Saturday, November 12, 2011

Quality Browns

In between snow storms I was able to spend a couple of days on one of my favorite late fall/winter fisheries this week.  For reasons that I'm uncertain of, the Browns in this stream spawn considerably later than any other water I'm familiar with.  While other waters I fish have seen the completion of the spawn, the fish in this stream haven't even started in earnest. 

The first day I was by myself and enjoyed a great day of streamer fishing for a couple dozen Browns between 14-20".  I did foul hook a fish that would have probably gone 5lbs, but after being drug 50 yards he came off.  The fish are at their physical peak right now and are heavy and powerful. 

20 Incher
Upon hearing how good the fishing was, my friend asked if I'd go back the next day as he'd managed to wrangle a hall pass.  It didn't take any arm twisting to get me to agree.  I figured we should fish a different section of the stream so we headed downstream.  For reasons I'm not quite sure of, this lower stretch can be quite good, but is not as consistent as the upper reaches.  It started off fine with some fish being caught like this one.

Unfortunately it went downhill from there and fish were hard to find.  We eventually abandoned the plan and headed upstream.  It was liking fishing a different stream as fish were big and plentiful.  The biggest fish was only about 19" but was especially thick.


19" Brute