Out here in Central Canada we lack the pristine mountain streams of the west and lack the beautiful spring fed creeks of the east. Here we have lakes, and LOTS of them! Over 100,000 to give ya a ball park idea. These range from deep, cold, very unfertile lakes which hold northern pike and lake trout, to very fertile, shallow lakes which are bass, walleye, and crappie havens! Trout, besides lake trout, are not native to our area until you get to the far north where Brook Trout fill the rivers. Unfortunately we don't have roads that go to the far north so they require a couple hour flight and once you're there, you're on your own! Just you and the wolves.
But, throughout the province, fisheries has teamed up with various organizations to aerate lakes and do testing to determine which lakes are suitable to house trout. These lakes are stocked annually and with the help of an aerator, the trout are able to survive for several years! They feed on scuds (freshwater shrimp), minnows, dragonfly larvae, chironomids (midge pupae), damselfly larvae, backswimmers and boatmen, leeches, and various other aquatic life.
My favorite trout obviously is the brown trout, and I like the big ones. The meaner, the badder, the better. I've adapted some fly patterns to targetting these guys and here's a few that work well for me here.
Colours orange and brown, with a hint of flash seem to be the deadliest.
"Hot Butt Peanut Butter Cup" - a brown/orange leech style pattern, size 8. It uses squirrel zonker strip for the wing and wrapped to make a collar.
"The Big Dirty" - best for low light situations later in the spring and fall. I tied a glass rattle in it to ramp up the aggravation level in this fly.
"Deerhair Minnow" - a surface fly that I use for working shallow or deep structure. I've adapted this techniques from bass fishing and it has proven to be killer on browns! You "pop" the fly with a 1 or 2 second pause in between. I like working weedlines, flooded timber, dropoffs, or any type of brown trout-esque looking stretch of water.
"Hot Butt Zuddler" - a Muddler style fly using an olive rabbit strip for the wing. I've also palmered fritz for the body and palmered hackle behind the deerhair head. This pattern was fantastic on a few lakes for browns early in the spring.
"Olive Butt Monkey" - This fly is nearly impossible to work properly from a float tube, so I use this from a boat or if I'm trolling. It is an articulated pattern and can be deadly! This is originally a pattern for catching trophy brook trout in Nipigon, Ontario, tied by Scott E Smith.
Couple of Brown Trout fly favorites
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