Hi Andy,
I moved to the twin cites area about 4 years ago and have been fishing MN trout streams where I caught quite a few brown trout. This year I finally spent the extra money and bought a Wisconsin license and stated fishing the Kinnikinnick. The first two brown trout I caught and 4 out of the first 6 jumped. As far as I know Minnesota browns and browns in general don’t jump as often as rainbows. It would be great to here your experience with the browns in the kinny or other streams. It might be just a coincidence but I thought I would ask you about it anyway.
Cheers
Davin
Hi Davin
I’m not sure where all of this legend and lore started about brown trout not jumping? I think I heard it first in Montana after I had been fishing jumping brown trout around here for years. When I looked at the gentleman who proclaimed this, in a perplexed manner, he too was puzzled. After explaining to him that I had experienced browns jumping on many occasions, I don’t think he believed me.
I believe that all fish can jump for many different reasons. Sometimes out of joy or anger. Sometimes out of fear or when they are chasing food. But mostly when the have just eaten a meal that is attached to a line with an angler on the other end or they have been hooked in the anus. Hope you are using barbless! Great question Davin, I have never seen any hard data on this topic.
Andy
4 users commented in " Ask Andy- Brown Trout Jump? "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a Trackbackdavin,i maintain browns outjump rainbows hands down. generalizations like my statement are always subject to scrutiny but in my experience,rainbows are good for a jump or two and some zippy runs whereas browns will fight closer in and can be good for multiple jumps.i “bow” to the fish, no matter what. have fun! thanks, andy for a nice website.come up for some smallie fihing on the miss.-john
I’ve had people look at me weirdly when I say it, too. My experience is that it mostly seems to happen in shallower water when they’re trying to head for somewhere deeper and the pressure brings their head up. In deeper water they seem to go straight for the bottom.
In the last couple weeks I have thought about this post on 3 separate occasions. All 3 occasions were after a nice sized brown trout had just jumped clear out of the water. The first of the 3 could have been a largemouth bass as far as I could tell…if I was blind. The moment I hooked him behind a small pocket of water he went airborne and then towards deeper water, made one nice run under water and then came up for an amazing tail-ride rivalling any Bass I have ever seen, at least 8 feet before heading back in, Simply awesome!The last of the 3 was this past sunday, my last fish of the year. I hooked him in deep water right below a waterfall of sorts. He did the usual stay deep and sulk for a few minutes and then made my whole season in one gigantic no-holds-bar explosion towards the surface. This fish was easily 4 feet in the air, golden-buttery brown flashing in the sun for a moment that will stick with me throughout this long cold winter ahead…thank you mister trout…thank you.
Great re-cap
Fish that chooses to become airborne on their own, become warriors in my mind. The epic struggle that includes a jump is a reminder not only of the special character of “that” fish, but a lesson in perseverance, creativity and intestinal fortitude(as one of my old coaches would say). Fishing can become so much more than people give it credit for,,,,, if one just opens his/her eyes.
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