unique. This lake is 14 acres, 172 feet deep and the banks go straight to the bottom at a 45 degree angle. Also, there is no oxygen below about 40'. The regulations for this lake state that it cannot be fished before 7:00am or after 10:00 pm. There are pehaps a dozen pit lakes in my area that are stocked with other species of trout (rainbow, brookies) and I can catch all of them I want, but the things that work for these other lakes don't seem to work here.I am obsessed with catching these fish, but I don't know how. Please help me!

[JOSHF]

I think I know the lake that you are talking about. My dad loves browns so when we were up there a few years back he wanted to fish it. We fished off the edge of the access and he caught 2 browns that were pushing 14+ inches, on a crawler/lindy rig from shore. He has always dreamed about going back there and catching some more of those big browns. I remember from the stocking data, browns were the only trout stocked in that pit. I won't same the name but I have a good idea that we are in the right section....??

[Guest]

JOSHF, I also believe we are in the right section!!!!! I may have even talked to your dad at the lake once, he told me of catching some large trout from the landing on openning day. I am going to figure those fish out eventually!

[Renneberg]

Ringy here's what the MN DNR recommend.

Spring
Look for brown trout close to shore or near inlet streams. Cast from shore with inflated nightcrawlers. Troll with bright spoons or crankbaits.

Summer
Brown trout are most active at dusk. Fly-fish with large dry flies or streamers. Cast or troll with crankbaits or spinners.

September and October
Brown trout are fall spawners. They roam the shorelines in September and October. Cast with large streamers, crankbaits, or spinners.

Winter
Few anglers target winter brown trout. You can catch them using jigs tipped with preserved minnows.

Best bet
The key to catching big browns is to fish at night and use big lures. Try casting mouse imitations or floating crankbaits in likely areas after sunset.

Good Luck!

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"Study to be quite"

[JOSHF]

Cool-small world isn't it. How often do fish this lake? Dad always told me the best time of day to fish browns was right before dark; they are alot like walleyes. I would love to get up that way again and try it out. Do you have much luck catching brookies in any of these pits and if so how? Is there any size to em'?

[Guest]

JOSHF, I do catch some brookies. I have caught a few with cowbells and rapalas, but they seem to like cowbells and worms better. The trouble is the rainbows are much more agressive and they bite first. I have not caught any real nice ones, the biggest are in the 12' to 13' range. There are a couple of pits with only brookies and I would go to one of them if I was going to try to catch a nice one. This season I've caught 57 trout and 6 have been brookies.

[chunkytrout]

It's funny. When i fish the pits up here and the guys on the lake see me whipping out the bells you can hear em snicker all the way across the lake. I can see why, I only caught around 60 rainbow last year on them.(now whos snikerin?) If you haven't tried them, you should. Them silver bullets get pretty excited with all that flash rollin by at 2mph. I love fishin the pits!

chunky

[Steve Foss]

Here's the thing, guys. Ringy's lake can't be fished after dark in summer, since it's close to fishing after 10 p.m.

So does anyone here have advice on how to tempt those nocturnal browns into eating during the day? Anyone had experience doing that?

Of course, you could get into them the last hour of legal fishing -- it gets pretty dark this time of year from 9 to 10 p.m., but what about daytime tips?

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"Worry less, fish more."
Steve Foss
[email protected]

[Benny]

I was introduced to the cowbells back in the late 70's.The old timer I mowed grass for would take me fishing on a glacial lake Northwest of Togo.He always used the cowbells and a crawler, I would try the spinners,lindy rigs,jigs and never could catch as many trout as old Paul did.
When on a trip out west one year we found a store that was clearing out the old stock that didn't sell.In the pile was a few sets of cowbells, so we bought the whole lot of them.
They defanatly work for trout, but never tried them for any other species.
Benny

[Guest]

I had a deer shack up in Togo back in the 80's...used to fish Larson(still fish Larson) and Erskine for rainbows and brookies (must be the lakes Benny is referring to)...splake in Larson also"big ones"...state record type big ones...(13 pound big ones)...... another pit that has nice trout is the "Larue" in Nauswauk...caught some nice rainbows out of that body of water last year and the year before....best year was 2 years ago i caught rainbows up to 24"...i heard they planted browns in the larue...but haven't tried for em yet... the set up that seemed to work the best for those rainbows was similar to what I rigged for walleyes..I used 1/4 ounce slip sinker behind the snap swivel then about a 36" snell with a #4 plain walleye type hook baited with a night crawler hooked once through the head... I trolled this rig slowly(I'm paddling a canoe) over deep water and the rig is probably down 10' or so...when you feel a hit ...set the hook .....the rainbows had the night crawler deep...got some beautiful rainbows this way .....not sure if this will entice those browns or not......guess I'll find out this summer.lol

[protrapper]

If I where you guys I would troll kamlooper spoons right before dark. Or flyfish them right before dark and till 10pm. Durin the Hex hatch if this lake has one, this will bring them to the surface.This works up on the Gunflint Trail, where I do my trout fishing. I can catch Splake, Brookies, Browns, and Bows like this all the time. The Kamlooper spoons are the best lure. Get them in Rainbow Trout color. Kastmasters work good too. Bright colors.