Wanted browns, found bows!

[Hookmanski]

Recently I got a free day to do some trout fishing like I’ve been dying to do. So I went up to the northwestern most part of the state to look for some wild browns. I hopped around from stream, to river, back to stream and back to river again.

First spot I stopped was the flat brook, I tied on a spinner and on the third cast I scored an awesome rainbow. Around 18” and CHUNKY. In the range of 2-3 pounds, my biggest rainbow ever! I continued fishing on this stretch for an hour and a half without another bite. Went back to the hole I caught the big guy in to see if I could get another, when all of a sudden a fly angler appears out of the woods and walks directly into the hole I’m fishing. Can’t imagine the fish didn’t get spooked so I left that spot.

I moved to another stretch of the flatbrook that looked JUICY. Talked to a fly angler who was leaving, he caught nothing. I still had the spinner on so I started with that. I hooked into something and saw a flash of brown in the water, finally a brown! NOT! Much to my surprise, I pulled up a very large fallfish, my first one too! Had to be over 15”, which I read is rare for this species.

After throwing the spinner around awhile longer I decided to switch up lures. Everyone on this site talks about using plugs, and they day before I had bought a new one, so I tied it on and gave it some casts. I cast into a deep hole and saw a trout rise to the surface, he followed it for about 6 feet and then savagely turned on it and I was hooked up! Landed a small rainbow, possibly a wild one? Not sure. My first ever trout on a plug!

It was a fantastic day of fishing and I can’t wait to get back up there to try and find some browns. Anyone have tips on finding them? They would be much appreciated. Tight lines all!

[JDTuna]

Very nice, dude! Beautiful fish.

[Mikey topaz]

Those panther Martin spinners are deadly😉 nice job

[FASTEDDIE29]

Great looking fish man! Glad you caught a few! Man those Browns can be hard to find! You just have to keep walking and exploring til you find em!

[Drossi]

Nice fish!

I'd peg that 2nd bow as a holdover from spring stocking. Cool fish.

15" fallfish is a prize That's a beast. I've gotten a few pushing that in more remote sections of the Rockaway. The big D has some giants as well.

[AndyS]

Very nice !! I've gone a little nutty on treble hooks for C&R trout, call me a whack job for encouraging those to go barbless. I dunno, I'm on the single hook jig thing so it's not all that bad, just hate seeing FW fish with a head full of treble hooks sticking out all over the place. Talked to a few about SMB and they all went barbless on the trebles.