the kettle river in ferry county has browns and bigs ones I have never caught any but I heard over the summer that people go to the deep pools and throw sculpzillas and buggers
Yes Virginia, there are some big browns in Washington. In fact the state record of 22# came out of a lake that is a scant 10 miles from where I am typing this. That drainage continues to produce browns but very few people target them. I think they are safe and are in little danger of exploitation. Ive
do you guys think winter is a good time to try for the bigger browns ? my thinking is less people, lower light levels and not as much food in abundance ? i have 3 lakes in mind. one is small but gets planted with browns.
I think winter offers a good opportunity for big browns, at least worth a shot at getting out. The fish can be shallow and active, for example this time last year I caught two 16"+ feisty browns back-to-back from what looked to be a feeding frenzy using unweighted chronies making <20' casts in water less than eight feet deep. I've found the most consistent success for cold weather browns using sz 10-12, dark beadhead leeches, twitched or slowly dragged along the bottom. I haven't caught anything to really brag about yet, but I'm convinced it's just a matter of time/place. I could be mistaken, but it seems like the fish concentrate more in the winter, maybe over springs or because of available food, or something else entirely. Finding active fish is the biggest obstacle to overcome in the winter.
Jimmy, great thanks. i have 2 lakes in mind. one gets a yearly shot of fingerling cutthroat. which never seem to get any bigger than 10-12 inches. this lake also gets regular plants of baby browns. so i maybe putting too much together but maybe the browns are keeping the cutts from reaching any bigger size. and the lake also has perch in it. so that's another possible. i will keep your suggestion about smaller leeches in mind. since most of mine are a little larger. thanks.
cranberry lake has some really big browns try using various scud patterns under. a indicator. there is a honey hole where i fish drive down to the lake when you see the white gate that is the entrance to the park launch and and anchor even with the entrance gate ther is a drop off which goes from 12 to 17 feet and the browns seem to hang in this area.
95% of the trout I catch here in Utah are browns. I'd rather catch rainbows, the ones here fight harder and are better looking (imo, obviously).
