Catching Big Trout

[def90]

As I enter my 40's I have been pondering trying to target bigger trout. Its something the whole family can enjoy. I have been fishing for 30 plus years, mostly rivers, and have caught maybe a handful of nice trout. Now I can fish a river/stream and catch 30-40 fish in a few hours. I know how to read water and make good cast but truly big fish have eluded me. Now I know the 1st thing is to fish waters that carry big fish which I do, 2nd spend lots of time on the water which I dont do. I probably fish a total of 5-10 days a year. Most of the time I would rather be hunting. But for some reason I can big trout on my mind, so I had a few questions.
1. if fishing from a river what tackle are you using to target big fish (5-10 pound browns/rainbows)
2. Fishing from the shore what tackle are you using
3. From a boat what tackle.

I have spots that have produced 5-20 pound browns but from me I have never been able to figure out how to tackle these fish. I mostly spend my time behind small lures on rivers (mepps, blue fox, panther martins) and catch a ton fish.

Thanks for the advice....

Probably going to be different everywhere but here in Colorado fly fishing tailwaters in the middle of the winter using the smallest midges you can size 22-24 and running them as deep as you can will get you the biggest trout.

 

[R-K]

Depends on the location and the season- I'm mostly a river guy for the big stuff.

Summer & Fall for browns- big baits. Think 4-7" long stuff. Don't care if it's articulated streamers on a full sink, or a stickbait/jerkbait. Stickbaits in clear water, but if it gets cloudy/muddy? Deep crankbaits with a wide wobble- rebel craw, wiggle wart, etc. Bounce these off the rocks in the tailouts of pools- it's typically too fast at the head of the hole. You can also find browns in the eddies along the banks, and they'll kill a big rapala twitched hard in their face. Water above 50 degrees means ripping stickbaits hard and fast to get the territorial "killing" response. Colder water is more of a slow, straight retrieve. Spinning gear with 8# test is alright if there's no brush. Bump that up to bass tackle baitcasts if you need to put the screws to them and keep them out of timber.

Rainbows aren't as aggressive, and prefer a slower retrieve. I like bunny strip streamers for the active fish, and prefer off-color water. Big stoneflies or something else they can see works pretty well, too- you need a meal to make it worth it to them. I like 3x for this, but it can get a bit Western.

Brown trout are piscivores with a mouth 1/4 their total body length. Give them something they want to eat. Rainbows tend to be more insectivores, but still like a big meal- this can vary from strain to strain, though.

You can use the baitfish/crawfish patterns in tailwaters, too, but definitely suggest doing it at night instead. Otherwise, it's sight fishing with tiny crap to fish that just look annoyed with your existence. I've watched fish dodge a #18 all day long, just to start inhaling a #20 of the same pattern. Don't ignore drowned tricos if there's a hatch going on with no risers. But yeah, tailwater fish are annoying.

Lakes? I dunno. Troll big spoons or stickbaits at the right depth where the fish want to be.

 

[Nickofthewoods]

@mooretitan

Since this old thread has been dug up, how is your big trout quest going?

 

[mooretitan]

I caught two really nice browns this summer on a small creek. The best two fish that I have caught on this creek. Caught them both with in five minutes of each other. Two separate pools and my son and friend got to watch which was pretty cool. #3 gold blue fox. Still nothing close to the ten pound mark but fishing season starts next weekend for us

 

[thinhorn_AK]

Really looking forward to chasing them in my new boat this summer.

 

[Troutnut]

Ok, so I’ve finally started catching trout on my fly rod, pretty consistently. I’m fishing in the gsmnp and from my understanding, the fish I’m catching are the average size for the park. That’s fine and dandy, but how do I catch the above average fish?

some things I’m currently considering are, matching the food sources more accurately, and focusing in on deeper bottle necks in the rivers that seem to provide a better supply of food and cover.

Here are some things to try:

1. This one seems obvious, but fish rivers known to hold above-average fish. Many creeks just don't have the food or temperature regime to grow them, and those can still be great fun, but if you're aiming for size make sure you're targeting waters where it's possible.

2. Dry flies are fun and can be effective on big fish in certain situations, especially during hatches of large flies. Learning the bugs and matching the hatch can make a real difference then. (My website troutnut.com is meant to help with that.) However, most of the time, subsurface presentations (nymphs and streamers) are the best way to catch bigger fish. Streamers are an especially beginner-friendly way to target only the big ones, but you'll catch a lot more fish--large and small--with nymphs. However, beginners are always waaaaay too casual about how they present their nymphs. Trout eat mostly nymphs, because that's that's mostly what they see, but they won't always move very far for a nymph. Your success rate will depend enormously on getting your nymph down to the fish's level, drifting it very close to the fish, and being able to detect very subtle strikes.

3. Cover as much ground as you can in a day of fishing. It depends a little bit on the technique you're using, but especially with dry flies you're targeting the smallest, most active percentage of fish in the pool, and you'll catch more if you move quickly and catch the most eager ones in every pool than if you try to fish each pool very thoroughly. However, one exception is if you're catching fish nonstop--sometimes you have to get a few small ones out of the way first before your fly even gets to the big ones.

4. Get away from easy access points and people, especially if it's common for people to keep trout there. Parking somewhere without a nearby river access, where you have to hike a hundred yards or more through woods with no trail to reach the water, can put you in some really good spots. You can use tools like Google Earth and OnX to find these.

5. Speaking of those tools, you can e-scout for trout just like elk, deer, etc. Look for big, deep pools with at least some areas of strong current (not long stretches of sluggish deep "frog water") and ideally some good cover like a logjam. From a very high-up, low-resolution view, look for very sinuous areas of the stream (lot of twists and turns), which tend to have good pools at the bends.

6. Another hunting tactic you can adapt for big trout is spot-and-stalk. You can learn to spot big fish on the bottom from good vantage points, and it's also not a bad idea to develop the habit of watching a promising pool for rises for a few minutes as you approach.

Each of these points could be a whole book chapter, or a whole book, when you really dive into the details. That's what makes fly fishing so great. But if I could recommend just one book that covers a lot of the most important stuff, get Tactical Flyfishing by Devin Olsen. There's a heavy focus on tight-line "Euro" nymphing, which is a fantastic but fairly specialized technique, but it'll teach you a lot about every aspect of fly fishing.

 

[DLIP]

Fish where big fish are.

 

[diamond10x]

Something nobody mentioned- fishing cold fronts.

My best days on the water for rainbows and browns alike have been on cold fronts. As long as the creek or river isn’t frozen over, as the cold front is coming in or the coldest day of the front.