Downtown Edmonton Brown Trout
 

Was at the bottom of the island west of the 75th street bridge on the NSR today practicing with the spey rod and ended up pulling in a 20+" brown trout. Swinging a chartreuse clouser through a ~5' deep tail-out type area. It was definitely a surprise!

After checking on here it looks like others have seen trout in the Edmonton stretch. Any recent experiences?

Didnt notice any redds after I started looking (it was in an area with a fair bit of cobble and current), and he didn't seem to be displaying any typical fall/spawn colors.

A pretty great late fall day!

A few photos:
https://i.imgur.com/RThy9OZ.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/pq40ijh.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/sKWkJqq.jpg

You were rewarded for your efforts!

Thanks for posting and sharing those pictures!

BW

WOW!!! There are plenty of rivers that connect to the NSR that hold brown trout, but that is an amazing prize. That fish is in amazing shape.

that fish has definitely enjoyed a few good meals.

Beautiful trout and excellent to see in this reach of the river. There was a brown trout stocking quite a few years ago in this reach. I have heard of a couple being caught in recent years around Edmonton.

I think there may be a few more around than realized. Just no one really fishes specifically for them. Bigger browns don't hang out in goldeye and walleye backwaters.

Before they put in the bighorn and brazeau dams bull trout used to be around Edmonton too.

Awesome catch man, congrats!

Great report and post! That might get a few more of us fly chuckers thinking about it.

Congrats on the great catch!

Sweet! Thanx for posting.

Thanks for the kind words fellas! Glad my fly ended up in the right place and I got to briefly cross paths with this resilient specimen.

Anyone know why it is that some are able to thrive this far down? Maybe the temps are just low enough to allow them to live, but high enough to mess with reproduction? Or maybe there are just some genetic anomalies out there?


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ch_b was wondering if you are catching any Redhorse Suckers with your fly rod?

I have fished NS River and have caught some, lb. for lb. they really fight hard and would be a blast to catch on a wet fly.

Not yet! Just walleye, pike and this trout so far. My gut tells me it would be tough getting deep enough but I’m sure nymphing/baitfish patterns would be productive if you can get in the zone


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Give it a try near Devon by the water treatment facility lots of Redhorse Suckers there and they fight way harder then Walleye. I caught a 23" Walleye there this summer there too. Could be a nice place to try. :)

Great job- beauty trout......Thanks for posting.

Awesome fish. Thanks for posting pics.

Oct 27th I got a nice Brown also....


https://i.imgur.com/ZZoo66u.jpg

Nice fish fellows.

That’s awesome, you never know where you’all find them browns!

Browns were introduced to the river a few years ago so conditions must be compatible for the browns to do good. They were released in a couple places between Devon and Ft. Sask. Now that the water is cooling off the trout might be more active and traveling more too.

I swear there must be more browns around than we know. Just no one is fishing for them. It's like the 30 lb. pike in the river. Not too many anglers target them.

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Deep's brown trout is gorgeous too.

I think I’m starting to agree! Very cool. Will have to try targeting them!


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That’s a beauty!


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Amazing!

Wow - that is totally encouraging to see - nice catches there guys!

Nice to see some browns being caught in the NSR,,, As pointed out earlier by Red Bullets, browns were stocked in the Edmonton area many years ago to see if they would take hold,,, but they didn't really take (issues with natural recruitment?)

So I would suspect these fish are not related to that stocking, but rather are fish that have migrated downstream from Rocky Mountain House area, or from below the Brazeau, stretches of river known to harbour a few browns.

The size and health of these two browns does indicate though that browns can certainly survive in the Edmonton area. I have always hoped that SRD would someday undertake to an annual brown trout stocking program to create a viable trout fishery in the NSR by Edmonton.

I agree, and if they do I'd like to see it as a catch and release fishery only.

BW

Great fish!

Curious about setup you folks use in a river like the N. Sask. I am waaaayyyyy down south, so not familiar with your waters at all, but assume there are some pike in there too. If you are using "lighter" leader/tippet, targeting walleye or browns, are you prone to lose the odd hook to a toothy slough shark? I haven't really fished warmer mixed-species rivers like this, so curious how others approach it.

Ok thats real cool!!

Hasnt been an issue for me personally, although I usually just run a 5 foot section of 12lb mono from my tip to the fly. Havent had any lost pike yet, but I think I have just been lucky. I have lost a lot of flies to rocks/logs.

I did catch a brown trout...not from NSR. A lot of big browns are in Lake X.....hehe.

That’s awesome, thanks for posting!

Amazing what lurks in the river through a city....just be careful what you snag onto periodically:)