Fishing for Trout During the Spawn

[jeffroey]

It's getting to be that time of the year where I take a moment and re-familiarize myself with redds. Here's two articles I think do a good job of discussing the difference between fishing to spawning trout and and fishing during the spawn:

Spawning trout 101

There is an important distinction between fishing to spawning trout and char and fishing during the spawn. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with the latter, but practicing the former might get you drawn and quartered in some parts of the country where casting over active redds means you might be...

www.hatchmag.com

The Ethics of Fishing for Spawning Trout

The ethics of fishing redds, or spawning beds, is legal in a few places, but it's hotly debated among anglers and native trout advocates.

www.outdoorlife.com

I generally fish thru but change my approach and err on the side of caution. Just curious if you have a Brookie or Brown fishing cutoff date you adhere to or if you continue to fish thru the spawning windows (Mid-September thru late October for Brookies, October thru December for Browns), taking extra care to identify and avoid redds, staying out of the water all together when you can, etc.

 

[tomgamber]

When I fished often enough to worry about this, I knew what the signs of spawning trout looked like snd moved past those places to other areas of streams. It's not yes or no. Just do it right.

 

[PennKev]

I usually don't, but I don't think it's a big deal either. Archery season and all the damn leaves in the water make it easy to take a little break.

 

[troutbert]

Just curious if you have a Brookie or Brown fishing cutoff date you adhere to or if you continue to fish thru the spawning windows (Mid-September thru late October for Brookies, October thru December for Browns), taking extra care to identify and avoid redds, staying out of the water all together when you can, etc.

In my experience, the great majority of brook trout spawning occurs during the month of October. I've seen some "staging" i.e. pre-spawn activity like gathering at the tails of pools at the very end of September, but I start seeing brookie redds in early October. Over the years, the second and third week in October seems to be the peak.

But we've had many falls with mild temperatures and this seems to delay the brookie spawning towards later dates.

Regarding brown trout on the limestone streams, most of my observations are from Spring Creek. Usually I see just a few redds beginning around Oct. 21-23, with a bunch more by the end of October. The majority of the spawning is in November. Some continues into December.

 

[lycoflyfisher]

Archery hunting takes most of my fall attention, but i try to get out to fish a few times. The heavy leaf hatch is a major deterrent for me as well.

A bigger concern I have with fall and winter fishing is wading and potential destruction of redds. I try to keep wading to a minimum and especially staying out of likely redd locations

 

[Roofin' Trouter]

My fishing slows down but that has more to do with hunting . Does my fishing strategy change? Absolutely. The list of cricks I fish that time of year is significantly less. Knowing the water gives me confidence in not stepping on redds. Crick sections with decent holdover stocked numbers are tops on my list for fall and early winter.

 

[wildtrout2]

Archery hunting takes most of my fall attention...

It takes all of my Fall attention. Love me some deer hunting!

 

[Cougarbaby]

I don’t stop I just fish different kinds of water ones where holdover fish is more common than spawning fish etc

 

[Forestfishin]

I generally don’t fish for trout during that period but that’s mostly due to fishing for smallmouth and then musky (fishing not catching) later into the fall. Usually in December I’ll start fishing brookie streams but pay attention to where I’m going. Can usually avoid getting into the water altogether on those smaller streams.

 

[Cougarbaby]

Sometimes I’ll just wear muck boots so I can’t get in the water and usually do better that way , make less noise probably