Targeting Big Brookies

A

ahhofmeister

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Oct 5, 2017
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Hey guys,
Haven't posted in awhile but always pop on to read. This isn't about PA as I moved to VA for a new job after getting back from deployment. Wow I can already see there's plenty of fishing to do. I have been here for a week and fished twice already. One outing produced 2 dink brookies and a 9 incher. Yesterday I had a blast catching fish at at least every other hole with the average being around 6/7". I'm fishing Shanendoah National Park. But yesterday made me realize I'll have to focus less on just catching fish and more on trying to find the large ones around. So what do you guys do different to find the biggest brookies in your area? Should I maybe start fishing big nymphs or buggers? Or just keep using a double nymph rig weeding through the volumes and hoping I'll catch a big one eventually? Yesterday I was using a size 14 PT lively legs with a size 22 zebra midge. I will say there are a lot less dinks in the park compared to my brookie fishing in pa (just personal experience). Anyway just excited for something new thought I'd share.
Thanks
Adam
 
I have not had much success targeting large brookies in the winter. Overall, you have to fish where the bigger fish are. They may be lower in the watershed to take advantage of more feed opportunities. For browns I have had success throwing fairly big streamers.

In the spring/ summer my tactic for catching big brookies usually involves focusing on the prime feeding or cover lies in a stream as this is where I have typically caught what I feel are the largest brook trout in the stream. I do not know what type of streams you are fishing, but it could be possible that 9-10in fish are the largest in that particular stream section.
 
They're the same as large browns. They become largely piscivorous as they get bigger. Don't be afraid to fish larger fish type imitations. You'll be surprised that the little ones will try to eat things half their size.

There are several other things to look for in terms of where those fish tend to hide, but I'm not sure I really want to reveal that information to be honest. It's taken me the better part of 5 years of heavily focusing on these fish to identify some trends in their preferred habitat and behavior.

I will say that in my experience, large pools are not where you're going to catch the larger fish. They tend to mostly be occupied by larger quantities of smaller fish.

Good luck! Large brook trout are the hardest fish to catch. True unicorns. Any Tom, **** and Harry can catch large brown trout. Show me a 15" wild brook trout and I'm impressed.
 
I've been fishing wild streams in Pa for almost 45 years, and my best native is 13.5". I've gotten a few 12"s, numerous 11"s, and tons of 10"s. The biggest I've ever actually seen was in Potter, and I'm guessing it was in the 16"-18" range.

I had a good look at that brookie, as I snuck up on a slow run that fed a very large pool. It ended up spooking. I will never forget seeing that native though, because I don't think I'll live long enough to see it's equal.
 
Adam,

I know little about VA but here you go anyways.
To grow a big brook trout you need a few things.

Find a lake run population, find a spring creek with a hugh forage base or find a larger interconnected watershed with limited competition.

Do know where you are in VA or what is around you. Finding large brook trout is difficult.

I know of a few in WV and PA.

Good luck in your search.
 
Adam-

I have extensive experience in VA, having lived in the Shenandoah Valley for several years. I still continue to regularly fish the state even though I live in NC PA, and I am actually planning a permanent move to SW VA later this year.

Shenandoah National Park is a beautiful place with a great population of brookies. That said, the streams get pounded mercilessly and harvest is allowed on most Park streams save for the Rapidan River and North Fork of the Moorman's River. With the streams that allow harvest, the larger fish get skimmed off on a regular basis, so finding anything larger than 7"-8" will be a chore. The larger fish are in the Rapidan and North Fork of the Moorman's but the number that you will find in each is directly dependent on summertime flows/temps, predation from water snakes, etc. Lots of people automatically assume that when a water is under Special Regs, that it will outfish most everything else. That couldn't be further from the truth.

In VA, there are plenty of brook trout in the 10"-13" range to be found. You have ample opportunities in both the National Forests and all along the Blue Ridge Parkway (BRP). I will note that as you near Roanoke, BRP stream populations start to revert to more wild rainbows as the predominate species with some browns thrown in. I don't know what part of VA you are in, so I can't make any specific recommendations (yet), but you have plenty of options provided that you are willing to get off the beaten path to fish less publicized waters that will require some hiking. Sal knows his chit and is on point with what watershed types you should be looking for in addition to streams that are just flat out remote and do not see any kind of pressure. The map below is a very good starting point. Make sure you get a Delorme if you don't already have one. Good luck

https://www.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=441ed456c8664166bb735b1db6024e48
 
VA produces some large wild STs; good advice from Wild_Trouter to explore the Rapidan watershed.

This isn't meant to be flippant, but you should clarify in your mind what "Big" constitutes. I consider a big wild ST on a small freestone stream to be 8 inches.

While I have seen larger ones (including a fish in the 20" class in MD about 40 years ago) my personal best wild ST from a small, non-limestone stream remains in the 11ish range. As others, with more experience than I have in this game, have pointed out - if you want to pursue the unicorn fish, you need to target bigger waters.

For me, when looking for those big 8" fish from mountain streams, I focus on fishing larger flies with streamers in the 1" range the best. I'm more confident with sub-surface stuff than dry flies as small stream STs are often under cover and I believe that surface flies are missed by some fish. A ST in the 8" size range has a larger mouth than BTs or RTs (look closely sometime) and can easily eat a 1-2" dace or minnow. Fish in prime time during spring and fall, with water levels on the high side, and skip marginal habitat; hit deeper holes and also prime lies as fish this size are less likely to be in riffles. Your odds of catching 8+" fish increases with the amount of water you cover. I don't agree that you need to fish only remote streams, although sometimes this is the ticket. I get many of my larger wild STs from streams that are stocked and have some harvest or are otherwise near public access.

Good luck.
 
I will echo Daves advice and somewhat mentioned by others, you need to cover a lot of water. While I have had success with brown trout by meticulously picking apart prime holding habitat or a large pool, I can't say the same when targeting brook trout. Especially in clear conditions you get one or two chances, it is not uncommon for me to fish several stream miles in one day when fishing small brook trout streams.
 
“Big” is a relative thing. Especially when it comes to Brook Trout. I consider a Brook Trout “big” at about 9”. A Brown Trout “big” at about 15”, FWIW.

While “big” Brown Trout are often difficult to catch, I’ve found that “big” Brook Trout are generally not, and are no more difficult to catch than a smaller Brook Trout. (Brook Trout in general are easier to catch than Brown Trout under most circumstances.) So, you have that going for you. But as others have alluded to, large Brook Trout are much more difficult to find than large Brown Trout. The difficulty is finding them, not necessarily catching them once you’ve found them.

A few of the things noted above are good starting points for your explorations...I’ll add one more thing to look for...The absence of wild Brown Trout. Brown Trout grow faster, and if present, even in only small numbers, often tend to occupy the best feeding lies in small streams. A lot times I’ll catch a 10:1 ratio of Brookies to Browns on a small stream, but the 1 Brown is often bigger than any of the Brookies, and is often in the best hole or lie I fish. (This happened as recently as last week for me. Caught about 15 fish in an afternoon on a small stream. Only one was a Brown, but it was the biggest, and in the best hole habitat wise.)

Also, I’ve nearly exclusively caught all my biggest Brook Trout in Winter. This could be a product of me fishing subsurface in Winter, where once the weather warms I usually fish Brookie streams with dry flies, but I do find it interesting.
 
Exceptional situations can sometimes produce exceptional fish, but "exceptional" is not always synonymous with good, better or superior.

Some of the largest wild brook trout I have caught have been out of small streams that were actually dominated by browns or, in more than a few cases, horned dace or chubs. The "exceptional" size (for brook trout anyway) of these fish allows them to hang on in places where other, smaller brookies were very sparse or absent. And they themselves are pretty sparse and "exceptional" for the setting. The requisite dynamic for the fish to be present will only come together sometimes.


So, it isn't like this phenomena is something you would want to use to sit down with a bunch of maps and plan a weekend of stream hopping by. All the same, if you fish around enough, I think you'll run into it now and then.

The biggest wild PA brook trout I've ever seen came out of a setting like this, a wild brown trout stream with a scattering of larger brookies. It was maybe 12 1/2" if stretched slightly. My Dad caught it on a redworm and we ate it..:) This was sometime in the 60's.
 
It's very rare to catch large native brook trout in stocked sections of trout streams.

There are exceptions, but in my experience they are extremely rare.

I've fished many unstocked and stocked streams with native brook trout populations, and regarding larger brook trout, the comparison is like night and day.

These streams are often very similar in size, physical habitat, water quality etc. And the streams had the same "general" regulations. So, those factors are not the explanation.

The difference comes from stocking vs not stocking.
 

These were from sunday. I just would like to up my game from here because I feel that they are in the area. Im in winchester VA. Its an hour to an hour and a half to where i was fishing the park from where im at. And the only reason I feel like they are in the area is from some pictures, books, youtube but those also could have been the exception to prove the rule. Gonna have to start taping them to really know what im talking about i guess. I appreciate all the scoop though, Im going to have to go back through it all in the morning.
Best,
Adam

edit: i cant post these pictures for the life of me. hate to be that guy but if anyone wouldnt mind helping me out i can email or text them. yes i read the sticky lol
 
ahhofmeister wrote:

These were from sunday. I just would like to up my game from here because I feel that they are in the area. Im in winchester VA. Its an hour to an hour and a half to where i was fishing the park from where im at. And the only reason I feel like they are in the area is from some pictures, books, youtube but those also could have been the exception to prove the rule. Gonna have to start taping them to really know what im talking about i guess. I appreciate all the scoop though, Im going to have to go back through it all in the morning.
Best,
Adam

edit: i cant post these pictures for the life of me. hate to be that guy but if anyone wouldnt mind helping me out i can email or text them. yes i read the sticky lol
Click to expand...

I've got several friends in your area and you're right. There are large (12-14) fish there. It's the habitat, technique, and flies. They are pretty rare even in SNP and GWNF so you need to cover a lot of ground (water) and focus on the correct habitat and presentation.

A few of these guys focus on the larger fish and I can tell you that they're not catching them on size 16 beadhead nymphs.

Watch water temps in the winter. Between 4-8° C (39-46°F) brook trout hide in rocks to conserve energy and are very reluctant to expose themselves. Transition periods in and out of those temps are good.
 
The advice from silverfox is solid gold.

IMO pictures here are difficult to post. It is best IMO to use flickr. YMMV
 
Thanks for the advice. I'm only making it a point to get out now so I can explore and learn some territory before the weather gets good. I can definitely tell how these places can receive a lot of pressure. I'll have to adjust my scouting accordingly. Also going to have to get down to the rapidan and surrounding waters. It seems that in fly fishing the nicest fish are caught on something super small or super big. In this case I'm thinking buggers or small streamers might be the ticket but time will tell.
 
I've done a bit of fishing in SNP and have located and caught a few brookies in the 9.5-11.5" range there, but nothing too crazy. I agree with those who said winter is not a good time for them. Across VA, MD, WV, and PA, all of my largest brook trout from freestone streams have been in April or May. I've witnessed a few studs caught on dries in the pre spawn period in early October. But most years we are at borderline or full fledged drought conditions that time of year so I personally don't fish small streams much in the fall.

My advice for SNP is to look for the pools with big undercut boulders. Not just any big boulders in a pool but ones that actually have a lot of space to hide under. Unless there is a prolific hatch the biggest brookies will be in hiding and you must fish small streamers or large nymphs (golden stones are personal favorite) to draw them out. They are simply not going to see a dry fly from way back under their rock.

You also need to be the first one on the water due to aforementioned pressure. Also, don't overlook small tributaries of the larger brook trout streams in the park. Check the tribs out on a topo map. Some of them are kinda flat for the downstream portions but get steeper a quarter to half mile upstream from their mouths. These are where you can find waterfalls and plunge pools off the beaten path and my best SNP brook trout came from a spot like this.
 
Flicker

Ok looks like it worked. These were the fish im working with and i love catching them just looking to up my game.
 
Some of them look pretty long. Did you measure their length?

Notice how thin they are. In freestone streams that's how they get during the cold months because they just aren't getting that much food.

During the growing season they fill out a lot. That's one reason I like to fish mountain streams from spring through fall, rather than in the cold months.

Another reason is that during that period you can catch them on dry flies.

If you fish brookie streams a lot, doing lots of exploring, you'll catch some larger ones here and there, along with the smaller and medium-sized ones.

I recommend just enjoying the whole experience, and not obsessing over catching big ones.

I've only fished in VA one time, in Shenandoah Park. The hiking to the streams, the scenery, the tumbling water, the brookies, a whipporwhil, eating a huge breakfast with sausage gravy at a local eatery, it's all good.

We caught lots of brookies around 8 inches. The biggest I caught was about 10 1/2 inches. It was a good trip.

 
Troutbert,
I totally hear you about the experience that's why I love it. The "June" chapter of sand county almanac sun's it up best in my opinion. And I'm going to try better to put the tape to them it just doesn't cross my mind most of the time it's all I can do to get a picture following good handling practices but that's just me I'm going to work on that though just need to be more patient.
 
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