Brown Trout Fishing

Ausable Trout

When brown trout fishing, too many trout is not usually the problem. This time was different. “I’ll get those small trout out of the way for you,” Jack said with a grin.

We were brown trout fishing the West Branch of the Ausable River, near Wilmington, New York, and things were getting a bit dicey. Let’s face it, a 13-inch brook trout isn’t small anywhere, and a whole pod of them were actively rising around us. Mixed in were the rise forms of some large brown trout. I was trying for one in particular. He was rising like clockwork every five or six seconds and, for once, I seemed to be doing everything right. My casts were flawless, floats drag free, and the fly pattern what the fish wanted.

Every time my fly drifted near the big brown, however, a “small” trout would hit it---either a brookie in the 11-14-inch range, or a brown about 15 inches.

Now don’t get me wrong. Normally while brown trout fishing I’d be happy as a clam in mud with fish like those. But there were those big browns rising…..

Browns trout of any size tend to be nocturnal and cannibalistic---feeding on baitfish and other mouthsfull. So it’s rare enough for them to be feeding in daylight, let alone actively rising to surface bugs.

But why not? None of this should have been happening in the first place. It was August; a time when insect hatches should be sporadic at best. Instead, we were into the third day of some massive mixed hatches---as many as four mayfly duns hatching, two different spinners, a stonefly, and maybe a caddis or three. I’d never seen anything quite like it before when brown trout fishing.

The water, as usual at this time of year, was low and on the warm side; the days were bright and sunny. No fish should have been rising at all, let alone trophy browns.

August is a time for Tricos early in the morning, and large hair-body drys just at, and after dark---when the big browns normally come out to play. The Ausable Wulff, first tied just upstream a bit by Fran Better, specifically for these night-time cannibals, can be especially effective.

The West Branch is primarily a brown trout fishery. There are numerous rainbows and brookies because the state has a very active stocking program. But, as every notable angler has repeated since Ray Bergman noted it more than a half-century ago, there are more big browns in the West Branch than in any other New York stream you can name.

We were brown trout fishing on Jerry Bottcher’s private water, about a mile of river he controls below Wilmington---Friend Wife, Jack Smith, Jerry, and me. But even Bottcher was in awe of the brown trout fishing this August evening. He’d arrived a little later than the rest of us, and was standing on the bank watching. “My God,” he exclaimed. “There are at least 40 big fish working this stretch.”

“Well,” I responded, releasing yet another 14 incher, “Get your waders down here and help us with these small ones.

The stretch we were brown trout fishing was only 35 or so yards long, and we decided to rest it while waiting for Jerry. That’s when Jack noticed yet another spinner on the water. Running size #20 or #22 (can anyone really tell the difference when they get that small?), it had a yellowish-red body, and seemed to be what the browns preferred.

Jack started frantically tearing through his boxes looking for a match. Me, I just smiled. More by luck than design, I still had some of my Pennsylvania limestone creek boxes in a back pocket of my vest. And in one of the compartments, in one of those boxes, were some White Fly spinners. Their body color was practically an exact match of those on the water. The rest---as they say---was almost anticlimactic.

As Jerry waded toward us I tied on one of the spinners. Just as he reached us I gave an almost lazy flick to the four-weight rod. The fly curled out, alighting three feet above the big brown and floated down, drag free, over, and then below, its lie. The big German must have been drifting with it, because almost two feet below the lie it struck. I struck back. And the fight was on.

I can’t say for sure how long the battle raged. When you’re using #20 flies and 8X tippets, and there’s a big fish on the other end, nothing happens very fast. Not if you expect to land it. Jack and Friend Wife each caught three or four “small” fish in the time I had him on. And it had gone from dusk to full dark by the time I brought him to net---19 inches of golden-hued brown trout; a perfect ending to a perfect three days of brown trout fishing on New York’s Ausable River.

Of course, it doesn’t always happen like this. The West Branch can be moody. And, for first timers especially, it resembles a western stream, and often has to be fished that way.

The West Branch actually is a series of different rivers. Rising outside of Lake Placid, in the shadow of the Olympic Ski Jump, it first resembles a wide meadow stream with deep, slow-moving pools and gentle riffles. Soon enough it forms a series of long flats until it hits Monument Falls. Below the falls it becomes more of a mountain stream, forming a series of riffles, pools, and occasional flats, until it reaches the famous Flume Pool, after which it takes its second major drop.

Below this point the West Branch consists of some deep pools separated by short stretches of pocket water, until backing up behind the Wilmington Dam.

Below the dam the river is mostly pocket water and a couple of miles of long runs, before turning into forest lands. From there, until it meets the East Branch, it’s all pocket water and brawling plunge pools. Here are some of the more famous stretches: Sheep Bend Pool, Slant Rock Pool, and Bushey Hole---the largest pool on the river. There is no easy access; you have to hike in and the water can be dangerous to wade, so you’re better off, the first few times at least, brown trout fishing the water upstream.

Generally speaking, hatches on the Ausable trail those on Catskill streams by about two weeks, though there are special circumstances requiring local knowledge. I’ve never seen mahogany duns on the southern streams, for instance, but they can be common on the Ausable. And, for summer fishing, the Ausable Wulff, fished at night, has a tradition all its own.