Large Wild Brown Trout

Richard Baker 6 · Jan 25, 2006

A friend of mine has been fishing an undisclosed, unstocked section of the river Itchen for Grayling this last couple of months. In this time (using worms) he has caught a number of huge, wild brown trout. All in excess of 3lbs, the largest a shade over 7lbs. I thought these fish were exceptional, but it appears rivers may hold a few more of these fish than we think.

Anglers fishing the edisford Hall beat of the Ribble for Chub in inter have had brownies over 4 lbs on bread. The fly fishers like me get fish no where near this size in summer.

I'm beginning to think a lot more large brownies exist in our rivers that I originally thought. Its occured to me though that to get that big they're probably not feeding on nymphs and olives etc. More like crayfhish, juvenile fry etc.

Having just read the Chalkstream book by Charles Rangley Wilson (giving accounts of all the major and minor chalkstreams in England) it seems these large trout were historically more common than we thought?

Have our light line foy fishing tactics on rivers with tiny flies conditioned us to beleive that anything over 2lbs is absolutely huge when they may be small compared to whats really out there.

Your thoughts?

jason fisher · Jan 25, 2006

the thames produces the odd one every year to coarse anglers, the first wild brownie i ever saw was one of just over 3lb caught by my then 11 year old step daughter from the windrush on single maggot.
dont worry it was returned alive.
i also know of them up to 7lb coming from differing areas of the thames again all to coarse fishermen.

back in the 1920's -30's there was a rverend in oxford who regularly caught them over 10lb.

Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA-Life Member) · Jan 25, 2006

I have caught wild brownies on the Don near Mexborough whilst roach fishing. They were only about a pound.

Richard Baker 6 · Jan 25, 2006

I should add that the broenies from the Itchen were deffo not stockies. They were asolutely imaculate with full fins etc. Plus I don't think anyone on the Itchen stocks browns of that size. They're simply too expensive.

If these Browns do exist what techniques should we be using on the fly to try and tempt them? streamers?

Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA-Life Member) · Jan 25, 2006

Probably so Rich.

Such fish are very likely to be purely fish eaters.

However some very big wild browns were taken years ago by **** Walker and Frank Guttfield on the Hertfordshire streams using large moth imitations late in the evening.

jason fisher · Jan 25, 2006

even mr nellist has had them from the thames.
cant remember what bait he was using on the day in question.

though worm must be worth a try.

CAT · Jan 25, 2006

I think you must switch on to the food the Big Brownies are feeding on to stand a chance of catching them, once they get over 3lb in weight they get thier heads down and feed mainly on crustaceans snails and fry, you would be lucky to catch such a grown on fish on a dry fly unless it was during a substantial hatch like May Fly or Sedge something in great numbers that stimulates the Bigger Trout to surface feed without that they very seldom bother with Dry flies.
Daphnia and Blood Worm are hard to imitate but fished deep can produce good results it has on Toft Newton for me.

fishy pete · Jan 25, 2006

lip hooked minnow in the right location?
minkie,or similar flowing fry type pattern allowed to swing round in flow....and then left to hover for a second in tail of pool?

Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA-Life Member) · Jan 25, 2006

Heyup Cat,

I have caught some big brownies on huge locust imitations fished dry in the late evening.

Trouble is, we don't get locusts in Britain.

Richard Baker 6 · Jan 25, 2006

Fishing my local river Tame in saddleworth with the fly last year I accounted for a good few browns to about 12 ounces. A reasonable fish for such a small river where a 1lber is huge...

My brother who only fishes occasionally fished the same pools behind me an accounted for a brace of 2lbers. Bait, a live minnow on stepped down pike float tackle.

I had no idea these fish were there. They must have seen god knows how many flies and just ignored them. I'd certainly covered them with mine.

Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA-Life Member) · Jan 25, 2006

I have fished a small stream in Derbyshire about two years ago where the browns averaged 5 oz or so.

They used to fight amongst themselves to get to a dry fly.

I haven't fished there recently because the fish are just too easy.

CAT · Jan 25, 2006

You have just reminded me of something Ron, when Ladybower was run properly by Severn Trent stocking quality fish from proper fish farms and not piss head Parnell and his fin-less wonders he calls fish, we used to fish it all the time and in the summer we used to spend an hour catching crickets i used to super glue them to the hook it was a bit tricky some times just lightly hooking them and fish them from the boat i had quiet a few fish like that but i have never used them anywhere else, but the banks of Ladybower were covered in the little buggers especially near the road in the dry grass.

Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA-Life Member) · Jan 25, 2006

By the way Cat one of the best bloodworm imitations I have used is Arthur Cove's Red Diddy and **** Walker's Rubber Band Fly.

I've also done well on a simple fly with a dubbed red seals fur body and a tail of red marabou fibres. Adding a gold head makes this a good point fly.

As regards Ladybower. Yes I truly wish fishery managers would stop stocking with crap fish. Typical are fish crammed into cages and reared that way.

And I wish a lot of trout anglers would consider quality rather than quantity and the necessity to "Bag Up"

Come and try Thrybergh this coming spring. It's not that easy to "Bag Up" but the fish quality is second to none.

Ian Whittaker · Jan 25, 2006

Richard , I'll bet those big browns are nocturnal. It must be something in their genetic makeup. One or two must have come out on the big fly in the dark hours whilst sea trouting.Its not something the locals would shout about is it?

Matthew harvey · Jan 25, 2006

I had a 4lb Brownie out of the Thames last year on a 4inch roach deadbait intended for pike/zander and witnessed the capture of one in the same area very recently that went 6.5lbs on pellet.

Richard Baker 6 · Jan 25, 2006

I'm glad I'm getting these sort of responses, its clear that there are a few more of these trout about than most people give credit for.

I think Fly fishing has got so purist (E.G light tackle, small flies) that the size of fish we regularly target is relatively small.

I'm convinced there are a lot more of these big fish around than people suspect.

Again if you read historical accounts of trout fishing people would often fish for the normal sized trout on fly tackle, then get out minow live baiting tackle totry for the biggies. I wish we had the opportunity to try this out on a few of our rivers at the right time of year.

NT · Jan 25, 2006

There is also a theory of a 'big fish day'. If the conditions are right then the big come up and can be caught - sometimes before a thunderstorm, a lot of big brown are caught. I have caught my biggest fish to date from Stocks, an 8lb brownie on the morning in this conditions. The owner was saying a LOT of big browns get caught in at these times.

Using big flies like moths at night is also said to work. I have no evidence but have heard a tale where one chap caught lots of big 3lb+ brownies on a streetlit section of river at night.

I think its finding the very deep lies and getting down to the fish to be in with a chance of catching them. Again another story about a frenchman fishing a flooded river caught when no-one else did using flies weighted with 3 or more goldbeads. Most of the grayling talks I have heard agree that more heavily weighted flies make all the difference.

Neil.

CAT · Jan 25, 2006

I find the fact that an imminent thunder storm stirs the Big Fish into becoming active feeders and aggressive fascinating, because i allways used to do very well on Linacre Resivoir when it rained hard, especially after a hot spell, the fish seemed to come alive i allways put it down to oxygen that the rain put into the water got them going, with this in mind maybe they sense the immanent down pour and switch on.
Makes you think!

Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA-Life Member) · Jan 25, 2006

Funnily enough the vast majority of big browns (fish over 5 lbs) I have caught in my life have come to Boobies and Rasputins fished on short leaders over deep water.

On one occasion I caught a 4 pounder (wild fish) from a lake at 6000 feet next to where the feeder stream entered. The fish took a large deer hair suggestion of a brown locust fished dry.

The fish, amongst many fry had a large Clawed Toad (Xenopus laevis) in its gut.

The most incredible brown trout was a 3 pounder I took on a Church Fry about 20 years ago. As I opened its mouth to remove the hook, I noticed a tail. I pulled it and out came a young rat that was not quite dead!

Brown trout can be incredibly aggressive and at times attack and eat the most remarkable prey.

Years ago I watched a video clip where a number of brown trout - working together, tore a black necked cobra (Ringhals) apart on a Natal river. It was The Bushmans River I think, which has had a self propogating population of brown trout since they were stocked in 1896.

Frank Guttfield hooked and lost an estimated double figure brown trout fishing the Upper Ivel in the late 50s on a mouse. Whether or not the mouse was alive at the time I do not know.

Matthew harvey · Jan 26, 2006

Ron,

You've been here too long squire.

The Bushmans is in between E London and PE - hopefully be fishing it or one of its neighbours in March ;o)

Matt

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