Fly Fishing for Brown Trout

Brown trout come with a built-in bonus. So varied and eye-catching is their colouration that their size becomes an irrelevance. From speckled silvery bars to red-spotted stunners with bellies the colour of butter, there is no such thing as a ‘too-small’ brownie: you’re too mesmerised by their looks to care. 

Wild brown trout are found in rivers and still waters all across the world with an average river fish weighing three-quarters of a pound, while lake fish can go to several pounds. 

Stick to trout fishing’s ‘shoulder seasons’ of March-June and September and you can catch brown trout throughout the day. Come the high season of July and August, however, the brownies will save their feeding energy for the cooler periods of early morning and around dusk, so save your fishing for those times or else on overcast days, when heat isn’t a factor.

How to fly fish for brown trout

Fussy about the water it calls home, brown trout are found in cool, highly oxygenated water; in the faster upper stretches of rivers or chalk streams, or near weirs, where the water is more active and so absorbs more oxygen. They can also be found in unpolluted stillwaters. Many commercial stillwaters, run specifically as fisheries, stock brown trout but that doesn’t make them the easier option when it comes to catching one. Stocked brownies are notorious for disappearing the moment they are introduced to a fishing lake, to the despair of fishery owners and their customers alike.

That same instinct for self-preservation is found in wild browns, too. These are very savvy fish and they are not easily caught. 

Their colours can make them hard to spot (get in the habit of looking for their shadows on the river bed rather than for the fish themselves) and they are easily scared.

You must therefore land your line and fly gently on the water and de-grease your leader so it sinks beneath the surface, where it is less obvious. It can pay to fish just after rain has put a bit of colour in the water, so that the brownies can’t inspect your fly as thoroughly as they might.

These solitary home birds can find a watery lair and stay there for some time, so fish around undercut river banks, overhanging vegetation or fallen trees, especially if there is a nearby current providing a conveyor belt for food. Mid-stream, browns are often found next to submerged boulders, awaiting food.

What are the best flies for brown trout?

Brown trout feed deep early in the season, on shrimp, caddis and nymphs, before gradually ascending as water temperatures rise, until they are picking off midges, sedges and up-winged flies on the water’s surface.

So, when deep underwater patterns are called for, try a Hare’s Ear, Pheasant Tail Nymph, Montana Nymph, March Brown Nymph or Peeping Caddis. 

Traditional wet flies will serve you well on wild trout stillwaters when you fish the shallows or the water around any points of land that jut out into the lake. Try a Black Pennell, Silver Butcher, Invicta or Blae and Black.

And when the brown trout start looking to the surface for their food, put a Griffith’s Gnat in front of them, or an Adams, Elk Hair Caddis or Blue-winged Olive. If the fish are ‘sipping’ in flies just below the surface, use a Shuttlecock or CDC Emerger. And of course: once there is a may fly hatch you'll know. Then it's time to tie on one of the most infamous flies, and they'll go for it like crazy.

Once trout grow beyond 12 inches in length, their attention will also turn to small fish as a food source. Try Woolly Bugger or Zonker patterns to cater for this demand.

More tips for brown trout flies

Want to get a more extensive list of flies? Read our article from the library: best flies for catching brown trout.