Brown Trout Feeding
Brown Trout fry feed on insects and other invertebrates such as flies, caddis, stonefly, mayfly and pretty much any other winged insect or any other insect that falls into the water.
Fry Food Preferences
Grasshoppers are a little too large for the fry as are many of the flies. These are usually the domain of juvenile and adult Brown Trout.
Both larvae and adults are enjoyed by Brown Trout. However due to their size, Brown Trout fry take mostly to larval insects.
Adult Brown Trout fit the profile of a standard freshwater fish predator that’s also prey for other animals and larger fish.
Most lake adult fish species as well as birds and even bears will feed on the young Brown Trout.
Adult Food Preferences
As adults they don’t have to worry about other fish predators but they will still avoid sticking to open water unless they’re out hunting.
Adult Brown Trout are known to eat suckers, sculpins, shad, whitefish, rainbow trout and even young Brown Trout when feeding.
In fact the adults will go for pretty much whatever is the common bait fish in the lake, river or stream that they happen to be in.
Larger Brown trout will also feed on small terrestrial animals that fall into the water such as baby birds falling from overhanging nests, or even swimming mice or voles.
Active Feeding Times
Brown trout sometimes do not actively feed until the late afternoon or early evening but when the weather is cool they will feed during the day as well. However, they are active night feeders.
Like all other freshwater fish, Brown Trout don’t feed in the 30 minutes before and after sunset as their eyes need time to adjust to the changing light conditions. If it’s a cloudy day with thick clouds, they may feed a little earlier.
Some research we found even indicates that large Adult Brown Trout tend to prefer feeding at night. When we first heard this we were a little suspect as large fish generally don’t get large by just feeding at night, which only lasts about 7 hours in the summer time.
We suspect it’s where there’s a predominance of larger Brown Trout in the environment just because they have a voracious appetite and are always feeding.
Brown Trout Lures
Brown Trout can be caught with artificial flies, jigs, plastic worm imitations, spinners and other lures.
Unlike Brook Trout and Rainbow Trout, Brown Trout prefer natural-looking artificial flies to blatantly fake red, white, or blue flies.
Brown Trout have impressive faculties of vision, smell and hearing. They’re able to focus on 2 objects placed at different distances at once in dim, cloudy waters.
