Fall Brown Trout are now in the Rivers and Harbors

Another Deer Season hunting the UP of Michigan has passed for me, which means back to my true love, fishing!  Took a ride out to the West Twin River over the weekend in search of some Great Lakes fall run Trout.  I knew the half inch of rain on Saturday would push some fish upriver, so I headed to Shoto.

I was pleasantly surprised upon arrival to see an empty parking lot.  I hopped into my waders, grabbed my gear, and headed down to the river to float spawn through some shallow pools with hopes of hooking up with a feisty trout.  It didn't take long for my bobber to disappear under the water, as a six pound male Brown Trout inhaled my Coho spawn sac!  After a brief battle in the strong currents, I landed the nice buck. 

The fish seemed to be very active right away in the morning, as I observed several Trout move upstream through rapids and shallow pools.  I tried a few other holes in the morning, losing 3 fish on bottom rods with spawn, since the fish were biting light and I was not close enough to my bottom rod when the fish would bite!  It almost seemed like the fish would wait for me to look away or walk a few feet from the pole before they would touch the spawn!

Around 8:00 my cousin showed up to fish as well, which was welcome company for me.  We fished the pools up by the dam with nothing to show, then headed down river to float spawn through more pools. 

It didn't take long to hookup with a pig of a  Brown Trout once downstream!  On the first drift through the pool my bobber once again sank below the surface and I was fighting a fish!  This fish had broader shoulders than the last however, as it quickly began taking line off my reel, heading downstream! 

After a 20 minute fight, my cousin was able to get a hold of this fish!  The fish was a female Brown full of eggs in the 15+ pound class!  After a couple pictures and milking of some spawn, we sent her on her way back to the lake! 

It was now Austin's turn to catch a Trout!  I showed him where I had caught the last fish and let him drift his spawn through the same area.  Within another 5 minutes, he was hooked up with another mammoth Brown Trout!  A 10 minute fight resulted in another monster female Brown Trout that was pushing 15 pounds!  This fish was also loaded with eggs!  Unfortunately during the unhooking of the fish, a gill was ripped which caused the fish to bleed out.  It will now be thrown on the smoker for some Holiday smoked fish!

Austin eventually landed another female Brown Trout later in the day, which was also in the same year class as the others!  I have never seen this many monster Trout in the rivers at the same time, which was pretty cool!  Overall the day was well worth our effort, as we were both able to catch a 15+ pound Trout, and also get enough Trout eggs to use for the entire winter!