Brook Trout don’t like water temperatures above 68°F/20°CTrolling is the best technique for catching Brook Trout when they’re deep.

Casting can still land trout… but it’s a lot more work.

Water currents

Brook trout don’t go below 35 feet of water. And even for the odd fish that goes that deep, it’s not worth chasing after them.

However, you should be mindful of the currents and how the drainage of major rivers affects Brook Trout.

When they are at depth, they prefer slow moving currents and like to be close to drop offs, avoiding the mouths of rivers except when they want to feed.

The best tackle to use is not with some heavy duty planer.

  • Use a light line with a 3 way swivel, a heavy sinker and a small inline spinning lure.

Building a Brook Trout Trolling Rig

  • Cut 2 pieces of monofilament line that are 3 feet and 2 inches long.
  • Tie your lure to the to the middle eyelet on the 3 piece swivel so the lure will be horizontal to the water line.
  • Tie a 1 ounce weight to the other length of line, fixing the other to the swivel.

A light rod and reel are best as Brook Trout rarely get bigger than 1 pound. Use medium tackle if there’s other larger fish at the same depth.

Quite often Lake Trout and other Bass will be at depth too and light tackle can break under larger fish like 4 to 6 pound fish.