Northwest Fishing Reports

Those brown trout can be a pain to figure out, anyone have any tips? I fish mineral lake alot but have never had much success catching brown trout.

In my experience, I have found that Browns feed primarily in the late afternoon or early evening. You can usually find them in the shadows. Also, if you find an area that has schools of small perch or crappie, you are more likely will find browns. They are more of a predatory fish than the rainbows. Another thing that I have found is they cruise deep during the day and shallow towards dusk. One evening by starlight "popping for bass", I got a 22" brown
Anyone else have any feedback?

Where is mineral lake located? I am out of Spokane

kevin07 wrote:Where is mineral lake located? I am out of Spokane

On the other side of the state:

www.washingtonlakes.com/ReportList.aspx?id=142

I got one on October on day fishing Pine Lake over here near Seattle for those who are on the eastside of the island. Oddly, it was a calm, sunny day, and I was using a Dick Nite spoon.

Usually guys say the worse the weather is for browns, the better the fishing because they will be out scooping up all the baitfish getting separated in the rough water and they are wary of the surface chop. Guys like to troll like F5 Rapalas or Flatfish to better mimic a bigger fish because those browns do go more for other fish then rainbows who like bugs and stuff more...

It has been my experience that browns tend to feed early in the morning, around sunrise or late in the day, around sunset.

Sam Kafelafish wrote:I got one on October on day fishing Pine Lake over here near Seattle for those who are on the eastside of the island. Oddly, it was a calm, sunny day, and I was using a Dick Nite spoon.

Usually guys say the worse the weather is for browns, the better the fishing because they will be out scooping up all the baitfish getting separated in the rough water and they are wary of the surface chop. Guys like to troll like F5 Rapalas or Flatfish to better mimic a bigger fish because those browns do go more for other fish then rainbows who like bugs and stuff more...

I agree. When I was on Pine, I have seen exactly what you are describing. Most of the stillfishing action comes off the bottom early dusk-late afternoon.

Marc's absolutely right. During the day, brownies will head to deep water and can be difficult, but not impossible, to catch. The key is in getting your offering as tight to the bottom without getting snagged. I primarily fly fish and catch many brown trout during the day by "kick finning" around in my pontoon, dragging a black leech or black bugger tight to the bottom in 25 feet or more of water. As soon as the sun begins to set, and shadows begin to hit the water, browns will head into the shallows to feed. They are in no hurry whatsoever and can be observed lazily porpoising, cleaning the day's hatch off the surface. For whatever reason, they seem to prefer (in my experience) dark colors as compared to lighter or brighter. In comparison, rainbows seem to prefer lighter colors, especially olive. Additionally, because they are a predatory fish, they are less likely to be caught with bait and prefer lures and flies that closely imitate their natural food source.

I have seen some large browns caught from pine lake in the early am and the late dusk.
They were all caught on hot summer days.
From the dock no less. guys is there a way to get a 16' trailer boat in the water there all I see now is a drag the boat launch.
needabiggerboat,

[quote="needabiggerboat"][-o&lt]

You may have seen one of my brown trout off the dock. As for your boat, it just comes down to the fact of whether the WDFW allows trailer boats in. If they let trailers in, you will need to take off your gas motor (if you have one).

Hey Raff-
You and I have probably passed each other on Medical Lake in the past. I'm heading out to Medical saturday (if the weather warms up). We should connect up sometime. I'm going to work the area around the aerator. That Brown in my Avatar photo was taken next to the aerator. See the foam on the water?

Browns are notorious for being night feeders and I'm not an early riser.... I like getting out on the water 'bout 10AM and heading home for dinner and a glass of wine by 5 PM at the latest.....

but still, I've caught a few over the years....

They plant a bunch of them in Swofford Pond (Lewis County just north of Riffe Lake) every year and I've caught them mid day right out in the middle of the lake.. they just hang out with the rainbows after the hatchery truck dumps them off.. I think it takes few weeks for them to figure out that they are supposed to act differently than the bows.....

I used to fish for them in the New York State's Finger Lakes when I lived back east... in the fall they would feed at the surface in the middle of very deep lakes like Canadice and Hemlock. I would just go out and troll a shallow running rapala around until I got some action....... these were nice fish.. 4,5, 6 pounds... This was an October/November pattern though....

I think some of the best tasting browns I've ever caught were out of Rock Lake in Whitman County.... Rock is an extremely productive lake and the browns tend to hang along the steep rocky shorelines feeding on crayfish (at least all the ones I caught were stuffed with the darned things)... I just used a small sonic spinner and would cast as close to the rocks as I could get....

nothing huge... 14" and 15".. that kind of thing, but really bright red and tasty meat....

Marc - I know exactly where that aerator is....I always look at it and, along with my partners, say "we should go over there one of these days"! It's gotta be fish heaven as Spring turns into Summer! I'm sure we've passed, probably even talked occasionally while passing in our pontoons. Like you, I fish Medical, W. Medical and Amber a lot.

Sorry, can't do Saturday....the kids have some things going on. But I'm sure we'll meet in the near future, either on a local lake or via this forum. I fish more during the week than on the weekends. We'll get together sometime. I fish with a couple other guys who are good people, too.

Froze my a** off today (Friday) on south end of Medical, despite the bit of a wind break that bank affords. It felt like Amber during the first/second week of March!!! Got a few nice fish and lost a few others, and my partner did the same.

P.S. I enjoy your posts....very enlightening.....thanks for getting my back on the water temp thing, I forgot about that altogether. Very important! It's only the first week of May and my partners and I all concur that most trout, especially the larger ones, are staying deep.

Heres a nice pic from a stream in Wisconsin that illustrates the difference between Brookies and Browns.
The day was overcast but bright. Early fall (Labor day 2004 actually). I beached 3 brooks and a brown on a #5 Floating Rapala.



The Brookies were holding in the dark water current slot in front of that patch of green in the white bank mid right in the pic.
The brown was in the backwater off the undercut bank under the overhanging tree mid left in the pic.

I just got back from mineral and they have planted around 40,000 fish since January and 5,000 were browns. So when you do the math 1 out of 8 should have been browns. In 4 days of fishing I caught 18 trout so 2 of them should have been browns, but all rainbows. We went in a party of 6 and not one of us caught a brown. In fact I probaly saw between 200-300 fish the whole time we were there (in coolers, on stringers, etc.) but only one was a brown. I have heard though that browns get more active durring the summer months and when it gets warmer and the weather was pretty bad cold, rain, hail, clouds, the whole time we were there

gpc - I know, I see the same thing at Medical. The bulk of the fish are browns according to 2005-2007 stocking reports, yet they constitute only 10-20 percent of my catch. They are a tough crowd as compared to the rainbows. My problem right now is that I've only fished it in the mornings and early afternoons. I know from experience that I'll begin catching a lot more browns once I start fishing it in the evenings.

I have been doing really good with the browns the past three years at my favorite Eastside lake. They will bite just about any time of day. They are very much a predator fish as was mentioned earlier. They love hanging out on drop offs or right on the bottom. They arent the power bait or wedding ring type of trout. Use fish imitating lures or use big flys in the evening when they are surfacing. Here is a 21" I got this year

Rapala's,Swim Baits, and spinners in the size 3 blades worked pretty good for Browns in Pine.

last weekend i caught a 5 pound brown out of pine. funny enough it was off of chartrouse power bait,off the bottom about 3 feet. im gonna have to try the rapalas though.

j7intheboat wrote: .....Use fish imitating lures or use big flys in the evening when they are surfacing.

Browns seem to have a sweet tooth for Muddler Minnows=p~