# East Side River



## Mbennie (Jun 24, 2005)

These 2 Brown colors and spots are very dissimilar, are they different strains? Caught in ES river today.









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## kzoofisher (Mar 6, 2011)

Possibly. Possibly also well mixed of the several strains planted there, check the stocking reports for that. Most likely is that they just look different.


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## TroutFishingBear (Aug 31, 2007)

Not different strains.


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## Duckysrt8 (Apr 17, 2019)

I agree, they do look very different, but don’t know anything about different strains of browns and their appearance. I do know that I have caught browns (on the Au Sable for example) out of the same hole that look very different. Some very dark, some lighter with more/less spots. Either way, those some nice fish!


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## Hackman (Aug 13, 2008)

Duckysrt8 said:


> I agree, they do look very different, but don’t know anything about different strains of browns and their appearance. I do know that I have caught browns (on the Au Sable for example) out of the same hole that look very different. Some very dark, some lighter with more/less spots. Either way, those some nice fish!


I ve fished the rifle all times of the year some 40 years. Talked to DNR fish biologist told her alot of the browns were under 15 in mark. She told me that Rifle is sort of a hachtery and after 2 years the browns migrate downstream to the lake. They were looking at different strains that would stay in river all the time. I have caught some lake run browns early winter that are silver full of eggs that migrate from the lake and then probally float back down. Before ice up fishing can be very good.


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## andyotto (Sep 11, 2003)

Hackman said:


> I ve fished the rifle all times of the year some 40 years. Talked to DNR fish biologist told her alot of the browns were under 15 in mark. She told me that Rifle is sort of a hachtery and after 2 years the browns migrate downstream to the lake. They were looking at different strains that would stay in river all the time. I have caught some lake run browns early winter that are silver full of eggs that migrate from the lake and then probally float back down. Before ice up fishing can be very good.


I hope they don't find one. That's probably the source of some of the browns we get in the bay.


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## SJC (Sep 3, 2002)

Hackman said:


> I ve fished the rifle all times of the year some 40 years. Talked to DNR fish biologist told her alot of the browns were under 15 in mark. She told me that Rifle is sort of a hachtery and after 2 years the browns migrate downstream to the lake. They were looking at different strains that would stay in river all the time. I have caught some lake run browns early winter that are silver full of eggs that migrate from the lake and then probally float back down. Before ice up fishing can be very good.


A fair number browns in this system do become lake runs. However, the number of lake runs that this river gets is a small fraction of what it used to be. They are already planting strains that are less likely to leave the river. Yes there are still some lake runs, but the entire system used to be lousy with them at times. This is why they started allowing browns to be kept during the extended season, so people could target the lake runs. Now they have changed strains and the river gets few lake runs but brown trout are still legal to keep during the extended season if they are 15" and up. This is the reason there are far fewer browns over 15" in the Rifle now days.

During the late fall, winter and early spring browns on this river are super gullible and they school up in predictable wintering water. Just before and after ice up certain holes and stretches used to be filled with hundreds of browns of all sizes. You could literally catch them every drift. They are super vulnerable in post spawn and winter mode. We used to unceremoniously haul out river browns on spawn while steelhead fishing that would make any fly fisher's knees knock. You simply cannot catch the size and #s during the warmer months of the traditional trout season and there was not nearly the amount of large trout killed on the Rifle before you could keep browns in the extended season. After they allowed browns to be kept during the extended season, the quality and quantity of the browns suffered badly, period. As soon as most Rifle river browns hit 15" they leave on a rope...


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