Brown Trout thread

[Gator]

I'll open up my case and start this show.

 

What's up with the browns or lack thereof during the LOC this year?  I was shocked looking at the final leaderboard. Only four fish weighed in (congrats to Jeff W on a helluva fish), one of them barely eligible at ten pounds even, and none of them coming from Oswego - which is usually a gimme. I can think of a bunch of potential reasons, but I want to hear what others think.

[HB2]

I don't think most guys are fishing for them . 

Use to be a lot of guys trolling close with boards . Everyone wants Salmon. And that's what they are set up for. . 

 

We trolled out front yesterday in 40 o 60 ft looking for them 

 

Boated 15 Lakers , no browns 

Edited May 13 by HB2

[Missdemeanor]

I fished em most of the winter and Spring.... They are around... They happen to be smaller. The reason for that is ( my theory) is we are missing at least one year class. Year COVID... I remember getting a call from a lady who said she had a bunch of dead fish washed up on her beach in Greece and asked if I could come look at them. There were 100s of dead fingerling browns. Two days prior the DEC stocked them. How the fish Died is anyone's guess, however the lake had dropped 5 degrees in a day and the DEC was in a rush to stock due to government agencies closing down.  

     As far as catching.... Browns have adapted to the round Goby as everyone knows.. in areas where the alewife spawn hasn't started yet, they are still munching on those gobies. I caught a bunch of Browns in the Spring LOC, most were puking up Gobies.  All the browns we caught were released ( no stomach checks) except one ....and she had a big gobie in her gut.

    The size thing is a head scratcher.... But my feeling is, this will turn around as there are still  nice classes of fish out there.

 

    

   

[Yankee Troller]

Just goes to show you what people really want to fish for, and what species brings in the money. Everything else takes a back seat!

[GAMBLER]

I fished them Saturday and caught a lot of browns.  We just couldn't crack 10lbs.   Saturday was the first day the inside waters looked good off Sandy for the entire derby.  Good king bite definitely attributed to less brown fishing.  I didn't see a boat fishing browns in the 4 days I fished in the derby.  Last year like this year was a warmer than normal winter and two years in a row the brown fishing was not normal during the LOC.  Hmm.  On a good note, the browns I cut on Saturday, they were loaded with gobies and 3-4" alewife.  

[GAMBLER]

1 hour ago, Missdemeanor said:

I fished em most of the winter and Spring.... They are around... They happen to be smaller. The reason for that is ( my theory) is we are missing at least one year class. Year COVID... I remember getting a call from a lady who said she had a bunch of dead fish washed up on her beach in Greece and asked if I could come look at them. There were 100s of dead fingerling browns. Two days prior the DEC stocked them. How the fish Died is anyone's guess, however the lake had dropped 5 degrees in a day and the DEC was in a rush to stock due to government agencies closing down.  

     As far as catching.... Browns have adapted to the round Goby as everyone knows.. in areas where the alewife spawn hasn't started yet, they are still munching on those gobies. I caught a bunch of Browns in the Spring LOC, most were puking up Gobies.  All the browns we caught were released ( no stomach checks) except one ....and she had a big gobie in her gut.

    The size thing is a head scratcher.... But my feeling is, this will turn around as there are still  nice classes of fish out there.

 

    

   

The DEC stocked browns a couple weeks ago by my work.  For over a week, cormorants were pounding the area.  Not good!

[ifishy]

east wind on the first day screwed up the brown water for a portion of the derby beyond that having kings all over the lake defiantly drew people away from the browns.  

 

i did find a class of bigger browns a couple weeks before the derby and had multiple fish that would have been eligible as well so there are big browns out there they just benefitted from the conditions this year. With only 1 week and it being spring weather and conditions can really drive results.

[Gill-T]

Full disclosure, I have not fished for browns since March. Three trips, easy fishing and big fish in Niagara County. With the leading king in the low 20’s, everyone was trying for the money fish, especially with that brown leader on the board early. Still lots of browns being reported in the Niagara 

[AnglingAddict]

We fished them Saturday out of Oswego - had a 9.48 which was the biggest - my son thought it was over 10 when it hit the net - scaled it quick and it wasn't so he was bummed - already had visions of another youth LOC trophy for his trophy shelf in his room but it wasn't to be.  It seems like early April there were some better fish around on the east end - we also grabbed two around 7-8 pounds the rest all 3-4 pounders.  Landed around 18 BTs on Saturday.  Agree with what Rick said and I think a lot of folks are fishing kings - why wouldn't you at this point.  Its easy fishing right now and for us on the east end a rare spring time treat.  

[Gator]

Agree completely that kings send browns to the back of the line after stealing their lunch money. However, I wasn't aware that the king bite was so good out of Oswego, which is a traditional hotspot for BT. I did know that Matt and Brian both found numbers but no size...with the exception of one, of course lol. 

 

A 5 degree drop in temperature the day after stocking in 2020 would certainly be enough to decimate that year class. As for cormorants - isn't it more the norm than not these days? While I don't fish browns much, any decline in hallmarks of a healthy fishery gives me pause.

[FishingFool34]

The Kings showed up in Mexico mid-late April and I haven't touched my brown trout gear since then. Usually we are fishing BT in Mexico until mid-late May and catching some kings mixed in, but never specifically targeting them this early.

[AnglingAddict]

47 minutes ago, Gator said:

Agree completely that kings send browns to the back of the line after stealing their lunch money. However, I wasn't aware that the king bite was so good out of Oswego, which is a traditional hotspot for BT. I did know that Matt and Brian both found numbers but no size...with the exception of one, of course lol. 

 

A 5 degree drop in temperature the day after stocking in 2020 would certainly be enough to decimate that year class. As for cormorants - isn't it more the norm than not these days? While I don't fish browns much, any decline in hallmarks of a healthy fishery gives me pause.

4 man limits of kings in a few hours for the last month out of Oswego pretty much.....We were one of 2 boats fishing BTs to the west of Oswego on Saturday.  

[Gill-T]

Are you guys seeing bait in Oswego?

[716SportFishing]

We took this one out of olcott bouncing 16-17lb unfortunately no derby ticket. The fish was harvested and we counted 17 undigested alewives in its belly.