Brown Trout Fishing: More Than Just a Hobby

The plan was to start fishing at 8am with my fishing partner, Brandon, but after tossing and turning, I got up and fished solo a few hours earlier.  I launched the boat and made a few unsuccessful passes while remembering the words of Ray Johnson, author of Big Trout, one of my favorite books. “The first important thing to know before trying to catch trophy-sized brown trout is that THEY ARE NOCTURNAL; and if you want to catch very many of them, you will HAVE TO IN THE DARK”.  After years of experience, I know brown trout don’t always bite early at this particular lake but I began to doubt myself and wished at this point I had been out a few hours before sunrise.

8:05 am and as Brandon walked down the boat ramp, he called his shot like Babe Ruth. “One of us is catching a 12 pound brown today”, he chuckled as he threw his fishing gear in my boat. “12 pounds?” I replied. “No, I want one 13 pounds”.  Actually, I was just hoping to get a few browns to bite. It had been almost a week since the last good bite and I was starting to worry why the best month of the year was so slow? We started off trolling the lake and catching a few smaller rainbows, cutthroats and browns. At 11am our friend Joe joined us. It was slightly overcast with dead calm winds. Joe caught two quick rainbows and then the bite shut off completely. At noon the wind slowly started to blow from the North, by 2 o’clock it was now officially wind.

No bites for several hours. Brandon and Joe were switching up their lures while I kept on the same hand-painted lure. I had a gut feeling it would attract the big brown I was hoping for. Just before we called it quits I relocated the boat and trolled down the windiest side of the lake. Then as my lure crossed the 1st point it stopped hard and ripped a few times powerfully back towards the bank. I leaned away from the fish and grunted at its power. The wind was blowing us back towards a snag-littered shoreline.  My heart sank when I looked back and saw my line heading straight between two partially submerged trees. The boat needed to be turned out into deeper water fast. Brandon frantically cleared his line and steered us away from the shore.

As Brandon steered the boat trying to avoid the snag covered bank, suddenly, my line got heavy and the fish stopped fighting. Despite Brandon’s efforts, I was snagged between the two submerged trees. We switched angles and drove back towards the bank. As the boat came around something popped. I thought my 10# test line had snapped but as I reeled fast to get the slack out, I felt the awesome power of the fish again.  It was making a big run into deeper water and I could feel the force of a few big head shakes. With my line darting hard left then right it was now apparent I was hooked into a big fish. It gave me some slack and as I reeled it towards the boat I could feel the entirety of its massive weight.  At that point, I thought I was in the homestretch but then I saw the fish aggressively change directions. It was charging back towards the submerged trees again. I hollered at Brandon to gun it out into even deeper water. As I held my breath, I daringly placed my thumb on the reel to pull the fish away from the shoreline. If it stuck me in the trees again it would likely break my line.  I had gotten lucky once and new I wasn’t going to have a second chance at it.  Our daring maneuver got us into the clear and I was able to settle into the fight.

Three minutes into the fight, layers of clothing I had on to keep me warm in freezing temps are now smothering me as my body is dripping with sweat. My heart is beating so hard that Brandon says he can see it about to explode out of my chest. After another minute of fighting this mystery fish, we all got quiet, hearing only the sounds of the engine chugging and the water lapping up against the boat.  We waited for the color spot to appear out of the dark green water and then as I reeled, inch-by-inch I got the first glimpse of a golden circle on its massive cheek. “That thing is 15 pounds”, I thought to myself as I gasped and gulped for a breath of air.  I went from 3 to a 9.99 on the nervous meter. It was looking like Brandon’s prediction of a 12-pound brown today was about to come true.

I nervously looked over at my long-time fishing partner Brandon and he looked back at me as he calmly waited with the net in hand. I reeled in the last 20 feet of my leader. Then the fish circled around the boat and then suddenly floated to the surface off the bow. Joe was filming from the bow with his phone and asked, “You want to give me that net?” Just then, the female brown exposed her massive belly for us all to see.  I shouted out “Give him the net, give him the net, give him the net”, so Brandon reluctantly gave up the net. Joe slowly scooped up the fish and we finally saw how big it really was and I’m pretty sure I did some sort of touchdown dance. Joe laid it in the boat and the first thing I noticed was that it was just as big as the 6-gallon bucket it was lying next to. It was well over 12 pounds. At 32.5 inches long and maxing out my 20 lbs scale I knew it was a true FISH of a LIFETIME!

After a few quick calls, we loaded up my boat and drove to the supermarket to get the official weight, 21.5 pounds. This big brown was definitely going on my wall. I am a firm believer in catch and release and this is the first fish I’ve kept in the last 6 years. This trophy brown is something I have heard stories about and seen pictures of but never did I think that would catch one. I knew there were 20-pound browns in that lake but I had only dreamed that one day a 21.5-pound would eat my lure I hand-painted myself.

Believe me, I would love to give more details on exactly how and where I caught it, but I was sworn to secrecy on a few details. One friend told me not to mention the lake, another said to keep the lure and color quite, and another said not to tell how fast I was trolling or how deep of water I was in. It is funny how secretive brown trout fishermen are and quite frankly I’ve already said too much.

Equipment used:

~ Hand Painted Rapala

~ Abu Garcia Reel- C4 6601

~ G-Loomis Rod- IMX 7 ‘ Med-Heavy Fast Action

– Sufix 832 Braided Line in Lo-Vis Green- 20#

~ P-Line Floroclear- 10# leader

~ Pro-Cure Scent- Rainbow Trophy Trout Super Gel

~ Mercury Engine – 40 hp