5 Tips for Catching Monster Brook Trout: Advice from - Tyler Christensen
Written B: Tyler Christensen
Fly fishing has a way of transforming hobbies and careers, as demonstrated by Critty's unique journey into the sport. Born from a mix of family tradition, personal challenges, and a touch of serendipity, Critty's story showcases how a passion for fly fishing can develop in unexpected ways
What are your top five tips for catching monster brook trout, and what makes each tip effective?
Find the fish. In my experience, Brook Trout tend to group up fairly heavily. If you can find one fish, you can usually find multiple.
They like the bottom of the lake. A majority of the larger Brooks I've caught have been sitting right on the bottom. Make sure you have an effective method for checking depths, and fish the right areas.
As I mentioned earlier, my success for Brook Trout has been much higher when I take off the strike indicator. Whether this is something to do with the action of the fly, and them just liking the nature of the fly falling naturally. Or an actual aversion to the bobber, I am unsure.
Fishing log jams and inlets. This seems like an extremely obvious tip, but it's obvious for a reason. Fish like cool and oxygen-rich water, as well as cover from predators.
Shared behavior. Tying in with the first tip, Brook Trout can almost be like a hive mind. With big schools of fish grouped up, and keying in on a lot of the same things. If you happen to catch a fish doing something, take note of it and expand upon it.
About : Tyler Christensen
What initially drew you to fly fishing, and how did that early interest develop into the passion you have today?
Fly fishing was definitely something that I adopted a bit later in life. My family has always been big into the outdoors with lots of hunting and fishing, but didn't have any experience with fly fishing growing up. Coming out of college I ended up having a shoulder injury that ended my baseball career and left me looking for new hobbies. Me and my brother and my friends began fishing more and more, starting out with bait fishing for catfish, to spinner fishing some smaller streams and lakes. We were hooked and wanted to experience fishing as a sport to its fullest. Through plenty of Youtube videos and some coworkers, we got into the fly fishing game. After a few unsuccessful attempts on local rivers, the first fish I landed on the fly was actually at Pyramid Lake in Nevada, accompanied by my aforementioned coworker who had been going to the lake for several years. Once I got that first bobber down, I haven't looked back since.
Can you share a memorable experience or story related to your efforts in catching large brook trout?
Me and my brother (@gbag1402 on instagram) had an extremely memorable day this spring chasing big brookies. We started the day with plans to try a few different lakes and pulled up to some extremely full trailheads on some small alpine lakes, and didn't want to risk any combat fishing, so we decided to formulate a new plan to hit a lake we had tried without much success in previous years. This was in early May, and there was still plenty of snow in the alpine. We were reminded of this fact when we got to where the road forked and branched off toward the Brookie lake we wanted to fish. Snow was blocking the road that was already rough enough driving even without adverse weather. We decided to try and hike in from the truck. After about 3 hours and some brutal hiking through knee deep snow, we arrived at the lake, expecting it could all be in vain and still capped with ice. Fortunately, there was about 15 feet of open water between the ice shelf and the shore on a good portion of the lake. The fish were hungry from several months under the ice, and we ended up crushing fish from our first cast to our last.
How do you prepare for a successful brook trout fishing trip, and what strategies or gear do you find indispensable?
Big brook trout can be particularly picky, so I typically go into the day with several ideas in mind. But at the end of the day, there are a few places you can start for figuring out most fish, trout/char particularly. Log jams and inlets are a great place to start. In my experience brookies do not like strike indicators at all. I have had much more success just tight lining, or stripping. Typical suspects are usually small midges, and lots and lots of leeches.
