What Can Brown Do For You?



12 3/4" Brown Trout

I was passing Upper Yaphank Lake today and I had some free time so I decided to take a few casts and see what happens. I have fished there before and it has been hit or miss.  I usually prefer to fish the lake outlet.  The water averages 3-4 ft deep there and has plenty of vegetative cover even at this time of the year on either side of the channel leading up to the outlet.  I soon as I arrived and I looked out the jeep window my heart began to race.  There were rises everywhere! The kind of rises that are spectacular to watch.  Gorgeous browns were throwing themselves out of the water.  I began to feel that nervous feeling you get as a kid when you are hoping to get a crack at all the rides before the amusement park closes.  There appeared to be small BWO's coming off the water. Normally I would reach for my Tenkara Yamame but I had taken it out of the jeep to give it a good cleaning.  All I had with me was my 5ft ultralight set up and some Mepps spinners.  I eagerly ran over and started casting.  Everywhere I looked, there they were great looking brown trout 10-15 ft from the shore.  The problem was they were not hitting my spinners.  They appeared to be more interested in the small BWO's.  WHY, OH LORD, DID I NOT PUT THAT TENKARA ROD BACK IN THE CAR? This would have been a perfect situtation for it.  But I persisted with my spin rod, what else could I do.  But sometimes persistence can pay off and it did today.  Just before throwing in the towel I managed to land two nice and healthy browns.  One was 12 3/4" the other 13" on the nose.  Both gave me a nice fight.  It is amazing how landing those two guys instantly brought down my anxiety level and put a big grin on my face.  Sure I would loved to land them on my fly rod but landing them is the main point after all.  What can brown do for you....for me, it gave me great start to the day.

Last brown for today