Fishing

During Nov or are they all up the streams spawning?
Wiperslayer and I got out on Jordanelle on Thurs and gave it a try but there were very few fish that we marked and no trout were biting at all. We started off with big lures but after a while we started using smaller lures on side planners, we got a few hits on the side planers but never got more than that. We fished back in every arm of the lake, even along the dam, finally we switched over to kokanee type setups, dodgers and squids and caught a few kokes, that we promptly released but that was it for the day. It was a nice day but I don't think we will try that again.
Do any browns spawn in lakes?

BFT administrator and moderator

Curt, I don't know if its just me but Jordy is one of those lakes that doesn't appeal to me. Fished it in spring of 2018 2wice and couldn't get much of anything to bite. We caught a couple small kokes and a brown over a long stretch of time but it was very disappointing. I haven't' been back since. The 2nd trip was on a Sunday with still very cool spring temps and it surprised us that the parking lot was filling fast with the power squadrons shaking the cobwebs of winterized machines. The pot was stirred with constant wakes and yet no wind.



2007 Columbia Fisherman XL Yamaha F150 Yamaha 9.9 High Thrust 4 Electric Walker Downriggers Raymarine Element HV 9

Harrisville, Ut

I have never heard of any browns spawning in main lakes. Rainbows, sometimes, but seldom if ever for browns. They need running water.


In Deer Creek they run up the Provo. Ditto for Jordanelle. And those that are spawning should be getting close to finishing by now and heading back down to the lake to feed up a bit. I do not fish either DC or Jordanelle as much as I used to, but I catch browns both before and after the spawn. And I have caught a lot of browns from both lakes while ice fishing.


Best place to catch browns right now will be near the river mouths. But they quickly spread out in the lake and can be found all over...usually near the bottom...feeding on baby perch. Most of the browns I have caught in Deer Creek and Jordanelle have been actively chowing down on young of the year perch...and hit small plastics or jigging spoons with perchlike colors...and either worm or perch meat sweetener.

The first pic below is of a December brown caught near the Island at Deer Creek from my tube. The second is a tube caught late November brown from the Rock Cliff area of Jordanelle...in only about 10 feet of water. The third pic is an average brown I used to catch in Jordanelle every winter. They love fire tiger jigging spoons with worm on the..

My experience is for Northern Utah this is peak brown spawning (nov 3-10) and yes that is only in streams. And as TD nicely said only fish where the fish are going to be. So mid October to mid November that means the mouth of the river coming in- not all over the place and down by the dam. Planers aren't likely to be that helpful now- keep it simple. I wouldn't fish too early on cold mornings either this time of year unless you really like being cold and not catching fish- neither are high only list.

I agree Roger, I do not care for that lake much but it's nice to try and figure out a new lake every once in a while. No problem for me catching the kokes, bass and perch there but trout have always been elusive for me when fishing that lake. The power squadron is the worst there of any lake I have fished, except PV but that's mainly because PV is so much smaller the J.

BFT administrator and moderator

After our lack of success, I figured that was the case but I was pretty surprise by the lake of bows, considering they had just stocked them there the day before. I'll have to remember the FT jigging spoon, if I make it back there this year. I wonder if they normally stock fish in the Rock Creek arm, when they do their stocking.

BFT administrator and moderator

Thanks for the info on the brown spawning times, just our luck we hit it at the worst possible time. One thing I will say about fishing early, it does work, we have caught a bunch of trout, even browns fishing early but that is mainly while ice fishing, besides, I need to acclimate myself for the coming ice fishing season.

BFT administrator and moderator

you should not have posted this, now I'm thinking about going to deer creek and fishing for brown

I'm like Bduck (Roger) Jordanelle is one of those lakes that doesn't appeal to me.

I don't know any thing about how browns spawn. and where they are at.

but I think I see a lot of them on my fish finder at deer creek down deep on the bottom
on the north west side in 60 feet water. this time of year. I have caught some but they are real hard to catch.

so now I need to think of how to catch browns on the bottom
the other day at deer creek got one brown on a down rigger using a white tube that I use at strawberry. that was the only fish we got a white tube. was down 45 feet in 60 feet water

If you want to go Curt let me know, can but planer boards out and catch rainbows
10 to 14 Inch's.


I found this on google
When Browns Go Deep
In the fall water temperatures begin to cool sending Brown Trout throughout the water column making it more difficult to find them. Generally this doesn’t really happen until late fall in many areas as the surface layers are still warm.

And, of course, in winter they seek the bottom of the lake because it’s usually the warmest part of the lake.
This is the time for Trolling.

Deep Water Fishing Tips
Trolling is a good technique for catching Brown Trout when they’re deep.

I think the hatchery trucks usually drop their loads at either the main Hailstone ramp or over at the PWC ramp. But the new arrivals seem to move all over the lake pretty quickly. Trolled it with Doglover one year right after the plant and we caught them all around the lake on silver spinners...trolled shallow.


Right after iceout is the single best time for trolling for browns...and some big ones. Troll right off the shoreline trees with big cranks.


The reason so many fish gravitate up the Rock Cliff arm is that is where the Provo River dumps in. The browns go there for spawning. The rainbows for the fresh water inflows and the underwater food chain...baby perch, aquatic insects, etc. There are almost always some decent rainbows to be had between the buoys and the river. Got a few nice cutts in there too. (and some browns)


I used to fish Jordanelle a lot in the late fall. My best action was always by casting spinners along the shoreline...or fishing a bubble and fly at mid depth. And strangely, black and orange were some of the best colors for fall (halloween).

Years ago, I lucky enough to fish with the son of the man that had the old state record brown. I learned a lot about how to be successful catching them in lakes. You don't always have to fish deep for them, especially in the Summer but I think the later in the year it gets, the bigger ones do hang out in deeper water. Depth is not an issue for the smaller ones but during the Winter the largest browns, seem to be caught pretty deep, in lakes I fish. I see Google agrees with what I've found to be true.
Right now I'm only getting out once a week to fish because I'm working on a few projects that I need to finish before Winter gets here. I should be done with my biggest project this week, so let me get that done before I make any plans. I'll send you a PM and we can make some plans, hopefully later this week.

BFT administrator and moderator

We tried trolling right in front of the ramp before we left because there was few boats there but no luck, I thought maybe the PWC ramp might have been where they dumped them, if not at the other ramp. We tried all sorts of lures, even spinners and spoons. That Spring time/ ice out trolling time, might be a good time to give it another try. We tried between the buoys and the river, that was where we marked the most fish but no luck. Black and orange flies or buggers, wonder why that pattern got their attention, maybe perch, there are no insects of that color are here?
Nice spots on that one brown.

BFT administrator and moderator

I have several fly patterns and spinner color combos that feature hot orange spots. Just a suspicion but since a lot of fish (browns, whitefish, etc.) spawn in the fall the orange might trigger a roe munching mood. I also catch fish on them at other times of the year but for some reason the black and orange work best in the fall...especially black with an orange head (egg sucking leech).


I suspect a lot of the fish you marked at the upper end of the rock cliff arm might have been wipers. They were thick in there during the late summer but are probably a little less active right now.


That one brown was kinda purty. I have caught a lot of browns out of Jordanelle but no other ones like that one that I remember.

Well that makes sense, did not think about row.
Those fish we marked were in the upper water column, we thought they might be bows or cutts but since we got no bites, maybe they were wipers.
One other thing I have not mentioned, was we had on, for a minute, what we thought was a fish but the line was quickly cut. I was thinking they planted tiger musky in there, so I thought that might have been what it was but I haven't heard of anyone catching any at Jordanelle, so I did not mention it. Do you remember if they stocked TM in the Nelle?

BFT administrator and moderator

Yes. TMs in Jordy. Supposed to help reduce the number of stunted smallies. And as I recall there were some of good size netted this year.


You sure you didn't just tie a bad knot. Maybe you should let Ira rig for you.



Here is a link to an article in 2016 about the new diversity of species program and some of the plantings that took place...including TM.

I’ve been up to the PIG 4 times looking for them sense late Sept, 1st trip saw some big marks down deep but didn’t have any way to get down to them on my drift boat (that’s been fixed). Did try some vertical jigging but the wind made it difficult to stay over them. After that the big marks mostly disappeared but saw some in the creek when I went to check out the kokes spawning, I’m sure they were there feeding on the eggs. In Calif guys would get browns on koke gear while trolling, when I went to fish Clark Canyon and Hebgen a few years back none of the normal “local” stuff seemed to produce so I used sling blades and trolling flies and did well. From what I understand they like fast and erratic, the guys that chase them in the fall and spring seem to like to rip the Rapala’s when running surface lines at a good clip 3 plus mph. Other gear that seems to produce is flatfish, apex’s and Lyman’s

LOL, it was Ira that lost the lure not me, when it first hit, I was watching it come out of the downrigger clip and it was very slow, nothing like a trout or kokes pulls but then I saw what looked like a head shake and then it started pulling out line before the line broke. It could have been a snag but by the way it first acted, I thought it was a fish.

BFT administrator and moderator

MOst people forget that he that much not be named made a "name" for himself trolling the "infamous" "Real Minnow" at the Gorge for big browns. He actually set a World Record for a time up there. Deer Creek and Jordanelle are very good choices for big browns this time of year. Flatline trolling large Rapala's is the ticket. By the way, TD is sandbagging us with his pictures. I know for a fact he has a picture of 4 browns up to 10lbs on the tailgate of his old Jeep Pickup along with some porky perch all from Deer Creek, out of the old tube. He is standing there with one and a HUGE smile on his puss !! Maybe he'll do some prospecting and locate it !! There have been several other people who have specialized in trolling for browns at both Deer Creek and Jordanelle. Again, BIG Rapala's or similar minnow baits, flatline, along the shoreline, late in the afternoon/evening or early in the morning !! From now till ice up is the time !!!

There are some big browns in the Pig, we have caught a few, the largest was caught while ice fishing. We caught a nice 18" brown at Jordanelle this Summer while fishing for kokes, so that does work and one of the guys on the site caught a nice brown around 7 lbs, trolling for kokes at the Pig a few years back, so I'm sure you are right about the koke gear working for them, although it is very hit and miss.

BFT administrator and moderator

I have lost or misplaced a lot of my old pics on paper. But I did manage to relocate this pic of Greg Jonas with a brown through the ice...on one of my "Perch Urchins"...the first year ice fishing was open on Deer Creek. A lot of first time ice anglers cried real tears when they had to release all of the non-perch fish they caught that year.

One last comment or suggestion for fishing browns in many of our Utah Lakes. Try drop-shotting with Gulp Minnows. Our long-time member, Bassrods, used the 3" smelt color minnows for fishing his beloved smallies...mostly in Jordanelle...and he caught grundles of nice browns on them.

When I was still a modertater on this board, I used to help technologically challenged Bassrods to post his pictures. While he did not like to stop fishing for bass long enough to take pictures of silly slimers he did post plenty of pics of browns from about 18 inches to the mid twenty inches. I can verify that he had days with over 20 browns he did get many over 5# (estimated).

In addition, I fished with Bassrods in his boat on Starvation in late February one year. Using the aforementioned Gulp Minnows we both caught a lot of "Starvation steelheads" (rainbows). And Cliff caught a couple of nice browns...one of which is in the attached picture.



The main "takeaway" on Bassrods and brown trout is that he caught them fishing on the bottom...at the depth he was working for smallies. The idea is that browns and smallies probably feed on the same things in the same area...at the same times of year. A lot of the time...in many of our Utah waters...both species will be feeding on small perch. And the 3" Gulp minnow in smelt pattern is "near nuff" to get them to munch.

After turnover they can be shallow or deep since water is re oxygenated from top to bottom. So they have the entire water column to play in. This plus window of opportunity is shorter in fall makes catching them a little harder. Some will also stay in the reservoir during the spawn, but like Tube Dude says it doesn't take long for them to move back down after spawning.

Back to the orange color. Besides mimicking roe don't forget crawfish. I use some 4 inch orange streamers to target large browns that I assume look like crayfish to them. However when I forgot to bring other streamers, it has also caught brown trout in streams without crawfish and when there isn't roe from the spawn.

Yes, browns can be caught in lakes. And, yes some browns do spawn in lakes: "Brown trout prefer to spawn in fast-water sections of streams with gravel substrates (see Spawning habitat section). Lake and river-dwelling brown trout will usually move upstream into tributaries to spawn (Simpson and Wallace 1982, Elliott 1994). However, if no suitable tributaries are available, brown trout in lakes can spawn along rocky shores (Elliott 1994)."
https://www.fs.usda.gov/.../stelprdb5209386.pdf

In fact, I can think of a couple places in Utah and one in southwest Wyoming where brown trout do just that--spawn within the lake. However, the success of these spawns is most likely very limited or not successful at all.

The best--as far as numbers--brown trout fishing in a lake in Utah that I can think of would be in Mill Meadow Reservoir; however, the browns do spawn within the Fremont as it enters the reservoir. In a reservoir like Jordanelle, I would suspect that the large majority of brown trout enter the Provo to spawn.
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I started injecting Gulp liquid into my marshmallows when fishing a worm and marshmallow and magically big browns started biting them.

My go to rig when I want to catch 16"+ rainbows for the smoker is a slip sinker rig with a baitholder hook in about a 2/0 with a half a nightcrawler threaded on and a garlic marshmallow on the end, super simple basics, I know. That rig will catch rainbows and DC and Jordy all day, but one day I put some Gulp! in my worm blower and stuck it in the worm and the marshmallow and gave them 2-3 little infusions. THAT started catching me big browns with the rainbows. It's always bigger browns too. I think if I was trolling I'd put an inch or so of worm on and give it a couple tiny squeezes of gulp.

No joke, every lake brown I've caught with this method was at least 16".

i just caught a 19'' brown the other day up at rockport, shore fishing the dam using a white tube jig, vertically jigging it back in. i catch a lot of browns at rockport from shore using this method.