Photo: Eric Engbretson for U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Salmo trutta

How to catch Brown trout

Brown trout feed in 36–72°F water and bite best at 50–64°F. Fish Scouter's season calendar follows them in 34 waters; in October they are at their peak in Georgia fresh water, South Carolina fresh water, North Carolina fresh water and 31 more.

20 pts · trophy at 24"Feeds 36–72°FBest 50–64°FIn season nowRiverCreek / streamLakeReservoirSpring

About

The wary one: a butter-yellow, red-spotted European trout gone native in the limestone creeks, the Rocky Mountain rivers and the Ozark tailwaters, where it grows to thirty pounds on sculpins and small trout. Big browns hunt at night and in the fall.

How to fish it

Undercut banks, logjams and the deep slow pools. A streamer swung hard on a cloudy fall day for the big ones; leave the spawning redds alone.

What it eats

streamerssculpins and minnowsnymphs and driesmouse patterns at night

Live bait for it

Minnows (fatheads, shiners)Hooked lightly through the lips or behind the dorsal on a #6 to #2 hook under a slip bobber for crappie, perch and walleye; a big golden shiner on a 2/0 to 4/0 for largemouth, pike and stripers.

NightcrawlersWhole on a #6 to #2 hook under a bobber or on a bottom rig; threaded on a spinner harness drifted for walleye. The bait that catches everything in fresh water.

CrayfishHooked through the tail on a #2 to 2/0 hook and dragged slowly along rock and gravel — the smallmouth bait, and good for catfish and walleye.