Brown trout

[Riverfishin]

How would start to look for brown trout through the ice? I fish a lake with both rainbow and brown trout, but only catch rainbows in the winter, I usually fish in about 15 to 20 feet of water.

[northman]

I have not brown trout fished through the ice but I will take a stab at it. One thing your experiencing is that rainbow trout bite more readily then brown trout. I will tell you a story that happened to me in the summer on a stream brook trout fishing. I was on a creek that had some shiners in it. They bite more readily then any trout. I was fishing a nice hole and I had to catch 12 shiners first. Then I finally caught 2 brook trout in that hole. Your experiencing rainbow's first before the browns. Since rainbows frequently are suspended in shaller water you are catching those. Maybe try fishing a little deeper for browns? So I am saying, you found the rainbows now you have to find the browns. - northman

[Renneberg]

I hear that the best time to fish for them is after dark. I've a hard time figuring them out, but I think I've had a few on at night. Hard to tell when you look down your hole and all you see is nothing, but the water is going up and down. I know that's not a crappie or a pike when it's 8 o'clock at night and when the fish is hooked it takes off 50 ft of line.

[Quickstrike]

I would also maybe try downsizing a bit, I have noticed that in certain conditions, browns are not nearly as aggressive as rainbows and brookies. i would also support the idea's of moving a little deeper and also fishing at dusk. I have been fly fishing on lakes that have rainbows and browns and not seen a brown all day until right before the sun is gone, then wham!!! they are flopping all over the place.

good luck

[bassman222]

What areas would a person look for browns on a small featureless northern lake?

What bait/lures typically work well under the ice?

[Renneberg]

I really don't see why they wouldn't hit anything a brook trout or rainbow would.

Quickstrike is right. Brown are the very shy compared to rainbows and brookies.

Brown trout in lakes is one gray area for me since very few lakes in MN are even stocked with them. The one lake that I think I've had them come in at night, was only stocked with a few dozen brown trout many years ago.

No lake is truely featureless. If it has no flats or points to start at, then look at bottom content. Mucky or rocky bottoms hold bait fish and insects that trout eat.

It may take sum time to find these areas but it can be well worth it.

[Quickstrike]

on lakes that seem featurless, an underwater camera is priceless. if you can locate a rock pile, sunken timber, or even weeds in some lakes it is to your advantage.

[protrapper]

I chase trout all year round and do guide trips for trout. One thing that has not been brought up is brown trout can handle warmer water than brookies, splake, and bows. Most brown trout will be deep regardless of season. The one exception is the mayfly hatch in July. On lakes I'm talking. Also they are a very smart fish stocked or wild.

They hear noise well, can see very good, your line should be florocarbon its a must. I am lucky to catch a handfull of brown trout in the winter months. In the summer I do well flyfishing from float tubes at night with head lamps.

I use 4 pound P-Line Floroclear Line and small kastmasters with waxies or maggots. I like a small presentation for browns. Small jigs like the Bro Bug and a single waxie also work for me. On thing I have found is browns and splake like drop offs and other structure in lakes.

Basically you just gotta put your time in for browns. I have been chasing trout for a long time and browns in lakes still baffel me.

Good Luck,

Jim

[Quickstrike]

hey protrapper, how are the roads up there? we are heading up to your neck of the woods for some rainbows and splake, can you tell me how the roads up the gunflint are? I have a jeep 4x4 and i was wondering what lakes i'll be able to get to. i know of a few back there a ways that we catch huge fish out of in the summer, but i have a feeling it will be a no-go without a snowmobile this weekend. well maybe i'll see you out somewhere, take it easy.

quik

[protrapper]

You need a sled to go anywhere. 3 feet plus of snow.

[Quickstrike]

we made it around ok with the jeeps and a shovel, although it was hard and scary work. we did really well though for splake even though it took us over 3 hours to hike into one of the lakes i wanted to fish. i could not believe the amount of snow up there!

[protrapper]

What lakes did ya fish. You could have fished lakes with plowed county roads ya know!!

[wall-i-king]

I don't know how the fishing would have been on those lakes but the one that we hiked into gave up 60+ fish in a matter of about 4 and a half hours. The fishing was unbelievable. Thanks again Quickstrike for getting us on them. I doubted you for a while but in the end you made the right decision.

keep fishin'

wall-i-king

[Quickstrike]

hey protrapper, shoot me an e-mail, i'm sure you would agree that these lakes are way too small to reveal over the internet. [email protected]