Brown Trout Fishing, A Real Challenge The brown trout is natively a European fish. In the waters of the Atlantic and even into western Asia is where they were originally found. They were introduced in the United States and Canada in 1883. They can now be found in most of the Canadian waters and the Great Lakes. The fish themselves seem to have had trouble being successful in the Canadian waters, but have been successful in Lake Michigan. When introduced there, they proved to be able to withstand intense degraded habitats that other trout could not survive in. The survival of the brown trout is due in part to the fact that they like to feed at night and therefore the adult has very few predators. In fact, its main predator is the human fisherman. The brown trout has been stocked in the Michigan Lake for years and has become an important part of the lake's ecosystem. Brown trout fishing is very popular here. In many places, surf casting brown trout has become a popular sport.

Confidence in Fly Fishing Three quick stories come to mind illustrate this. First off let me say there have been plenty of times when I have been on both sides of the confidence equation. A few years ago, I was steelheading with a couple of fly fishing buddies. Unlike me, though there guys weren't purists. And we were using terminal gear. Although were just dead-drifting jigs, very similar to fly fishing, I felt about as coordinated as a monkey performing brain surgery. As the day wore on more and more steelies were caught. Huge steelies, the biggest I had ever seen! None by me. I could feel my confidence shrinking. And I mean my confidence in all kinds of things, like being able to read the river, being able to detect a strike. Things that had no connection to me using unfamiliar gear. The pressure inside my head built, until I HAD to catch a fish. I didn't catch one fish that day, although I finally had a strike, and set the hook so hard I jerked it right out of the fish's mouth. And I fished longer and harder than anyone else on the trip.

Do Fish See in Color The fly fisherman also must remember that color behaves differently in water that it does when seen in the air. Water is denser, and the colors are diffused quicker. Cloudy days where there is less overall light will offer less visibility, and colors will disappear quicker in the depths of the water. And the clarity of water obviously greatly effects this as well. This is important in fly selection because certain colors travel farther in low light than others. Red is the first color to disappear, usually at about 15 feet in clear water, followed by orange and then yellow. Blues and greens are visible to the fish as long as there is light. Yet silver and white will be brighter. So while the Mickey Finn is obviously a great choice as an attractor fly, it would not be as good a choice in murky water or if fished deep. A better attractor might be a white Woolly Bugger or White Marabou Muddler.

Deep Jigging
I have caught a ton of big fish deep jigging. A big jig, a strip of bonito belly as a bait and a good drift can make for some....