Brown Trout courtesy of www.wibigfish.com
Brown Trout
Brown Trout are less plentiful and tougher to catch than their cousins the Rainbow Trout. Most of the Brown Trout I have caught have been caught incidentally while fishing for Rainbows, so obviously some of the same techniques work. However, I haven’t really spent much time researching or pursuing them.
The best Brown Trout fishery that I know of is in Milwaukee Harbor during the winter. The harbor is kept unnaturally warm, so fish from Lake Michigan tend to congregate near the warm water flows inside the harbor. I went one time with a guide and had great success using Gulp Jerkshads fished slowly on a leadhead. This is probably the least picturesque place I have ever fished. Downtown Milwaukee was literally 50 yards away and all kinds of trash including a used condom were floating by. However, the fish were really stacked in there and they were huge. My biggest was around 8lbs but I caught several over 5lbs in just a few hours fishing and my guide caught a couple in the double digit range. I was hampered by the fact that I was colder than I have ever been in my entire life. Despite having bundled up after a few hours I could not feel my legs below the knee and had to constantly look down when walking to see where my feet were so I wouldn’t trip. I couldn’t fish well with gloves so my hands were pretty numb which made fishing tough. It was literally a week before I felt warm again after that.
Here are some resources for catching Brown Trout:
If you want to catch the big ones in Lake Michigan, this guy will put you on them: www.wibigfish.com
Brown Trout are less plentiful and tougher to catch than their cousins the Rainbow Trout. Most of the Brown Trout I have caught have been caught incidentally while fishing for Rainbows, so obviously some of the same techniques work. However, I haven’t really spent much time researching or pursuing them.
The best Brown Trout fishery that I know of is in Milwaukee Harbor during the winter. The harbor is kept unnaturally warm, so fish from Lake Michigan tend to congregate near the warm water flows inside the harbor. I went one time with a guide and had great success using Gulp Jerkshads fished slowly on a leadhead. This is probably the least picturesque place I have ever fished. Downtown Milwaukee was literally 50 yards away and all kinds of trash including a used condom were floating by. However, the fish were really stacked in there and they were huge. My biggest was around 8lbs but I caught several over 5lbs in just a few hours fishing and my guide caught a couple in the double digit range. I was hampered by the fact that I was colder than I have ever been in my entire life. Despite having bundled up after a few hours I could not feel my legs below the knee and had to constantly look down when walking to see where my feet were so I wouldn’t trip. I couldn’t fish well with gloves so my hands were pretty numb which made fishing tough. It was literally a week before I felt warm again after that.
Here are some resources for catching Brown Trout:
If you want to catch the big ones in Lake Michigan, this guy will put you on them: www.wibigfish.com
