Brook trout are a popular freshwater fish that can be caught in small streams, creeks, and rivers over much of northern America. While larger brook trout can take on a fishy flavor, smaller brook trout between six and twelve inches in length are delicious panfish.
So how do you catch brook trout in small streams? Here are some of the things you’ll need to know in order to successfully catch brook trout:
- What brook trout are and why you would want to fish for them
- The best seasons and times of day for finding brook trout
- Where brook trout can be found
- What supplies you need to fish for brook trout
- What kind of tackle and lures to use for trout fishing
- What live bait trout prefer
- How to cast into a small stream or brook
- Special tricks to catch brook trout
Brook trout fishing is some of the most iconic and beautiful forms of fishing in America, and you can do it in a wide variety of places. Read on to find out more about how to successfully catch yourself a creel of brook trout.
What Are Brook Trout?
Brook trout are a freshwater fish that have been sought in North America for hundreds of years as a vital natural resource of fresh protein. This was especially important when Americans first colonized North America, and agriculture was not well established yet. In fact, brook trout were so important to the first Americans, they are the state fish of eight different states.
Besides being prized as a fun fish to catch recreationally, brook trout are also considered highly edible, and due to a blossoming farm (and field) to table movement, brook trout are finding themselves on dining tables in five-star restaurants across the United States.
The bag limit and minimum size requirements for catching brook trout vary wildly from state to state depending on where you are trying to fish. For the most accurate information in your area, you should search your state fishing regulations accordingly and verify bag limits and minimum size before proceeding.
Overall, brook trout are a plentiful fish, and five fish per day is a common bag limit among states. There are very few states which require a minimum size to keep trout since smaller sizes are considered better for culinary purposes.
The Best Times to Find Brook Trout
Finding brook trout is dependent on both the season you’re trying to fish for them and the time of day you’re fishing. Like many other fish species, brook trout can be found in a few different locations based around their feeding and breeding activities.
Seasons for Fishing Brook Trout
Brook trout are very particular about their environmental parameters, requiring cooler temperatures (less than 68F is preferred, but anything over 77F is intolerable) and fast-flowing, highly oxygenated water.
Because of these requirements, brook trout can migrate extreme distances in search of aquatic conditions that meet their needs for both comfort and breeding. This means they can be found at different places throughout the year.
Generally, the best time of year for catching trout is in the spring. This is because waters are still cool, and food is abundant, which causes trout to feed actively during this season and also makes them more likely to strike at artificial lures like flies. Fall is also a good time of year to fish for trout due to dropping temperatures.
Trout can still be caught in the summer but tend to retreat to the deeper waters of lakes and rivers and are harder to find in smaller streams and brooks at this part of the year. This is because the more shallow the water is in summer, the higher the water temperature becomes, and trout seek out deep water to find cooler temperatures.
Times of Day for Fishing Brook Trout
Like many other kinds of fish, brook trout prefer to hunt in the early morning and in the hour or so before night falls. This is both due to the lower temperatures as well as the movements of their prey, such as insects and small minnows.
This means that the best time of day to go fishing for brook trout in small streams is either at dawn (between 4-7AM) or at dusk (4-7PM). Be sure to bring a flashlight since you’ll probably be setting up in low light conditions.
Once the sun gets higher in the sky, brook trout often abandon the shallows of small streams for deeper pools and holes. Having fed earlier in the morning, the trout are less likely to be caught during this time but depending on what bait you have available and where you’re fishing, you might still get a bite
or two.
Brook trout do not actively feed at night in most areas and will not be likely to be caught long after dark. Dawn and dusk are the best times to catch them regardless of the season.
Where to Find Brook Trout
Brook trout is native to eastern North America, but due to its introduction to other waterways as a recreational fishing staple, brook trout can now be found in fisheries across the northern half of the United States.
In small streams, brook trout are often found hunting in the shallows, where the current of the stream is quickest, and the water is clear. Brook trout hunt these areas of the stream for movement such as baitfish or insects that drop onto the surface of the water.
In warmer weather, brook trout retreat to deeper water, so if you are fishing for brook trout in the summer, be sure to walk along the stream until you reach any area that has an obvious drop in depth as the result of a sinkhole, sunken tree, or other depression.
These are areas that brook trout and other river fish like to congregate when the water becomes too warm to tolerate in the shallows. When the weather is cooler, brook trout will stick to the fastest flowing water they can find.
Supplies You Need for Brook Trout Fishing
If you go trout fishing in a small stream, there are certain supplies you’re going to need in order to have the best experience.
Here is a list of things you might want to bring along with you:
- Waders: Whether you use a spinning reel or a fly-fishing setup, you’re likely going to need to get into the center of a wide shallow river in order to reach the best places where brook trout like to feed. Bring along some waders (link to Amazon) with good traction soles to avoid falling in the water and getting wet. Waders also help keep you warm in cold water.
- Fishing vest: Getting a fishing vest is perfect for giving you plenty of hands-free storage space for all of your tackle, lures, and other small gear so that you can leave your hands free for holding your rod or other tools. You can check them out on Amazon here.
- Rod and reel: When you fish for brook trout, you can either use a spinning reel or a fly fishing reel. Both types of rods have their own preferred techniques. If you don’t have previous fly fishing experience and it’s your first time fishing for brook trout, a spinning reel may be best. Lightweight or ultra-lightweight rods and reels (link to Amazon) are recommended.
- Lures and Bait: For artificial lures, trout prefer lures that imitate either baitfish or insect prey, such as minnow baits (click to see on Amazon) and bucktails (see on Amazon). For live bait, trout can be caught easily with red worms or earthworms, grubs, crickets, and other insects.
- Food and water: Since you’ll likely be fishing around morning or evening, you’ll probably be peckish for either breakfast or dinner before too long, so bring a snack to tide yourself over. Also, make sure to bring plenty of water. Many trout fishing locations are in remote areas, and bringing water is not only for convenience and comfort, it’s for safety.
- Landing net: Bringing a landing net will make it much easier for you to get your trout out of the water without either injuring the fish or causing you to slip and lose your footing. Trout are notoriously slippery, and many have been lost by being taken off the hook outside of a landing net.
- Pliers or dehooking tool: Trout are a toothy fish, and it can sometimes be difficult to get a hook out of their mouth. Bring fine-tipped pliers or some other tool to get fish off the hook. This is especially important for catch and release, where every moment out of the water counts for survival.
- Creel: A creel (link to Amazon) is important if you intend to keep your catch of trout and bring them back with you to fry up for supper. If you’re planning on doing catch and release rather than cooking your brook trout, you can always replace your fishing creel with a picnic basket instead. Either way, you’ll want to bring some storage along with you.
- Hat: If you’re out in the middle of the river, you’ll want something like a good fishing hat (check out on Amazon) to keep the heat and sun off the back of your exposed neck, as many stretches of river or stream may not have shade canopies.
- Change of clothes in a sealed plastic zip bag: Seems extraneous, but if you accidentally end up taking a spill into the river and get soaked or get caught in a sudden rainstorm, you’ll be glad of the extra clothing.
- Sharp knife: You’ll need a sharp knife both for cutting line and rigging rods as well as potentially cleaning any brook trout you might catch.
- Cooler: If you’re planning on carrying your trout a long distance out of the woods to get them home to eat them, you’ll want to keep your cleaned trout in a cooler full of ice, rather than a creel. This will help keep your catch fresh longer.
- Fishing license: Even though the regulations on brook trout are pretty casual, you’ll still want to have your fishing license for whatever state you’re fishing in just in case you get stopped by a game warden.
- Measuring tape: Although not necessary in areas that don’t have a minimum size requirement, having a measuring tape along allows you to see exactly how big that monster brook trout you just caught is.
- Cell phone: While you might not have coverage in all areas you would go brook trout fishing, having a cell phone along in case of emergencies is always a good idea if you have access to one.
When going on a fishing trip, it’s always best to make a list of the supplies you need to bring, then check them off as you pack them. You don’t want to hike out to the middle of a forest to go trout fishing only to discover you’ve forgotten your fishing license or something else vital.
While the above items are pretty essential to making sure you can catch trout safely and effectively, any other items packed above and beyond these should mostly be avoided. That’s because the more stuff you decide to pack into the woods with you, the more stuff you’re going to be loaded down with. This is another reason lightweight tackle is a good idea.
Tackle and Lures for Brook Trout Fishing
Light tackle and lures are the best for brook trout fishing. Many different kinds of artificial lures as well as live bait can be used to successfully catch brook trout. In general though, lightweight rods, reels, and line are suggested.
This is because brook trout tend to be fairly small (although feisty) fish, and you’ll need light tackle in order to sense when one has taken the bait in order to set the hook.
Artificial Lures for Brook Trout
Brook trout are aggressive, active feeders when they’re hungry, and as a result, they will hit many different kinds of artificial lures. Trout are naturally associated with fly fishing, and it’s true that different fly fishing lures (link to Amazon) imitating insects are an effective way to attract brook trout, since they tend to eat insects that drop into the surface of the brook, such as mayflies.
These lures can also be enhanced or paired with scent-based live baits such as worms in order to attract trout on two fronts. Scent-based lures can also attract trout from further away than sight-based lures.
Brook trout will also attack and eat smaller fish, and minnows such as shad form a significant part of their diet along with insects. Because of this, artificial lures that are shaped like small minnows are effective against trout, especially during spawning season when they are very hungry and will strike at almost anything.
Spinner baits (click to see on Amazon) are also a popular choice for trout fishing, and there is even a subset of spinner baits called trout spinners. These metallic and colorful baits catch the eye of trout by being tossed in the currents of a small stream or river, casting reflections, and creating noise in the water that draws in nearby fish.
Weights
Since brook trout are found in fast-running, shallow streams and rivers, lures used to fish for them are not usually weighted down that much, and only lightweight sinkers (1/64th, 1/6th, and 1 ounce weights respectively) are used.
On the contrary, many fishermen use top lures that float on or near the surface of the water to catch brook trout, since trout tend to strike hardest on the water’s surface rather than the middle of the water column.
When used, a small weight is tied closely onto the lure in order to help the bait sink better. This is not so much to drag the bait over the floor of the stream, but rather to help the angler cast it more precisely into the water where he or she knows the fish are present and feeding.
Line
While brook trout are hard fighters once you have one hooked on the line, they are still panfish and generally stay on the small side. As a result, you are safe to use lightweight fishing light without having to worry about an overly large trout snapping the line and stealing your tackle.
One good choice for fishing in river shallows is fluorocarbon line, (link to Amazon) since this line is resistant to abrasion, and fishing in rocky shallows has a tendency to wear out the line after a while.
Live Bait for Brook Trout
Along with artificial lures, live bait can be a good choice for catching trout since insects are a very attractive source of prey to them. Insects that create a lot of organic movement in the water as they wriggle on the hook are best for this purpose.
Live bait is an especially good choice after heavy rains or during other times of the year when the water of a small stream is especially muddy or hard to see through. In these conditions, scent-based baits like live bait are more effective than sight-based lures.
Keep in mind that trout swallow their prey forcefully, so don’t use live bait on fish you intend to catch and release, as trout are not likely to survive swallowing live bait tackle as opposed to a strike lure.
These are some of the things you can use as live bait for brook trout:
- Earthworms: Earthworms are commonly found in the ground across North America, especially beneath overturned stones and pieces of wood like tree trunks. Because they are best used on the bottom, earthworms are a good choice for seeking out trout in deeper waters rather than stream shallows.
- Waxworms or grubs: These larvae can be stacked on top of each other on the hook to serve as a wriggling dinner bell for hungry trout. Since they are a popular food for reptile enthusiasts as well as a good trout bait, waxworms can be found pretty easily.
- Crickets: Whether you catch them yourself or buy a box at the bait shop, crickets make great live bait for trout, as their thrashing is irresistible, and they are often light enough to float on the top of the water if used without a sinker. Crickets also have the added bonus of being easy to raise at home for a constant source of bait.
- Aquatic nymphs and crayfish: These forms of natural bait can be easily foraged at the same sites you’re using to fish from, and while you won’t be finding these live baits in a tackle shop, they are very attractive to trout since they are a familiar form of food.
- Minnows: Brook trout will strike small wounded minnows, especially during spawning season, so try hooking a tiny shad or other baitfish. Minnows are ideal for catching larger trophy trout rather than small panfish.
Some forms of live bait such as worms and crickets can be purchased either online ahead of time (to take advantage of bulk discounts and a wide selection of products) or at local bait shops to take advantage of convenience. Other live baits must be wild caught. For serious anglers, many forms of live bait can also be raised at home.
Either way, putting something live on the hook is a good way to get an otherwise finicky brook trout’s attention.
How to Cast into A Small Stream or Brook
When fishing for brook trout, knowing how to fish in a brook is just as important as knowing how to fish for trout. Brooks are by nature shallow bodies of water, which means it is easy to get your line snagged.
In order to avoid casting into groups of fish, you’ve already spooked wading out into the brook, cast your lure upstream rather than downstream. This will also allow you to cast into water that is clear and hasn’t been silted up by you moving into the water.
If you are fishing on the surface of the brook rather than beneath it, you’ll want to cast in a way that positions the lure to float by the location of feeding fish and entices them to strike. When casting, you’ll want to be aware of any potential obstacles or snags your lure may be swept into by the current, such as a sunken tree or a stand of rocks.
The main thing to remember when fishing into a swift-moving body of water such as a stream or river is that the current is going to immediately carry your lure, so you’ll want to anticipate where your lure will travel in the current, rather than trying to cast directly into the fish you can see. Otherwise, the current will pull the lure or bait away from the location of waiting fish.
Special Tricks to Catch Brook Trout
Brook trout have been a popular species of fish to catch in North American for centuries, and as a result, people have collected many hints and tips on how to catch them most effectively.
Here are some of the best tips for catching lots of brook trout on your next fishing trip:
- Let the bear win. Spawning trout are a major source of food for grizzly and brown bears in some remote woodland areas of North America, and it probably doesn’t need to be said, but if you see bears fishing a trout spawning area or a bear advances on your fishing spot, vacate the premises. Nobody needs to catch brook trout that bad.
- Trout should be conserved in the fall. While trout can be caught in the fall due to cooler temperatures, they should usually be left alone during spawning season to repopulate the brooks and streams with more trout.
Trout can also be harder to catch during this season outside of spawning areas because falling leaves make them less sensitive to drifting lures. - Trout can be caught during winter. Their behavior slows down significantly in the winter, but jigging trout from an ice hole can prove to be a successful hunting trip. Trout do not hibernate and must continue to feed throughout the season, and prey is much less abundant during the winter.
- Take a hike. It’s often easier to find areas of a stream or river that receive less pressure from anglers if you’re willing to travel a little deeper into the woods than the average fisherman. Chances are if you’re in an area where you can see or have seen other people fishing, you should move along to find a better spot.
- Juvenile trout are a great wild caught camping supper and can be cooked whole. A creel full of small trout makes for a great dinner in the woods. Just skewer the trout whole on a cleaned stick or metal skewer and grill it over the fire. Be sure to tuck away some lemon pepper seasoning or other spices into your camping gear for extra zing.
Brook Trout Fishing in Small Streams is an American Angler’s Dream
Catching brook trout, especially with fly fishing gear, is one of the most iconic forms of fishing conducted in North America. These feisty, beautiful little fish are as great for recreational catch and release fishing as they are on the supper table.
