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I fished for two decades before I finally realized that not every river, not every creek or stream has big fish. For most of my early days of fishing, I thought there was a different class of fish in some of my favorite waters that I simply never encountered. And I liked to think that if I fished certain ways at certain times, I would finally catch those fish.
But many years later, after more experience and after finally fishing all of the ways that are supposed to help you find the biggest fish — night fishing, streamer fishing, etc. — I also met many like minded anglers and became friends with enough obsessed fishermen whose stories and accounts I could trust. And I realized, no one catches big trout out of some of these waters.
Why do some rivers hold big trout? This is a topic that has come up between all of us on long drives, around the tailgate, and on long walks along the riverbank. Why is it that some rivers just do not have any size to the fish, and then, maybe just the next valley over, not only is the average size larger, but the top tier fish is bigger too?
We’re here to talk about it . . .
Resources
READ: Troutbitten | Wild vs Stocked — The Hierarchy of River Trout
PODCAST: Troutbitten | The Hierarchy of River Trout
PODCAST: Troutbitten | Why We All Love Big Trout
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Season Thirteen of the Troutbitten Podcast continues next week with episode eight. So look for that in your Troutbitten podcast feed.
Fish hard, friends.
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Enjoy the day.
Domenick Swentosky
T R O U T B I T T E N
domenick@troutbitten.com
Good stuff. I live in an area that doesn’t really have a river system that doesn’t have stocking or feeding influence. Some more than others. I try to stick to the least bastardized water ways There is a large tailwater that has very large “wild” fish in it. Everyone regardless of skill level that has ever spent a day fishing it has caught at least one 20” fish. No one mentions the feeders lining the banks. They love posting their 26 inch wild fish on IG.
This is a good podcast to recalibrate people’s expectations. Nothing wrong with having fun with these fish, but be honest to yourself and others about the legitimacy. If you wade a quarter mile of water and see 10 fish over 20” there is probably something off. Don’t tell me it’s wild if you pulled a 24”, five 18” and 10 fish over 16” out of the same run.
Fishing at night was only briefly mentioned, but I think key to catching the biggest brown trout in heavily pressured water. A similar condition is when water is discolored from a recent rain storm. I believe the biggest trout come out to feed at night or in discolored water because they feel safer from predators, especially fishermen. As a case in point the only 20+ inch trout I ever caught in my local Class A non-stocked trout stream was taken when the water was so high and dirty I almost didn’t fish it. The big trout took a white jig streamer. I have fished this stream multiple times over the past 15+ years and have rarely caught a trout more than 13″.
For sure. There are other things that’ll make the biggest trout in a river feel safe or bold enough to feed in average conditions. Good cover against logs, a great hatch or spinner fall, and if you can get a streamer to frustrate them enough to be territorial. These are perhaps even better ways to catch a big trout than night fishing . . and I’ve night fished a LOT.
Cheers.
Dom
Claims of a 20″ Whiskey, or a 24″ Namer, or any other claim of fish length is completely dependent on accurate measurements. True length measurements cannot be made on rod or net markings and even taping a fish accurately is difficult. And there are those anglers who believe they have magic eyeballs. Ha! To make matters worse, there are some state regs that allow for the squeezing of the trout’s tail to get a max length. In C&R competitions, exact length measurements are made (and in some cases photographed) using a bump board – by far the most accurate true length measuring tool available, albeit inconvenient for wade anglers.
Many say that perfect accuracy doesn’t really matter which I would agree with if they only qualified their claims with, “approximately/about” or “give or take an inch or two”.
Fair. But as you mentioned, no one is carrying a bump board out there. And who cares, really? If I check the measurments on my net handle and the trout is a little over twenty, then it’s a twenty inch fish. I think that’s the thing to remember. We’re looking for those markers: 18, 20, 24. And it’s pretty easy to see when a fish is over twenty but not twenty-four.
I’ve been on a mission to catch my first namer for a little over a year. I’ve frequented waters I believe may hold what I’m searching for and covered miles of water. Along the way I’ve caught several big fish and learned just how rare a fish of that caliber is. I’ve tracked the 60ish fish 18” and bigger that I’ve caught in that time and 90% of those were 18” to just under 20”, maybe 8% 20” or just a little over, the remaining 2% fall between 21” and 22”. Every inch is a different class of rarity and eye opening for just how big a 2 foot trout is. All the work to find and catch one is just what keeps us coming back because that mystery of what’s possible is always out there. Great episode and cool to hear observations I share in my own search for what’s out there.
A word of caution on accurately measuring fish. We all know that big trout take longer to get in, especially when caught on 5X tippet or lighter, which is required when fishing size 12 or smaller dry flies. Thus, bigger fish are already stressed even before there handled. Making accurate measurements and/or taking photos stresses them even more. Using your rod (with markings) is close enough (IMHO). It isn’t worth killing a big wild trout just to say you caught a 20, 21,22 or 23 inch fish, much less a namer.
Sure. Good advice. I don’t think any of use are stressing fish by measuring them. We have a full category on how to safely handle a trout. It starts with a great hookset, playing them fast and then handling them well. But please don’t think we’ve ignored the topic, just because we didn’t take ten minutes to talk about it here. We cannot cover ever caveat in every podcast.
Here’s the category:
https://troutbitten.com/category/catch-and-release-safely/
Cheers.
Dom