In a few short days my friend and I will be camping at a remote Oregon lake in the Cascade Mountains which is inhabited mostly by brook trout. Here in Oregon brook trout are kind of an afterthought compared to the more common rainbows. I have been fishing for rainbows, cutthroat, and browns my whole life but have little expirience with brooks. The main concern I have is locating the fish. It is a small 43 acre lake, but it reaches depths of 100 feet. I would usually look for rainbows in 8-20 feet of water feeding in the morning and evening on insects, scuds, and small fish but I'm not sure about the cold water loving brooks. I do have a boat, but trolling is out of the question because no motors are allowed on the lake. Any help would be greatly appreciated. There are also other small hike in lakes I plan on fishing while I am there as well so if all else fails it may be easier to locate fish in them since some are as small as 8 acres. Any tips on methods and such would be nice as well. I know brook trout are primarily insect eaters so I have tied a variety of flies and jigs to match the food sources that should be present. I also always carry a good selection of spinners and spoons with me and I will probably even take some worms just in case I have to resort to that. Thanks in advance for any help you can give.

I don't have much experience with trout but I know a thing or two about brookies and I know they go for rainbow-imitating spoons, I prefer the Acme Little Cleo, but not sure about depth specifications, I catch mine near the surface, maybe 3 feet down.

Thanks for the info. We decided to go early and left on friday. I just got back. You are exactly right about the depth. We caught fish in water as shallow as a foot deep. Even the fish in the deep water were near the surface. They did not seem to be too picky. I don't think it would have mattered what fly pattern I threw out, they were all over anything that touched the surface. I probably caught over 100 in total and that is not an exaggeration at all. They were mostly small though. An average fish was only 7-8 inches.

Wow, that sounds like a killer day! Glad I could help you out and congrats on your fish!

I leave for the Oregon Coast on Thursday and plan to fish a stream near a relatives house and any other nearby fresh bodies of water.  If I catch any Brook Trout I will post some pictures!  

Unfortunately, you are unlikely to find brook trout on the Oregon coast. It is low elevation and the streams are mostly too warm. Brooks tend to be found in mostly high elevations and in the most pristine sections of rivers near the headwaters here in Oregon. They are far less commonly found in Oregon than rainbows and cutthroat. The good news is that depending on where you are, you should have a lot of options anyway. If you are on a good stream the rainbow and cutthroat fishing should be good, sea run cutthroat are starting to show up in the lower sections of some rivers, chinook and coho salmon are entering some coastal rivers, and fishing off of the jetties should be good for greenling and various other rockfish (maybe even marine perch too depending on where you are). And if that was not enough, the coastal lakes should be good right now for trout, bass, crappie, bluegill, perch, and brown bullhead catfish. I hope you plan on staying a while. It may take some time to cover all of the bases here.

Posted By rwestbrook4 on 15 Aug 2012 11:34 AM
Unfortunately, you are unlikely to find brook trout on the Oregon coast. It is low elevation and the streams are mostly too warm. Brooks tend to be found in mostly high elevations and in the most pristine sections of rivers near the headwaters here in Oregon. They are far less commonly found in Oregon than rainbows and cutthroat. The good news is that depending on where you are, you should have a lot of options anyway. If you are on a good stream the rainbow and cutthroat fishing should be good, sea run cutthroat are starting to show up in the lower sections of some rivers, chinook and coho salmon are entering some coastal rivers, and fishing off of the jetties should be good for greenling and various other rockfish (maybe even marine perch too depending on where you are). And if that was not enough, the coastal lakes should be good right now for trout, bass, crappie, bluegill, perch, and brown bullhead catfish. I hope you plan on staying a while. It may take some time to cover all of the bases here.

Thanks for the info! I will be near Astoria Oregon and will be there for only about 4 days I believe. I am visiting my sister but she lives right near a stream and she said there are trout in there so as long as I even get to fish for an hour I will be happy as a clam! I get excited fishing new bodies of water!