Brook Trout in Streams

dsmith

Question about fishing for brook trout in streams. I like using salmon eggs and powerbait. My question is: Should I be sticking strictly fishing around the big rocks in the water, with the deep water, and fish under the rocks, or should I try to fish everywhere? Are the fish likely to be in the shallow water too, or are they just in the deep water with debris around them?

Also, do the brook trout just hang out along the sides of the stream, or do they also stay in the middle of the stream?

elkoholic

Sounds like a great excuse to take up fly fishing. But to answer your question...you will find them all over but they will concentrate in the deeper pools esesially when the sun is out.

stankemp

Brookies like the cover; ledges , roots , deep pools , etc. but when the fly is on the surface in a quiet section , they dart out fast enough to get it.
+1 on fly fishing. Try a bead head wooly bugger around the fast water in midstream boulders.
The problem with salmon eggs , other than I despise bait except for surf fishing, is that it's tough to make the bait react naturally in fast water. A wet fly , on the other hand , making the appearance of an active food will get the voracious book trout to stike.
Gonna have some smoked trout tonight. Yum.
Stan

sandwarrior

dsmith,

I'm with elkoholic on this one. A fly is a habit a brooky just can't break.

I have always found when fishing streams for brookies that I fish upstream and hit the edges of the riffles on big pools. Placement on the pool is critical so as to present to the biggest fish in that pool.
Brookies are just like any other trout in that the biggest and toughest will take the best place in the pool and retreat to the safest when not eating. Usually that is about 6"-12" behind a rock. Or, the smooth water on the inside corner of a riffle, deep enough for a quick escape of course. Their thinking is the most food for the least work.
Sometimes in the mountains you will come across beaver ponds. I will tell you from fishing many of them that it will always be near the inlet you catch the biggest and most fish. Even if bigger fish are lolling around the beaver house. Those usually aren't hungry and are difficult to catch. Wait a few hours on that pond and they will move up for food when they feel like it. They are easy game then.
A general sure catch out west is with worms. Not nightcrawlers but just regular old worms. Nightcrawlers are quite often too big for brookies to think reasonable food. Although they are aggressive and sometimes it's just the mood they are in. -good luck

38anup

I am with sandwarrior on the worms.When I grew up in the Adirondack mountains in New York state, I used to use worms or grasshoppers for bait.The grasshoppers were like a magnet for trout during late morning and afternoon. Toward evening I would switch to worms.
A trick taught to me by my grandfather was to carry some twigs with you.Where the brush along the creek wont allow you to get a line in, wrap a twig with your line and float in under the brush.
We also used to fish the bigger pools at night with worms and sinkers, like you would bullheads.For some reason the bigger trout would come into the deeper, bigger pools at night.
Dsmith,if a stream has a sharp bend to the left fish the left side of the bend, where there is less current. The fish doesnt want to be in alot of current where they waste energy to stay there. It wants to have current flowing past, bring food to it or near it so it can dart out grab the food and go back to cover.Bigger rocks will have low current areas behind them also.It was my experience that if you caught a 8 inch brookie in a spot, within 2 days another brookie or a brown of equal size will fill that spot. hth Jim

11echo

I'm a Pacific/Northwest guy, now I know fly fishing is the "pro" way to fish (or so sez my Uncle who thinks it's a sin to "feed" the fish! *G*), but I never invested the time to learn fly fishing ...I'd rather BE FISHING! SO under them rules I've caught alot of trout on eggs, worms, & crickets. Remember to think "small" ...small hooks and minimum weight. Normally I do better in deeper pools mid-day, & near the surface morn'n and evenings. These rules seems to apply to rainbows, browns, cut-throat, & brookies ... so has been my experience. Good luck!

blogdog37

Salmon eggs that die turn pink, that's the secret sucess for you bait fishermen, Fly fishing is not that difficult unless your really into difficult casting when the mosquitos are eating you alive try drifing a gray hackel one drifting top of the water and the other slightly submerged, I won't say it's easy but then it's not rocket science either.