What to tie for Brooke trout?

[hooker-of-men]

Is the general consensus that brook trout do slow down significantly in terms of aggressive feeding during spawning? That has been my experience, at least.

On that topic, I took a new-to-fishing friend out on some of his local streams in northern Vermont last weekend. We fished some absolutely beautiful brookie water but couldn't even draw a single fish. I chalked it up to spawning, but I didn't know the water well enough to offer any other explanations.

It was funny to be like "They'll hit anything! Let's get you a fish!" and then zilch. Good thing the beer is great up there.

 

[salmo]

I tend to fish mostly caddis imitations for brook trout. I am older with difficulty distinguishing color on the water, so I will fish lighter wing patterns: elk hair, CDC or Antron/PolyPro. I can make the under wing or body dark.