Do Browns Eat More Baby Trout Than Mergansers?

 

Home for the weekend, will be attending our youngest granddaughters graduation on Sunday. With "heat alerts" being posted for the region, Sunday through Wednesday, by the National Weather Service, there can be little doubt that the freestones, (BR,(below Stockport), BK, Willow, and EB will all hit temperatures above 70 degrees. Please concentrate your efforts on the cooler waters of the WB and UEB.

A few days ago Chris Z asked why rainbows don't take streamers. Here's my thoughts' on the matter. The simple answer would be that they like flies better and have evolved as a fly eating machine while their cousins the browns have shown a decided preference for eating fish.  

Start with their mouth structure. The 'bows mouths are much more fragile than the browns. It's hard to find an 18 inch rainbow that still has all of his mouth parts intact. Take a gander at DRC's daily parade of browns, many of which are caught on streamers and you will see heavy mouth parts made for clamping down on their great grandchildren, (you have to look all the way back to Freddie's fish on the 16th to see any damage to a brown's jaws) Their sturdy mouths also do a much better job of withstanding the rigors of angler hook removals than do the 'bows. 

How many of you have had a big brown grab a yearling trout that you hooked? I average one or two a year. How many of you have had a rainbow grab a yearling trout you hooked? After thirty five years on the river my answer remains none.

During big bug season the percentage of fish I catch that are over 17 inches long runs as high as 50%, this includes both browns and rainbows. As soon as the big bug season ends the percentage of big browns I catch starts to decline. The percentage of rainbows over 17 inches, however, remains relatively constant throughout the year. Why? The big browns are fish eating machines and the rainbows, God love em, like to eat flies.  


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