Brown trout don’t behave like kings, coho, steelhead and lake trout. For starters, browns are a shoreline-oriented fish that prefer water that’s warmer than their cousins like. This makes them ideal targets for small boats.
Despite their unpredictable nature, browns can be caught throughout the day. Just because they don’t hit at sunrise doesn’t mean you can’t catch them later. This is especially true when browns hold in extra dark or murky water.
When I was young I used to read every fishing article I could get my hands on. I remember an article about monster brown trout from Flaming Gorge reservoir in Utah. In my mind’s eye I can still see the photographs of those giant fish and remember how badly I wanted to catch a trophy brown trout! While my dad and I got pretty good at catching coho and king salmon, browns were a rare visitor aboard our boat. We caught some browns, but not in any great numbers—and certainly none of the trophies I so desperately wanted to catch.
When I turned 16 and acquired a driver’s license, my fishing horizons expanded and the one fish that was within reach of my buddy’s canoe and a few paddle strokes was—none other than Mr. Brown Trout. One of my favorite memories involved a snowy January morning. My buddy Paul Jaros and I took his green canoe, strapped it onto the roof of my parents’ white station wagon, drove up to the Zion Nuclear Plant and carried that little watercraft down to the gravel beach. And yes, we headed out into the freezing cold winter waters as only two teenagers who thought they were invulnerable would do. After paddling about 180 yards into the lake, we found ourselves floating and alone, the lake eerily calm. With mist rising off the turbulent discharge water we were absolutely surrounded by browns. Cast after cast, we caught fish. It was like fishing in an aquarium!
Over time, I learned that to catch browns, I had to do things differently compared to the other salmonids. Brown trout don’t behave like kings, coho, steelhead and lake trout. For starters, browns are a shoreline-oriented fish that prefer water that’s warmer than their cousins like. This makes them ideal targets for small boat anglers and shore fishermen. When dad and I would trailer our 17-foot Whaler up to ports in Wisconsin for the late summer king bonanza, brown trout turned several slow adventures into great successes. Quite by chance we learned that we could catch big, staging browns, when the water warmed up and got murky enough to chase the kings out into the deeps. The browns would hang close.
While salmon and steelhead think nothing of packing their bags and roaming vast stretches of open water, browns are homebodies. They are opportunistic feeders that look for areas with good structure. When they find their comfort zone, they don’t leave! (I think my parents thought that about me when I was in my 20’s—their coach was comfortable structure and close to their refrigerator, a reliable food source).
Brown trout are one of the largest and most beautiful salmonids found in the Great Lakes. If you want to add a brown trout playbook to your angling game this season you must adjust your thinking and tactics. You might have to venture into new territory, adjust your trolling spread to skinny water, and add a few lures to your arsenal. Before diving into the nitty-gritty of how to locate and catch Mr. Brown Trout, let’s spend a few minutes studying the patterns and characteristics of this magnificent creature. A thorough understanding of browns will narrow your search parameters and lead you to success. Brown Trout Basics Browns prefer warmer water than the other salmon and trout species. The general temperature range of browns is 47 to 65 degrees. Their optimal feeding range is 54 to 62 degrees. In some regions they remain fairly active in temperatures up to 65 degrees. Excessively warm water will drive browns offshore but they will return to the shallows when temperatures cool down. There are exceptions to all things fishy so, yes, some browns are randomly caught from deep water every season. While kings and coho prefer to dine on alewives, brown tout are opportunistic feeders. They love the invasive round gobies and will feed on just about anything else that crosses their path, too.
Brown trout are a shoreline and structure-oriented fish. While other species seem to randomly roam the lakes, browns spend much of their time holding on near-shore structure. Some of the best fishing each season takes place from the beach out to 50 feet of water. How shallow do browns go? They venture into shallower water than you can imagine. Structure features that are magnets to browns include drop-offs, humps, boulders and rocks out on the lake bottom, piers, breakwalls and jetties, points, rivers, power plant outflows, waste water run-offs, industry discharges, harbor mouths, and any rocky areas along the bottom.
Their preference for warmer water, along with their love for structure, keep browns near the shoreline for much of the year. This makes them ideal targets for small boat anglers. Many charter captains have developed strong brown trout programs for days when the winds keep them from making long runs offshore so they can target browns in more comfortable waters. Recreational angles who trailer their boats for hours to fish for salmon and arrive at a rough lake should pay close attention to the following material, as they can often find some fishable water in brown trout country on those days.
Water clarity is a key variable. Browns usually are extremely difficult to catch in gin-clear water. This may be because boat noise gives them lockjaw in their shallow environment. For sure, like many fish, they are extra wary in shallow water. I think the most likely reason they can be tough when they’re in clear, shallow water is their great eyesight. I believe they see the lures to well, and sense something wrong with them. Fact: They are much easier to catch if the water has some color. I’m not suggesting that you target muddy water, but rather that you look for “stained” or slightly murky water. Shoreline water is more easily impacted by wind and wave action, currents and rain runoff. For this reason, experienced brown trout anglers have learned to analyze water texture. Water clarity changes significantly over the course of a week or season and from one region to another. On lakes Ontario and Erie, finding murky water is much easier than on lakes Michigan and Superior. No matter where you fish, your action will greatly improve when you incorporate water clarity into your brown trout targeting matrix.
One particular late summer charter trip really helps clarify this point. On this day I ran the Blue Horizon north to fish off the Port of Kenosha, Wisconsin. Capt. Brian had fished this area the previous day and he told me that his best action had come in the murky water. We left the harbor before sunrise, ran 5 miles to the north and set lines in about 30 feet of water as the sun was breaking through the morning fog. I had told my clients that we were going to pound the fish (always a mistake), and the lack of action greatly disappointed.
Once it was light and the morning fog lifted, I realized why fishing was so slow. The water was crystal clear! Overnight, a light south wind had pushed a band of ultra-clear water into the area. Water temps were perfect, I was marking bait but either the browns had moved, or I couldn’t catch them. At 8 a.m. I received a phone call from another captain who was fishing several miles north of me. Capt. Rich had slid up into 8 to 12 feet of water and had found the same, slightly cloudy water they had been fishing the previous day. And, he said, the fish were biting! I bumped up my trolling speed, turned the boat to the northwest and slid into the beach. We were soon into fish. In the next two hours the action was non-stop and we took a limit of browns and some nice kings, as well. On that particular day, the catchable browns followed the murky water up into the shallows. The previous day, the murky water had extended to the south. You will be amazed at how shallow you can catch browns if conditions are right!
Before moving on, here’s a warning: Browns are downright goofy and moody. One day, they can be the easiest fish in the world to catch, hitting wire divers 20 feet off the rod tip and the next day you can pass a perfectly presented stealth lure past a thousand fish and not get a single strike. Some days their response doesn’t make sense. Muskies are called the fish of a 10,000 casts. Some days, browns are the fish that require you to try 100 different lures. Call them finicky. Honestly, some days you just need to figure out the exact size, color and brand of lure they want.
Despite their unpredictable nature, browns can be caught throughout the day. Just because they don’t hit at sunrise doesn’t mean you can’t catch them later. This is especially true when browns hold in extra dark or murky water. On these days the best action often occurs in the middle of the day. During low light conditions it may just be to dark for the fish to see lures. The increased sunlight makes lures more visible in murky water.
Since browns live close to the shore, you must refine your techniques to catch them. Unlike deep, open water, the shallows are totally unforgiving of angler error. Fish in shallow water are more sensitive and moody than the same fish found in deeper water. Their environment, their world so to speak, is very restricted. The vertical boundaries from the surface to the bottom may only be 10, 20 or 30 feet. This alone heightens their already spooky nature.
Locating Brown Trout
Step one is to identify areas that have received good plantings of browns. Browns are homebodies. While browns can be found just about anywhere, you greatly increase your odds of success when you key on regions that receive heavy stockings or where browns naturally reproduce. Next, spend a little time studying a topographical chart or consult the local fishing guru and seek out areas from the beach out to 50-foot depths that are structure rich. Browns are usually far more concentrated on structure adjacent to stocking sites.
Structure really matters. Off my home-port there is little, significant, shallow water structure. Run 6 miles to the north or 14 miles to the south, and shallow water humps, drop-offs and rocky formations are plentiful. Loads of browns populate those areas. I catch few browns close to my harbor, but if I venture to the north or south, browns start hitting our landing net. Structure matters.
Water clarity is a key variable. Browns usually are extremely difficult to catch in gin-clear water. This may be because boat noise gives them lockjaw in their shallow environment. For sure, like many fish, they are extra wary in shallow water. I think the most likely reason they can be tough when they’re in clear, shallow water is their great eyesight.
When targeting spring browns look for the warmest water available. You’ll often find it around river and power plant out-flows, industry and waste-water discharges, harbor mouths or stretches of shallow water. Cities with large break wall structures, such as Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Oswego, New York, are brown trout havens during the colder months. The best spring brown action is often found in 5 to 20 feet of water. I’ve caught many browns when my boat was in only 8 to 10 feet and my planers were up against the beach!
When trolling in less than 10 feet of water in spring (or any season, for that matter), pay attention to any subtle nuances in the shoreline. Old jetties that extend into the lake attract browns. Fish any shoreline abnormality: a spit of sand, a slight point extending as little as 50 feet out into the lake, or even a slight bend in the shoreline. Currents are more intense along the shoreline and even minor shoreline abnormalities and structure alter water flow. Abnormalities also attract baitfish and browns will hunt right up against these shallow water features. They also hold out-side these features in 15 to 25 feet of water.
As the shallows warm in summer, browns retreat off the shoreline and drop down into 30 to 50 feet of water. Their movements continue to key off structure and their water temperature preference of 54 to 62 degrees. Want to know the secret to catching browns? Locate the intersection of 54- to 62-degree water and bottom structure.
Three highly productive features when it comes to browns, are humps, drop offs and large boulders scattered across the lake bottom. Any hump could hold browns, whether it rises 2 feet or 10 feet higher than the surrounding bottom. Drop offs vary tremendously, so isolate which drops in your region offer the most drastic change. Browns utilize the entire water column, so you might find them holding on the bottom or suspended. When feeding on gobies, they are tight to the bottom. They typically will not stray far from their favorite areas. If water becomes excessively warm in the 30- to 50-foot range, then browns move farther out into the lake seeking cooler water.
Anytime cold water rolls into the beach—which happens a lot in the summer—you can find browns feeding up in less than 10 feet of water. My friend, Jim Brooks, caught a 27-pound brown one summer trolling in 8 feet of water off Port Washington, Wisconsin. The massive brown hit a Bomber Long A off his outside side planer board, which was running up against the beach. Jim believes the fish was in only 2 to 3 feet of water when it hit!
Browns spawn in the fall. Some of the best big brown action occurs when browns stage off spawning rivers and harbors during July and August. These pre-spawn fish are as moody as a Dutch wife. They will seemingly sit all day, staring at the bottom, counting zebra and quagga mussels, and then, without warning, go on massive binges. During these frenzies you can catch great numbers of fish. Success during the late summer and fall is all about being in the right spot at the right time. Key your late summer fishing efforts in regions where spawning bound fish stage. Browns follow the same seasonal patterns year after year. Once you determine which areas they like, you can go back to the same coordinates year after year.
Just because many harbors close and many anglers pick up their shotgun and head to fields and deer stands, you can fish browns through the winter. In many locations around the Great Lakes, anglers with small boats will fish for browns in the winter until ice prevents them from launching boats and kayaks. Many harbors, river mouths and warm water discharges provide fishing opportunities through much of the winter.
Strategies and Tactics For Brown Trout
Stealth presentations are super productive for shallow water browns and they allow you to run additional lines in the shallow strike zone. When engineering a shallow water brown program you must constantly be aware of the depth you are trolling. Let’s unpack our methodology based on two zones—the beach out to 25 feet and the 25- to 50-foot level. We’ll look at the beach zone first.
Most anglers struggle to catch fish off the beach. Fact: The shallower the water you troll, the less room you have for error. When fish move into 5, 8 or 12 feet of water, they are living in some tight quarters! With the surface a few feet above and the bottom right there, they are extra spooky, easily agitated and highly aware of everything going on around them. Engine noise is magnified and the echo of your boat’s signature announces your presence before you arrive. The immediate environment has a huge impact on how a fish behaves and whether he will strike. If you take the same fish and put him in deeper water, he behaves very differently than when he’s in super shallow water. When the shallow water is clear, fish get extra spooky.
To help you capitalize on this super shallow fishery lets further divide the beach zone into three levels—the beach out to 10 feet, 10 to 15 feet and 15 feet out to 25 feet. Pulling fish off the beach is an art, and you must be precise with which rigs you run and how you run them. Some days the fish will suspend and hit lures throughout the water column. When browns are negative, however the most productive rods are often planer boards with lines riding just above the bottom. I know what you’re thinking, “but the water is sooooo shallow, won’t they see the lure overhead and swim up and strike?” No.
You can effectively target these negative fish with monofilament side planers, short lead core segments and super short coppers. If you want to run lead core or copper off side planers you must maintain a minimum trolling depth otherwise you will snag the bottom. The presentations you use really must be adjusted to the minimum water depth you troll. If you are running short coppers you cannot slow down! They will hang bottom fast.
What does this mean? When targeting the shallow zone, you must always be cognizant of where your deepest planer line is running. If you go in shallower than the depth it is running, bad things can happen.
If you want to troll in less than 10 feet of water then you should only run mono-filament planer boards and lead segments up to one color. If you stay outside of 12 feet, you can safely run a two-color lead core (20 yards) without snagging debris off the bottom. If you stay deeper than 15 feet, then you can run a three-color lead core (30 yards). As long as you troll in a straight line, it will stay off the bottom. If you troll in the 20- to 25-foot level you can safely run up to four-colors of lead core off planers (40 yards). If you stay outside of 25 feet then you can add up to five-colors (50 yards) of lead core.
Let’s examine several planer board scenarios. You can easily mix mono and lead core side planers for shallow water. Always keep the mono planers on the outside of the lead cores. From the beach out to 10 feet of water, mono in-line planers are the way to go. You can run as many mono planers a side as you want, just set the outside planers with longer leads to avoid tangles. One warning: If you know you are going to slide your boat up into 6 to 8 feet of water, think about where your shore-side planer board will run. It very well may be in only 2 or 3 feet of water! In this case you only want the lure back about 15 to 30 feet to avoid hanging bottom. Also, make sure the bottom is free of snags and weeds. Because of wave action, you often have very clean bottoms against the shoreline. If you are going to hold 10 to 12 feet of water, then you can run a one-color lead core as well.
When trolling in 12 to 15 feet of water run mono planers with a 20- to 100-foot lead on the outside boards. You can then run a two-color lead core inside the mono boards. If you are holding the 15- to 20-foot level you can add a three-color lead core inside the two-color. For the 20- to 25-foot level, I like to run a mono planer on the outside and a three and four-color lead core inside. When I know I will be trolling outside of 25 feet, I like to run a five-color lead core on the inside planer.
While salmon and steelhead think nothing of packing their bags and roaming vast stretches of open water, browns are homebodies. They are opportunistic feeders that look for areas with good structure.
A few words of caution. Avoid sharp turns! I often reel in my lead cores when making 180-degree turns in shallow water to avoid snagging bottom and debris. Remember, when you place a lead core out off the side on a planer board, every slight turn or course adjustment you make, the line and lure greatly speed up and rise, or slow down and sink. Spoons easily sink and grab mussels or weeds off the bottom without you knowing it got fouled. When setting lead cores or long mono planers make sure you don’t free-spool haphazardly and let the spoons hit bottom.
The second shallow zone, 25 to 50 feet of water, really feels like deep water if you’ve spent time trolling along the beach. When trolling in this range, longer lead cores and coppers get the nod. If you slow down or make sharp turns, coppers will snag the bottom more readily than lead core lines. The same principles for running segmented leads and coppers offshore apply for shallow water browns. You just need to keep one other variable in mind—the bottom. Offshore, our focus is to the surface and down. Inside, you need to be more conscientious of depth. Make sure that you maintain enough water depth to avoid snagging bottom with any lines you run off side planers.
Here are a few of the typical lead core spreads I run when targeting browns in the 30- to 50-foot zone. When trolling in 30 to 35 feet of water I run the outside planer with mono stretched back at least 100 feet. Keel sinkers from ½ to 1 ounce are used on the mono board. Segmented leads from two to five colors are run on the inside planers. The longer leads should be run closer to the boat. When trolling in 35- to 45-foot depths, then segments up to 7 colors go out. Once you get past 50 feet you can run up to 10 colors of lead core off planers. You want to spread your lures from the top to the bottom until you isolate at what level browns are feeding. Many days the most productive rod is a segmented lead core that runs 5 to 10 feet above the bottom.
You can also run a longer lead core down the middle. This rod is easy to keep just off the bottom and you easily can see if it hits bottom. If you have not trolled lead core in shallow water, consider running a lead core down the middle. Experiment with different amounts of line out and note what depth the lure hits bottom. You can then apply your findings to approximate how deep your planer boards run.
While it is challenging to run coppers in less than 35 feet of water, they can easily be used in the 35- to 50-foot zone. You cannot slow down as they do sink and you need to exercise caution when making turns. Copper segments of 50 to 150 feet can be run in this depth range. As you move deeper, you can add progressively longer segments of copper.
On the terminal end of planer lines 12- to 20-pound test fluorocarbon leaders are a must for spoons and crank baits. In super clear water the lighter leader works better. A small ball-bearing swivel with spoons will produce more strikes than larger swivels. Keel sinkers from ¼ to 1 ½ ounce are recommended for mono side planers.
Divers and Slide Divers produce many shallow water browns. Running divers is easy and they don’t get in the way of planers. The murkier or darker the water, the better that divers work. I run 14- to 20-pound fluorocarbon leaders and small ball bearing swivels on shallow water divers.
In murky water try running two divers a side. Set the inside diver at 1.5 and the outside diver at 2.5 to 3.5. I will run a smaller diver on the outside. One morning I had a double diver pattern off each side of the boat and all four rods hooked up in 18-feet of water at the same time! Spoons and shallow-diving cranks both work with divers. If divers are not working, try a slide diver with the lure stretched back 20 to 50 feet behind it.
Downriggers are not very useful when targeting the beach but once you get out into 25- to 50 feet of water, they become a vital component of any brown trout spread. Because browns are weary and the water is still relatively shallow, I usually only run two of my four riggers when fishing 25 to 35 feet. If I put a third or fourth rigger in the water, all the riggers go dead. Another observation: My divers are more productive when I have just two corner downriggers in the water.
Light line rigs spooled with 8- to 12-pound test are the way to fish riggers. Stretches behind the weight really depend on water clarity. If water is gin clear, then you need 100-foot leads. If the water is murky then leads as short as 20 feet produce. When trolling in 30 feet of water or more, then you can run an SWR. If your SWR has three-colors of lead core then make sure you set it at least 15 feet off the bottom. If you want to get an extra line in the water, a mono flat line or a three-color lead core straight off the stern can produce a surprising number of fish.
The real secret to catching brown trout may be trolling speed. While no single magical speed guarantees success, summer and fall browns prefer lures on a fast troll, often in excess of 2.3 kt. (2.6 mph). I’ve had many outings where a 2.6- to 2.7 kt. (3.1 mph) troll speed was magical. Rob Wendel, who spends a ton of hours chasing browns from his kayak during the fall and spring finds a slow troll (less 1.8-2.2 mph) is most productive. Like other fish, once lines are set, experiment with speed until you connect.
Lure selection for browns is complicated. When targeting kings and coho, certain lures and color combinations produce consistent results. Not so for Mr. Brown Trout! Spring, summer or fall, you never really know what the day’s winner will be until you go fishing. If I know browns are present where I am trolling, I aggressively change lures. Five variables to consider include brand, size, base color, overall pattern and type. Sometimes it’s just a matter of shuffling through your selection of known brown killers until you find the magic bait.
Here are a list of some of the more popular spoons used for browns: Michigan Stingers, Stinger Scorpions, Super Slims, Yuks, Mini Steaks, Maulers, Savant Jake 45s, and Rattle Spoons. It would be pointless to list my favorite color patterns here as browns can want anything on any given day, and their preferences change so fast. What I can offer you are the base colors that are underlying productive spoons. The best color patterns include green, yellow, gold, glow, orange/yellow and green/glow. Now, at times a splash of red mixed in with the yellows or gold will trigger strikes. In murky water glows and frog patterns are deadly. And then some days just a plain silver or gold spoon will be the winner. Lake Ontario brown trout expert Capt. Ernie Lantiegne employs an array of regular size Stingers and Eppinger Flutter Devils, and likes color patterns that closely mimic alewives. Captains on southern Lake Michigan favor colors that mimic gobies.
Browns can be found across the Great Lakes region and their numbers fluctuate from one year to the next. Every region has its favorite lures so seek local guidance. When you experiment with lure selection, don’t be afraid to step outside the box. One spring my best brown trout baits were the 00 red coho dodgers and Howie Peanut flies. One recent summer a spoon from the early days of the Great Lakes salmon fishery was one of the best baits—the small, plain gold or silver Norwegian spoon. After Capt. Arnie tipped me off on this spoon I had to crawl up into the attic, peel off the cobwebs and search old tackle boxes for this spoon. Creativity and a willingness to adjust your lure selection will go a long way toward helping you connect with browns.
Browns are a great alternative target to salmon and the other trout species. When the other species are hard to find or just not biting, anglers who can switch gears often turn a slow outing into a great success. Another reason to put browns on your list this season: They grow to immense proportions in the Great Lakes. As of this writing, the Great Lakes record is a whopping 41-pound, 8-ounce monster. There just might be a bigger creature out there, looking to pick a fight with you!
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