Elusive Fall Brown Trout

September teases fly anglers with a hint of fall weather. With cooler nights, the water temperatures usher in a new opportunity for those anglers that have been anticipating the fall dry fly bite. More importantly, the “Salmo Trutta,” more commonly known as the brown trout, start to show up in greater numbers just ahead of the fall spawning cycle.

September will quickly fade into October, which, for some anglers is an opportunity to catch that elusive brown trout

that always seemingly disappears every summer. With a stunning, red kissed adipose fin and buttery golden brown body with red dots outlined perfectly in white, brown trout start to aggressively feed in anticipation of spawning activities.

This time of the year larger brown trout can be seen vacating their bomb shelters in search of good meals, needed to build stamina and strength that will carry them thru post spawn. Brown trout will feed aggressively, making this a great time to drift your favorite fall pattern. The timing of the October Caddis hatch could not be anymore perfect! Throwing large dries for browns is nothing short of amazing!

Often, you can observe females making a bed in the tail end of a run, or riffle, where the water is shallow and flow is adequate enough to keep the redd, a small trench where the female has scooped out gravel and sand with its tail, oxygenated. Males will wait patiently until the female is ready to deposit her eggs. At this point, they do what males and females do, and magically the eggs become fertilized. The females will cover the eggs, and, hopefully, later we will have many little brown trout to keep the cycle going.

During the spawning process males and females do not feed. The male will protect the female and her eggs by striking at anything that could be a potential threat.

Post spawn brown trout will begin feeding again, but don’t expect it will be easy. These browns didn’t get big by accident. The big browns have a knack for knowing when to feed safely, avoiding all threats. They say fall is for hunting, and that is exactly how you should approach that brown trout, if you want any chance of netting an alfa male brown trout.

As you are loading your fly box with a few October Caddis, Orange Stimulators, Girdle Bugs, Woolly Buggers, Soft Hackles, and Egg patterns don’t loose sight of natures beauty. Crisp mornings with sunlight dancing off the frosted golden yellow and crimson red leaves makes for the perfect backdrop to loose yourself and get away from everyday problems.