Browns

[Tom Butler]

One of those rivers in your area has Browns in it. From what I read someplace. The river is "T". You have to figure out which one it is.

That's it, good recall. The WDFW and Tribes are working on endemic steelhead as well as chinook programs, so they no longer plant the browns, and I have yet to come across a remnant fish, at least in the past 4 years. The redband fishing is better than ever so while one opportunity disappeared a healthy natural population has been providing good fishing.

 

[dep]

my only browns I have caught were in Lenice back in the day when they stocked it with browns and tigers. they grew fast and got big. my two biggest were probably 5 lbs, both caught on a hares ear. trying to find my original avatar as it was one of those fish.
I miss them.

 

[Long_Rod_Silvers]

It’s too bad they don’t plant them in more western WA lakes.
I do understand the concern about them possibly getting into salmon and steelhead streams etc.
With that said, they’ve discontinued planting them in some lakes where that wouldn’t be an issue. I wonder the reasoning behind that. Cost perhaps? Too bad because we used to catch some very nice browns out if those lakes.
SF

I've been politely bugging Region 4 about this.

 

[Greg Armstrong]

Not a large one, but I was on a focused quest to catch a Western Washington Brown few years back…

My one and only Brown from this side of the mountains;

 

[Yardus]

 

[Mike Ediger]

Browns are cool!

 

[Peach]

Browns are cool!
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Second fish is a Tiger - which are pretty cool as well.

 

[Peach]

2021 was the year of the Brown for me as well. I probably caught more Browns in 2021 than I have collectively my all my time fishing. Has to do with a certain stillwater that I like to fish in Southern Oregon that they just started stocking Browns to help keep the Chub population down. Browns are required C&R at this lake due to this.

Peach

 

[Richard Olmstead]

I've caught a few browns in WA and quite a lot in ID and MT, but my most memorable brown trout fishing has been in Argentina.

 

[Mike Ediger]

Second fish is a Tiger - which are pretty cool as well.

Correct. Pics came from my phone which means I can barely see them and I wasn't paying attention. But agree!

 

[mems]

 

[Rooster]

I've landed more browns than I deserve (luck I guess?)

This is my all time favorite brown, took my son to MT, pulled the raft over near a root pile. As we walked the shore, he was tossing a double dry rig (yellow sally IIRC) and I was behind with a tip and a streamer setup. Vincent says "hey dad can I try your set up?" Sure, here's what you do. So I proceeded to show him how to cast with a sink tip and streamer by tossing it out and of course two strips in this guy destroyed the fly.

Now, a good father would hand the rod to his son.....
But, I was so shocked I just keep on strippin in, my sons (without skipping a beat) runs back to the raft and grabs the net, and nets the fish. We were both on cloud 9, great start to that days float.

 

[FindingFly]

Oh man, haven't caught a good brown in a long time. Did catch my first wild Connecticut brown trout when I was home visiting the folks this Xmas. This thread has me thinking I have to commit some real time to exploring a couple lakes here outside of Hood River this spring.....

 

[swimmy]

Not from last year. But like reliving the experience. Browns are cool.

 

[jasmillo]

2021 was good year for brown trout for me. I estimate I caught at least 60 nice browns in Washington. This biggest change for me was at least 80% were on dries. It altered my perspective a little. I had always been a streamer guy for browns over 18 inches. Here's some of my better ones from 2021:
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When I first moved back to WA, you and I shared a few PM’s talking about our love of migratory browns. I miss them from my time in CO and MT. Lost a bunch of pics from that time due to phone changes over the years but a few still exist. So much fun chasing those guys….

 

[Uptonogood]

When I was a kid in Yakima back in the 60’s, there was a hatchery outfall pipe southeast of the airport that produced a ditch called Bachelor Creek. It was restricted fishing for kids 14 years and under. Every day a hatchery person would dump a couple of dipnets of 6-8 inch rainbows in the ditch for the 15-20 kids dunking eggs and worms. There were a couple of kids who lived in a small house not far from the creek who hit it regularly and were the Creek Gurus. What really set them apart, they targeted rainbow gorged brown trout further down the creek, oh, a half mile or more. These guys didn’t catch many but what they caught were 15-20 inch monsters. And they kept their techniques to themselves.

Bachelor Creek is gone now along with that hatchery. I remember seeing only one brown in that creek, along ways down from the hatchery horde. Never caught a brown until I was in my 50’s fishing in Idaho. Reading this thread brought back neat memories of those “Brown Trout Gurus”. Love it. Beautiful photos, too. Well done to you BTG’s!

 

[Lue Taylor]

 

[dirty dog]

Awesome pics

 

[G_Smolt]

I went fishing in Montana once, because I heard it was supposed to be cool to fish Montana. We caught a bunch of trout, but they were all dirty. You'd think they would clean them once in awhile.

 

[Searun]

There are some big fish in this thread!