Targeting Spring Brown Trout
Brown Trout in the spring will be in the warmest water available. This will be in the stained/muddy water right tight to the shoreline or at the outflow of the tributary streams. I have caught browns in water as shallow as 2 feet. This is mostly planer board fishing, whether you use a mast and big board system or in-line planers such as Yellow Birds or Church Boards. Typically you will be running your boat in less than 10 feet of water and this disturbance pushes fish out to the sides of your boat. The planer boards allow you to target those fish.
Rods/Reels:
We generally use lighter lines (6-10 lb) for this type of fishing, so you should use the lightest rods available. 8 to 8 1/2 foot, light to medium light action rods are ideal as they won't overpower the light lines, and they are a whole lot more fun to catch these fish on. Many people also use long (10 foot +) and limber noodle rods for this. Because of the lighter lines, reels with very smooth drags are a must.
Line:
As I stated above, lighter lines are used this time of year with 6-10 lb being typical. In addition, we usually add a fluorocarbon leader between the main line and the lure. I tie a quality ball bearing or bead chain swivel at the end of my main line and add a 6' piece of 8 lb fluorocarbon line (assuming 10 lb main line) for a leader, and then just a duo-lock type snap at the end of the leader. Having just a small snap in front of the lure is much less noticeable than a snap swivel and the round end of the duo-lock snap gives the lore a better action. It also makes it easier to change lures.
Lures:
For the most part we are using stick baits, stick baits and more stick baits, especially off the boards. Rapala, Thunderstick, Smithwick, Yo-zuri, and Renosky stick baits all do well. In muddy water, in my opinion, it's hard to beat a J-9 jointed rapala in the gold and orange color. Black and silver, chartreuse and silver are both good in medium to lightly stained water. Small light spoons can also be used, both off the boards or off the downriggers. Spoons that have good action at slow speeds like evil eyes, alpena diamonds, jr flutterdevles and michigan stingers all work well.
Boards:
You can use either a mast and ski system or in-line boards such as yellow birds to get your offerings off to the sides of the boat where the fish are. both work well and are a matter of personal choice and how your boat is set up. I use both types, which one is utilized depends on the situation. Boat Traffic is a consideration when running the mast and ski system. These can be run up to 150' out from the boat, so in heavy traffic, the big boards can be a pain to run. It is not necessary to get that far away from the boat to get into the fish, 30-50' is usually plenty. Where I will run a big board way out to the side is when the fish are in real shallow, closer than I want to run my boat. We have encountered days where the fish were within 40-50 feet of shore in 2 feet of water. I will keep the boat in a safer 5-6' and run the inside board way out to the shoreline to target these fish.
If you use in-line boards, there are some things to keep in mind, Yellow birds are small and easy to manage, but the releases that come with them are junk (in my opinion) and should be replaced with the light offshore releases. The stock releases just will not hold up to trolling and will false release constantly. Offshore and Church Boards have better releases.
For a detailed description on setting up and running planer boards, see some of the other articles in this Tips and Techniques section.
Riggers:
It is sometimes effective to add a downrigger or 2 to the spread. I like to run a spoon 60-100 feet back and 3-4 feet down on a downrigger to pick up the fish that have moved back into the boats path after it passes. If there are cohos in the area, running a small red dodger (00 size) and small blue tinsel fly (i.e. Howie penut fly) 2-3 feet down and 10-15 feet back, almost in the prop wash can be very effective.
Other Tricks:
One rig I always have out is a tip I picked up from some of the guys here at LOTSA. Take an extra large foam bobber (from the muskie bait fishing quick strike rigs, I always see them at Dick's but other's probably carry them as well) and attach an offshore type pinch pad downrigger release to one end. let out 30-40 feet of line with a stick bait on the end and clip the line into the front wire clip of the bobber, set the wire clip so that the line is free sliding in the wire loop. clip the main line into the release and let it out straight behind the boat 100-150 feet. When a fish hits it will pop the line out of the release and the bobber will slide down to the swivel at the back of the leader. This rig accounts for a lot of fish for me every year. Click here for a picture of this set up.
Well those are some of the basics for setting up for spring brown trout. Hopefully this will help you get started catching these fish.