Hi all, when do we safely assume that all brownies have spawned.

Good Question!!

Very interesting! I would like to know myself; especially as I'm of the opinion that the wild brown trout are going in to spawn a lot later in the Autumn/Winter months, then not returning to normal feeding habits until a good deal later in the Spring!

This is just my opinion from observing the change in seasons!

Anyone else have an opinion?

It would be very hard to say at some point in time, that all fish have spawned.

Spawning time might vary from season to season due to variations in natural environment and in healthy populations it stretches over considerable amount of time (you could look on this as some sort of natures safety element).

It is best to take a walk now and then by your stream and you will notice spawning holes (reeds) on the ground. It was decribed in literature that brown trouts actually start digging them weeks before actuall spawning. But that would be a reliable method to determine spawning time in your river/stream.

Brown trouts will attack lures through the whole winter so i doubt that there would be any serious non-feeding time after spawning. Although it is closed season, we do catch them while hucho fishing. In fact i have the feeling they are even more agressive at that time.

BlueOne

Hi Mostyn,

The wild fish I've caught so far this year around the Builth area have all been in great condition. I would guess they spawned in November/December.

In previous years, up to and including 2009, I've observed trout migrating from the main river (Wye) in September and October, as we would expect.

Several years ago I fished a named WUF beat on the Wye for trout in September - they'd all gone!

Yes they have stopped spawning. Brownies spawn on day length, hence why they spawn in December.

Quite right - rainbows and salmon too! Some fish farmers trick the fish into spawning early or late by keeping them in controlled light environments. By keeping the day length longer during the autumn you can delay spawning time until after 'normal' fish have spawned. That way you can produce more eggs and fry and not have all the tank space used up at the same time.
We used to select broodstock from the very earliest fish to spawn and the very latest fish to spawn and by doing it year after year we increased the spawning period by several weeks at each end of the season. This was another way of producing more fry from the same number of available tanks.
StickMan