5 Tips for Catching Golden Trout | Proven Techniques for High Altitude Success
With : bulletproofbugs
What are your top 5 tips for successfully catching golden trout, from choosing the right flies to effective techniques on the water?
This is a tricky one, because big Golden Trout are so hard to pattern correctly. What I mean when I say that is that they have patterns that are sometimes unpredictable compared to other trout. First of all, they typically live at a high altitude, so their food sources look different than many other trout. They also are heavily effected by the weather at these high altitude lakes, and so they might be in 4 feet of water one day, and 25 feet of water the next! At the end of the day, here are the 5 things that I think will best help anglers catch more Goldens.
Get in shape!
This sounds self explanatory, but if you’re not able to hike to a lake that has Golden Trout, you won’t catch them. Google is a great resource for finding areas and lakes that hold them, but one of the most consistent parts of fishing for Golden Trout is that they live in areas that are hard to access. They typically live at high elevations and remote locations. If you can’t make that hike, you won’t find them, simple as that. The best training for hiking is….. hiking! Get out there and put some miles on the boots, and before you know it you’ll be catching some sweet Golden Trout.
2. Timing is everything!
Golden trout are fickle, and the weather at the elevation they live at is even more fickle. My favorite time to target goldens is a couple weeks after the lakes ice out continuing into early August. At ice out, they patrol the shallows looking for food after a long winter. They’re more accessible to anglers when they are in shallower water feeding heavily. I never have much luck fishing late in the year, but some lakes are known to fish great later in the season.
3. Fish the right flies
The lakes that Goldens live in tend to have a limited amount of food species because of the extreme environmental conditions existing at high altitudes. This means they can get very keyed into a specific food source because they see it so much and are “programmed” to recognize it as food. I’ve found that Chironomids, Scuds, Caddis, and Daphnia / Zooplankton make up the majority of the diet of most Golden trout in high altitude lakes. My favorite flies are a large orange scud with some flash, and a small Snowcone ASB Chironomid. I seem to do well with these patterns. If you run into a population that eats a lot of Daphnia and Zooplankton, all I can say is good luck haha. Sometimes a “Blob” style fly can look like a clump of these tiny food items. A very small bright orange, pink, or red chironomid can also look like these tiny food sources.
4. Fish the “Reaction Eat”
I’m not entirely sure why, but Goldens seem to be very motivated by instinct. A size 6 orange scud looks nothing like actual food, but will often get eaten in lakes that often don’t have any scuds at all. Also, an orange scud is a dead scud, so when anglers strip an orange scud, it looks nothing like anything that these fish are used to seeing. However, I seem to catch a lot of Goldens on large orange and red flies that are stripped VERY fast. Like as fast as I can possibly move them. I think they see the color and movement, and take a reactionary bite. I’d love to talk to a biologist that knows more about why they do this, but all I can say is that I’ve had many times where Goldens will pay no attention to a perfectly presented food source, but will lash out angrily at a stripped orange fly that resembles nothing that they are used to eating.
5. Go out and try! Embrace the skunk.
This sounds obvious, but if you never get on the water, you’ll never catch fish! If you’re always worried about skunking and not finding fish, you’ll never end up finding them and catching them. Be willing to take a risk and explore! Don’t be afraid to take a long hike and end up finding no fish. You don’t see it on Instagram, but part of finding big Goldens is hiking a ton and ending up with a big fat skunk. It’s part of what makes it fun! Get out and make it happen!
About: Brighton
Brighton, what inspired you to start fly fishing, and how has your journey evolved over the years?
When I was 6 or 7 years old, I can remember my grandpa taking me spin fishing in his backyard pond for some stocked rainbow trout. I fell in love instantly with fishing, and I looked forward to it whenever we visited him. Nobody in my immediate family fishes or fly fishes at all, and my grandpa only occasionally spin fished. Because I was the only one interested in fishing, I would go to the library with my mom and check out all the fishing books I could haha. I feel bad for anyone that wanted to check them out because I swear I always had the whole section at my house. I remember coming across fly fishing in several books, and I became infatuated with the idea of it. For a couple years I couldn’t do much to follow this interest, but I remember being 9 or 10 years old and finding an old fiberglass fly rod and reel combo on Craigslist for 15$. I remember begging my dad to drive me to this guys house, where I bought the rod and reel with birthday money. I used it to fish for panfish at a neighborhood pond, and when I could convince my dad to take me up a local canyon, I had a great time not catching any trout haha. I think I skunked the first 5 or 6 times I went trout fly fishing, but it didn’t matter, I loved it! Shortly after getting that first fly rod, I got a simple fly tying kit for Christmas. I remember pouring over fly tying books and trying to learn everything I could. I owe a lot of thanks to the “In The Riffle” YouTube channel, which taught me a ton of my initial tying skills. One fun fact is that because I taught myself to tie flies, I started fly tying wrapping my thread towards myself, and I still do it today! Although it might be the “wrong direction” I personally feel it gives me a better view of the thread compressing around materials, and occasionally I meet someone that does the same!
As time went on, my fly fishing and tying journey evolved and grew, and when I could drive, I started fishing as much as I could. Now, I tie flies commercially for a living, and I love it! I fish as much as I possibly can, and often at night. The thrill of darkness, the edge of fear, and the feeling of unknown is unique, and I find out a lot about myself in the quiet darkness, chasing after big fish with big appetites!
Can you share a particularly memorable moment from your fly fishing adventures that had a significant impact on you?
My first two foot male brown trout will ALWAYS hold a special place in my heart. I spent several days stalking the same fish by my work and living place in Wyoming. It would feed on dries every afternoon in summer, seemingly unbothered by the world around it. I had to fish for it from an upstream quartering down angle, and it made a good hook set super hard. I either broke off or missed the hookset several times before I learned the importance of heavy tippet for big trout. I drifted an unweighted size 16 pheasant tail to him, and watched him move slightly and open his mouth. With a light hookset he took off upstream, and then rocketed straight back downstream. I chased him for about 50 yards when he ran into the lake that the tiny stream fed into. It was much easier to fight the fish when he was in the deep open lake, and after a short fight, I was able to net him. I was shaking like a leaf haha, and I remember throwing a whole celebration and yelling at the top of my lungs hahaha. After a quick picture, I quickly released him and he shot off into the deep. I’ll never forget that fish, and it started my addiction of chasing big browns!
How has your approach to fly fishing changed as you’ve gained more experience, and what lessons have you learned along the way?
Because when I first started fly fishing I was learning from books and videos, most of my knowledge was very much mainstream. I spent a long time getting a perfect drift with small nymphs, and caught a lot of fish that way. As I fished more and more, I realized that big fish get big by eating lots of calories, and preserving energy by not moving when they don’t have to. This led me to fish more and more leeches, eggs, jig streamers, scuds, and other “high calorie” flies. I also started studying the types of water and different bodies of water that held bigger fish. I’d say that now, my approach is pretty unorthodox, and I’m always willing to try new things to find big feeding fish! Whether it’s fishing a nymph traditionally, moving a jig streamer on a 15 foot level fluorocarbon leader through a deep winter hole, or even fishing size 16 flies in the pitch black night, I am obsessed with trying new things and expanding my knowledge and experience of fly fishing. To me, the pursuit of knowledge and different fishing styles and tactics is what keeps me interested and engaged in the sport. You can never “finish” or “complete” or “win” fly fishing, and that’s my favorite part about it. That 10 year old kid at the library is still down there, and he definitely comes out every time I learn something new or fool a tricky fish in a unique way.
Brighton, what role does your knowledge of entomology play in your fly fishing techniques and success?
It plays a huge role in my fishing! Trout don’t have a big brain. It’s the size of a pea! Most times, fish aren’t “smart” like we say, they are just accustomed to their environment. Trout follow biomass and calories, and all we need to do as anglers is follow that same biomass, and present a replica of it to the fish. I’ve seen pods of 24 inch fish all keyed on PMD emergers, and when they recognize that biomass as part of their environment, and they condition their brain to prioritize that food source, they’re unlikely to take something else. I’ve also found the same fish that are feeding opportunistically on a wide range of food sources, and they don’t care what fly you fish as long as it’s within reason, and presented in a way that they recognize as food. Understanding the biomass that trout prioritize is CRITICAL to fishing success, and Entomology is a huge part of that. Learn the food sources that trout love, find where they feed and how they feed, and you’ll catch fish! I would say that I don’t typically focus on the specific entomology as much as I focus on the actual fish. If it’s important to the fish, it’s important to me!
