Big Brown Trout

  • Thread starter Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA-Life Member)
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Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA-Life Member)

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I am trying to ressurrect some interest in one of the most fascinating and magnificent British species of the lot.

The big brown trout of stillwaters.

By big I mean anything over 8 lbs. And it gets even better when the fish reach 15lbs!!

Such fish are avid predators. Many are grown on from small brown trout stocked years ago. Some are decendants of true wild brown trout that have become resident in some of the reserviors from the feeder streams. Carsington Water in Derbyshire is an example. Rutland water had many browns stocked in the early days.

A brown trout lives a long time, up to 25 years.

Catching these fish is a specialised branch of fly fishing. The fish live in deep areas, yet move into shallows to hunt for food in the early morning and evening.

A big brown thinks nothing of swallowing a stocky rainbow of 12 inches long!

Yet they can be caught, on fly tackle too.

And what is truly marvellous about persuing these fish is that a big one will not attract The Circus!

The vast majority of circus anglers do not have the skill or watercraft to hunt big browns. Most of them can't cast, let alone tie the specialist patterns needed. But most of all, the circus will not be able to use their standard set up. The six big "Bs"

Boilies with Boltrigs, Baitrunners, Bite Alarms, Bivvies, and Bivvie Slippers! What will hit them for six is when they find they have to stay awake to catch anything!

Why not become part one of the last frontiers of specimen angling in Britain.

The Ultimate Prize - A big brownie.
 
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ED (The ORIGINAL and REAL one)

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Now we won't be able to get a place for our fish-in in April ---There won't be any room left on the waters .
 
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davestocker

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Come and try the Cumbrian lakes. The fishing is frequently free, and I even heard of a brownie of around 15lb coming out of Crummock Water early in the spring, by a guy spinning from the bank a few years ago. But a boat is a real necessity.
 
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Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA-Life Member)

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That is a heck of a distance for me Dave.

The distance where the pleasure I get from the visit is ruined by the hell on earth of driving on British roads is about 50 miles max.
 
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Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA-Life Member)

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Big brownies have existed in the large reservoirs Murray, especially Rutland, many of which were stocked as fingerlings.

That's as near as dammit to a wild brownie you will ever get and a whole world of difference to a large pellet fed brownie stocked into small puddles like Dever that can never sustain their weight.

In 1987 I hooked a whopping great brown at the bottom end of the South Arm on Rutland.

My boat partner and myself had a clear look at the fish. He put it down at 10lbs plus. I have never been so dissapointed at losing a fish in my life when it shot into a dense weedbed. I can still see it now. I dreamt for ages about that magnificant specimen.

These large browns are truly magnificent fish
 
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James Kinnear

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The only "problem" with big browns is you have to put in the hours to get them, and you are more likly to get them in Scottish lochs than English waters, although i would like to see the results you would get if you were allowed to troll on places like Rutland and Grafham with downriggers and other ways of getting to these big fish.
They probably spend most of thier life never seeing a lure, and if some poor unfortunate does hook one on standard fly tackle it would probably just smash him in seconds.

cheers........james.
 
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madpiker

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a bank angler piking at chew valley,had one of 10lb 12oz on a deadbait!
i also know of a fly caught double from there last summer @10lbs plus.
i feel that the ultimate challenge in trout fishing,is to try and catch one of those ferox browns from loch awe,lomond etc.
i`ve seen a cast of a 25lber on the wall in the bar at ardbrecknish guest house loch awe.and a mate of mine saw an angler boat a 30!!!!!!when he was on one of his loch awe trips.
what an amazing fish!
 
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Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA-Life Member)

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Make no mistake If I had the time, and most of the the sheer amount of money needed to get the right boat with all the goodies needed to locate these fish, I would give it a go.

Loch Awe did hold the brown trout record many years ago. A fish of 39lbs.

That was some fish make no mistake but it was taken off the lists due to insufficient proof.

As regards landing such fish on fly tackle, I reckon any decent angler will have a good chance using an 8 or 9 weight rod with an extension butt, a large reel with plenty of backing, a 12lb leader and a fish imitating lure tied to size 4 or 6 double salmon irons.

Another way, if it was allowed, is to use a dead fish, say a trout of about a pound, floating on the surface at night or in the early evening.

And lets not forget dry flies. I have caught a few decent sized wild browns in my life using thundering great moth or locust imitations fished into evening near feeder stream on high altitude lakes.

I don't think "Ferox" trout are a sub species. They are brown trout that have grown up in a certain way due to the amount of food available. Food such as char or salmon parr, or even large stocks of coarse fish that are found in many of the big reservoirs.

It's a shame, but many of these huge trout probably die of old age and never feel a hook in their lives.
 
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Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA-Life Member)

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By the way the British brown trout record was a 31lb 12oz fish taken by Brian Rutland from Loch Awe on 15th March 2002

look at Google under British trout record.

or: http://fishing-argyll.co.uk/catches/2002/record_brownie.htm

I seem to remember that this fish was NOT reported in the national weeklies. Why I shall never know. It was one of the most sensational specimens taken during the past 10 years!
 
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madpiker

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that 31 was the fish that my mate saw ron,and there is talk of a 35 recently among the locals.
 
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Frank "Chubber" Curtis

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There used to be a cased brown trout of 12lb in the "Bull at Downton" pub. I believe it was taken from the Avon many, many years ago.
 
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Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA-Life Member)

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The classic big brown trout of course were those of the Thames. Years ago, many articles were written on how to catch them, mainly in weirpools.

The Hertfordshire streams such as the Hit, Ivel, Oughton and Flit, also held a few huge browns. Frank Guttfield mentions them in his great little book - In Search of Big Fish". He even hooked one on a mouse!

The problem with these huge browns on many preserved river trout fisheries is that they eat small trout in perhaps greater numbers than pike. So river keepers have waged outright war on these big fish using all sorts of engines of destruction.
 
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Kevin Perkins

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Ron

I infrequently fish on the Thames weirpools, in the vain hope of latching on to one of these legendary monsters. Although I don't get to fish them anywhere near as often as I would like, I am always assured of getting a place to fish, because, as you say, fishing for trout is bloody hard work! If you are spinning (my preferred method)then you can only tempt fish when your bait is in the water, which means being active the whole time - not a method that will appeal to an awful lot of 'specimen hunters' I'm afraid.

Another problem on the weirpools is getting your bait past the hordes of 4-5lb chub and mid double pike, if the 2lb perch don't get there first - really is annoying!
 
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stuart clough

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Ron, you seem to be suggesting (correct me if I am wrong) that catching these magnificent specimens on fly gear is somehow more meritous than catching them on any other tackle or technique.

If so, is this not the same as catching them with one hand tied behind your back/blindfolded/ on 2lb line??

Surely the use of watercraft and application of the most appropriate tackle for the situation should be the aim?
 
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davestocker

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Anyone heard of Ron Greer? He wrote an excellent book about fishing for the geninely wild ferox trout, which I read some few years ago. I once saw him speak at an angling association meeting and he was one of the funniest speakers I've ever seen. The overall message for those who want to catch monster wild brownies is that they are highly unpredictable, so you simply have to put the hours in.
 
Mark Wintle

Mark Wintle

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John Searl has had some very big brown trout on the Avon below Salisbury, fish around 10lbs. they are certainly rare fish.

Many years ago Shearwater lake near Longleat held fish to 15lbs. I had one on double caster of 8-2 circa 1981.

But to be honest Ron, 99.9% of anglers will never see one never mind catch one.
 
Neneman Nick

Neneman Nick

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On the road to rack & ruin !!!
ron,one thing that i have always wondered about these huge trout i have seen and read about...some weighing nearly 20lbs....do they make good eating like the smaller sized ones that most folk are more accustomed to catching???
i`m also presuming that a restaraunt would pay handsomely for one of these leviathons???
 
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CAT

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Nick that's a bloody good question mate i personally think it all depends on whether the fish has been grown in some stew ponds and used as breeding stock for a fish farm then put in, to get some publicity, these fish are just eating pellets and swimming in circles all day that's enough to put me off eating them, but they taste about the same.

I personally like to know that the fish i eat is a grown on fish with plenty of mother nature running through it, just knowing that it has had time to live as a wild fish makes them taste better to me.
 
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jonathan warrener

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I wonder how a trout lives long enough to get that big, cos in my limited experience of the things, a small trout is possibly the stoopidist fish that swims!
 
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