Winter fishing

These pics are of my favorite time of the year to hunt brown trout. There is a small dedicated group of brown hunters that I fish with that will go to extremes to fish in late winter. I had to chain up all 4 tires on my truck to drive the last 5 miles in to this lake. And we only had to dig out of one drift on this particular day!

And unless it's someone from our group, we have the entire lake to ourselves. On this day, it was MY lake!
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MuleyMadness
You're a 'die hard', now where are the big browns?
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Mark
I'm still after that elusive 10lb brown! My best this year was right at 6lbs. I'll post a pic when I hit the 10lb mark.

Seriously, we release them all. If and when I catch one over 10lbs I'll keep it for the wall. The lakes we fish for browns have a self sustaining population. They are no longer planted so it really hurts the population when you remove the spawning size fish (4 to 6lb fish).

We rarely even boat them. It's reallyhard on them. We usually net them, snap a pic and turn the net over.

I'll post some pics of some pigs from our group. I believe this one was right around 12lbs. I'll look for some more...
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MuleyMadness
Good grief, I thought my 4 pounder on the wall was nice. :)
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Mark
"MuleyMadness" wrote:Good grief, I thought my 4 pounder on the wall was nice. :)
 Any brown is a good brown. I've kept my share of them and I still do keep a few. But my personal goal is a 10+ lb fish. When I got mixed up with this crowd the bar was raised! We've got some pigs around here so I do have a good chance at netting one of them. Maybe even this year!
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bigbuck92
looks fun...and cold. lol. thats one heck of a brown to
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Default Avatar
you are one die hard fisherman to put a boat on the water in those conditions . i thought i was crazy when i put the boat on the water in 19 degree weather to go salmon fishing .
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Mark
"zatarain6" wrote:you are one die hard fisherman to put a boat on the water in those conditions . i thought i was crazy when i put the boat on the water in 19 degree weather to go salmon fishing .
 Heck, we hope it will warm up to 19 degrees on those days! I've got a heater in the boat and when we put the top up on the boat it really isn't that bad... really!
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hound_hunter
thats freakin awesome man!! i caught one brown trout when i was about 4 or so, thats what my dad tells me anyways, but ive always wanted to go fish em - i think this next year is the year! im gonna go serachin all over on a mad brown trout streak!!!!

awesome pics and congrats to having some absolutely amazing fishing adventures!! that'd be awesome to go in the dead of winter, but without a frozen lake??? and have it all to yourself! you ever need another man im in!! haha
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AGCHAWK
Beautiful fish Mark!!! Love the pics!
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Mark
Here are some more brown pics from our group of "hardcore brown hunters".

Now you see why I go to the extremes that I go to for a fish!
This 15.6lb hen was released
This 15.6lb hen was released
14.8 lb and 12.2 lb If I recall, John (pictured) caught the 14.8 lb and his dad caught the 12.2 lb in pretty much the exact same spot in the lake.
14.8 lb and 12.2 lb If I recall, John (pictured) caught the 14.8 lb and his dad caught the 12.2 lb in pretty much the exact same spot in the lake.
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Mark
more browns...
This hen is right around 9lbs and was released by Gregg to fight another day. And I know what lake she lives in!
This hen is right around 9lbs and was released by Gregg to fight another day. And I know what lake she lives in!
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hound_hunter
Those pics are awesome! thanks for sharing all of those! you guys definately know how to bring em in!! thats awesome that majority of em go right back into the lake, or never even come out of the lake a lot as you were saying. true sportsmenship there who know what there doing, thanks again for the pics.. those are INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!
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bigbuck92
WOW!!!!!!!!!
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MuleyMadness
Unreal Brown's, not sure what to say. Just amazing fish!
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Mark
The brown bite is wide open right now on one of our favorite mountain lakes. I'm heading up tomorrow for a couple of days of brown fishing. It's raining now, we're hoping for some snow! The winds are supposed to howl tomorrow... perfect day on the water!

Four guys from our group caught and released 38 browns and 4 rainbows today. The biggest fish boated was around 8lbs. The biggest fish LOST at the boat was well over 12 lbs from what I heard. There were also a few "well over 10" that were lost at the boat. One was in the net, then gone! I'll post some pics Sunday night.

The guy in the pic with the big hookjaw lost one that he fought for over 10 minutes. He said at one point his rod was pinned to his legs by the beast. They got to see it twice before it got loose. Scotty and Luke both say that the fish could have gone 15+ lbs!

Wish us luck...

Mark
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MuleyMadness
GOOD 4c , sounds like a blast!
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Mark
I'm waiting for pics form todays trip. I'll post some if they're any good.
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Default Avatar
Now those are a couple great fish, but they sure were'nt caught on that fishing trip. I'm a pretty die-hard fisherman also, but the only way I'm going out fishing in the snow is if that lake has a solid 18" on ice on it!!!
Eastern NM hunter
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Mark
"Eastern NM hunter" wrote:Now those are a couple great fish, but they sure were'nt caught on that fishing trip.
No, they weren't. If I led you to believe otherwise that wasn't my intent.
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Default Avatar
My bad Mark. I only saw the first couple pictures, with the snow, but none the less, my apologies for not seeing all the pictures before mouthing off. Those are some awesome fish, may be someday I'll have some pictures to share with you, but they don't get nearly that big in the streams I fish in Northern NM. The biggest I've landed out of these streams is between 16-19", basically bait for the big boys you've landed....Eastern NM hunter
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Mark
"Eastern NM hunter" wrote:My bad Mark. I only saw the first couple pictures, with the snow, but none the less, my apologies for not seeing all the pictures before mouthing off. Those are some awesome fish, may be someday I'll have some pictures to share with you, but they don't get nearly that big in the streams I fish in Northern NM. The biggest I've landed out of these streams is between 16-19", basically bait for the big boys you've landed....Eastern NM hunter
 No harm done. There are only a half dozen lakes around here (2 to 3 hr drive) that hold good numbers of larger browns. And they only seem to be really active when the weather is nasty. Really nasty!

A guy from our group slid off the iced over road yesterday on hisa way in. He was pulled out a couple hours later, then he went on to the lake to fish. It's a challenge to get in, but the rewards are good... sometimes.
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killerbee
are they from the salmon group? they have to come from alaska to be that frikin huge!! nice fish.. =D>
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