What to tie for Brooke trout?

[moosemadnessflyco]

Hi everyone, I'm gonna be up visiting family late fall and early spring in Central PA around elk country. What are your suggestions for some good brooke trout flies? Especially for those little tiny streams in and around Clearfield/DuBois/Benezette?
Thank you all!

 

[CLSports]

Elk Hair Caddis, Adams or Royal Wulff. That is all I ever use.

 

[Silent Ocelot]

Get some some size 10 to size 14 stimulators tied up. I prefer an orange bodied stimulator but that is just my personal preference. These make excellent dries if you want to run a nymph off the back. They can support size 12 beaded pheasants, a feat I had not thought possible until this year. For nymphs, pheasant tails are basically all I toss to brookies. Sizes will be 12/14. Brook trout are pretty adventurous fish and will attack almost anything that enters their turf. I have found they are not typically selective of food due to the fact that the small creeks they inhabit don't have a lot of food to choose from. With these fish presentation and stealth are of the upmost importance and the first cast you make into a pool needs to be good. Other than that you should be good. Tight lines and have a good trip come next year.

 

[Fly-Swatter]

# 14 Parachute Adams and #14 BH Prince with red hot spot collar. Done.

 

[phiendWMD]

Size 16 elk (deer) hair caddis, size 16 sulphur comparadun and or parachute, size 16 adams parachute. They aren't as picky as browns. I think the joke is a brookie would take a cigarette butt on a hook.

 

[tomgamber]

one day, a longtime ago I actually used those gaudy, poorly tied pink and blue wet flies that came with cheap older japanese "fly/spin" combos back in the 80's and just cleaned up on brookies. They loved those things. I'm much more of an elk hair or small olive bigger tosser for brooks now.

 

[foxfire]

Elk Hair Caddis, Adams or Royal Wulff. That is all I ever use.

You read my mind!!!!

 

[bigjohn358]

Can't go wrong with some small San Juan Worms.

 

[BradFromPotter]

Write each fly listed above on a separate piece of paper, then put them in a bowl. Then toss to mixed them up. Then pick one piece of paper & whatever fly is listed just fish that one 7 you will catch brook trout!

 

[wildtrout2]

Elk Hair Caddis, Adams or Royal Wulff. That is all I ever use.

+1

 

[Silent Ocelot]

Can't go wrong with some small San Juan Worms.

Sir...

 

[pcray1231]

At this time of year, doesn't hurt to go underneath if they aren't showing on top. From May-September, though, dries do better simply because you can fish them from further away, and getting a fly to them before spooking them is the name of the game, they'll hit anything if you do that. As the water gets cooler they get less aggressive and sometimes you gotta go underneath, but not always. Go dry dropper and if they are hitting the dry, cut off the dropper.

You want it to float and stay floating, you want to be able to see it in often heaviesh water. And the last thing is you want it to be well tied, so that it doesn't unravel after 5 or 10 fish. I've caught 50 without changing flies before.

I like stimmies, but I miss a lot of fish on the long shank. My go to is a parachute adams in slower water and an Adams Wulff in heavier water. But humpies and various catskill ties do fine, as long as you can see em.

 

[discomidge]

Is the general consensus that brookies aren't exactly discriminating? That's definitely been my experience. I just throw whatever is still rigged on my rod most of the time. If that doesn't work I usually tie on something that looks like it could have fallen out of a tree on a blue line. Green weenies, ants, etc.

 

[troutbert]

There are times when brookies will hit nearly any fly about equally.

But there are also many times when a particular fly works much better than others.

Also, many streams that have brook trout also have brown trout. I've seen sometimes that one fly is catching the brookies pretty well, but not attracting the brown trout. While another pattern is getting strikes from both.

 

[pcray1231]

Is the general consensus that brookies aren't exactly discriminating?

Yes, but... The stream plays as big or bigger role than the species.

Brookies are most often found in small infertile tumbling freestone streams. In such environs, they are not discriminating. They are spooky, but if not spooked, downright aggressive. That said, most of those streams have small populations of browns too, and the browns in the same streams act the same way.

In larger, richer more heavily fished waterways, you usually find brown trout, which can be very discriminating. But in the situations where brookies are in that same water, they are often discriminating as well.

I think brookies, by nature, are less discriminating than browns. But where they are found plays a large part in that equation.

 

[troutbert]

I recall fishing a brookie stream with 2 other guys. Two of us were using Adams. The other guy was fishing a big beetle pattern that made a "Plop!" when it hit the water. Both of us Adams users caught about 12 to 14 brookies. The guy using the big beetle pattern caught 92.

And it wasn't the fisherman that made the difference, it was the fly. He gave me one of those big beetle patterns, and I began getting a strike on nearly every cast.

During low water periods of summer and fall, often terrestrial patterns will outfish other patterns by a considerable margin.

 

[Silent Ocelot]

At this time of year, doesn't hurt to go underneath if they aren't showing on top. From May-September, though, dries do better simply because you can fish them from further away, and getting a fly to them before spooking them is the name of the game, they'll hit anything if you do that. As the water gets cooler they get less aggressive and sometimes you gotta go underneath, but not always. Go dry dropper and if they are hitting the dry, cut off the dropper.

You want it to float and stay floating, you want to be able to see it in often heaviesh water. And the last thing is you want it to be well tied, so that it doesn't unravel after 5 or 10 fish. I've caught 50 without changing flies before.

I like stimmies, but I miss a lot of fish on the long shank. My go to is a parachute adams in slower water and an Adams Wulff in heavier water. But humpies and various catskill ties do fine, as long as you can see em.

I've never thought about the longer shank on the stimulator would prevent me from setting the hook into the fish, but this absolutely makes sense. During this summer I bumped a lot of brookies off of the stimulator, though most of the fish I was catching were about 3 inches long. The tenacity of a tiny brook trout is astonishing.

 

[silverfox]

Yes, but... The stream plays as big or bigger role than the species.

Brookies are most often found in small infertile tumbling freestone streams. In such environs, they are not discriminating. They are spooky, but if not spooked, downright aggressive. That said, most of those streams have small populations of browns too, and the browns in the same streams act the same way.

In larger, richer more heavily fished waterways, you usually find brown trout, which can be very discriminating. But in the situations where brookies are in that same water, they are often discriminating as well.

I think brookies, by nature, are less discriminating than browns. But where they are found plays a large part in that equation.

My sentiments precisely. It's less about the species and more about the environment. Tell me brook trout in Big Spring aren't selective. Conversely, the wild brown trout in the upper reaches of Bob's Creek are as opportunistic as any wild brook trout I've ever encountered. If food is scarce, angling pressure and disturbances light, the "fish" will be less selective regardless of species.

 

[pcray1231]

I will say as far as discriminating, browns can be as aggressive and opportunistic as brookies in less fertile, less fished streams. WHEN THEY'RE FEEDING.

But. You'll notice in streams that have both. The brookies don't really shut off as easily as the browns. If the water is real low, or it's midday, or whatever, all you'll catch is brookies, it can be like the browns don't exist. Hit that same water when it's up a little, or off color, or morning/evening, and the brookie/brown ratio is WAAAAYYY different.

There's one well known stream, where it's nearly all browns up to a waterfall, nearly all brookies above. Above the falls is good for a fairly reliable 50-100 brookies. Bad conditions is like 50, good is like 100. If you spend a day below the falls? Hit it right and you can be in that 100 range. Hit it wrong and it's zero point zero, like Bluto's grade point average, and you'd swear there's not a fish in it.

 

[silverfox]

I will say as far as discriminating, browns can be as aggressive and opportunistic as brookies in less fertile, less fished streams. WHEN THEY'RE FEEDING.

But. You'll notice in streams that have both. The brookies don't really shut off as easily as the browns. If the water is real low, or it's midday, or whatever, all you'll catch is brookies, it can be like the browns don't exist. Hit that same water when it's up a little, or off color, or morning/evening, and the brookie/brown ratio is WAAAAYYY different.

There's one well known stream, where it's nearly all browns up to a waterfall, nearly all brookies above. Above the falls is good for a fairly reliable 50-100 brookies. Bad conditions is like 50, good is like 100. If you spend a day below the falls? Hit it right and you can be in that 100 range. Hit it wrong and it's zero point zero, like Bluto's grade point average, and you'd swear there's not a fish in it.

Agreed. Something I've noticed with brook trout is that they seem to be warier when cold than browns. In some single-species streams in MD, you'd swear there are no brook trout in them at all during the winter. They're there. They're just hiding under cover all day. In mixed pop streams in PA, I've had days in the winter where it was 100% BT when I fished it in June and caught more brook trout than browns. Different behaviors under different conditions rather than broad species-specific tendencies.