In the quest to learn more about Brown trout and how to target them I have been reading as much as I can about them. One thing I have learned is that they known to come out at night to hunt. I am going to attempt night fishing for brown trout for the first time in May. I have some big black streamers , some mouse patterns, and a 7 weight. Am reading to limit my use of artificial light or risk spooking them. What about red lights? Any input regarding targeting brown trout at night? Useful tactics or patterns? What type of water should I target? Deep holes? Riffles above deep holes? shallow water? or all of the above etc? Best tactics for stripping streamers or mouse patterns at night etc. Tight lines.

Now this is an interesting thread! I am going to give you my .2-cents worth, which will cost you about $500 when you're all done: Hire a guide. Learn and repeat at will.

Where is Robert Hunter?

Never fished for them at night and have caught a ton.
Lower light, early in day or evening is good. Cloudy days as well.

May can be high water here so I wait til later in June or so or hit them before water gets up fast and high.
Small streams they'll be hiding under weeds or cut banks, deeper holes below jumpy water and at bends in the stream.

Fun fish and can be aggressive, if at altitude they may be hungry in May.
We have them in small streams up here as well as the rivers. They fight hard and are fun to catch.

^^ I too have been successful fishing as stated above. Some of my absolute best days catching browns has been on dry flies in both size and numbers. As farasnight fishing I am looking for a way to sift through the stocker rainbows, beat the crowds, and target some big fish, besides it sounds downright cool! From what I am reading I should expect less fish but possibly really BIG ones. Of course a guide would increase my learning curve, but what fun is that when I can learn the hard way? I actually know of an Oklahoma guide who sometimes offers night trips. I'd love to do one sometime, however after buying a few fly rods and reels, tons of tying materials, and a handful of big streamers lately, my wife is giving me the stink eye on my fishing expenditures LOL

Here is an exerpt from an article I read this morning regarding what type of water to target.

"When I’m mousing at night, which is most of the time, my strategy changes.
Do you remember when I mentioned that big brown trout usually hunt at night? They patrol the shallows for prey—I usually find them in 12” to 24” inches of water. Don’t waste time fishing deeper areas with a surface fly.
Let’s get specific.
Big brown trout tend to frequent the inside corners of river bends at night. Why? Because the inside corner is the slower and shallower section in a bend, and it’s where prey animals are more likely to be found. The outside corner of a bend is deeper and faster, and baitfish don’t like it there.
When you find an inside bend, stand upstream and on the same side of the river. Cast your mouse pattern across the water towards the other side of the river and let the current swing your mouse towards the shore of the inside bend.
You don’t need to strip-in any line. Just let the mouse swing around towards the bank.
My anticipation of a strike begins once the mouse swings to within eight feet of the shoreline. This last part of the swing, from eight-feet out all the way to the bank, is when I’m hyper-attentive. This is the strike zone. Buckle-up."

Throwing mice? Sounds like New Zealand. Not a lot of bends on the White (if that is what you're thinking) is my recollection, but I may be totally wrong.

Flycaster, not the White.I'm going to try it on the LMF. It's no secret that there are resident browns and some big ones too. Most people never catch them, but there are some stud browns in the river. Not going to specifically target bends, but am trying to think of places that I know might hold browns. Maybe deeper spots with access to slower shallow water, definitely the inside seams of deep pools. Will move around and try multiple spots and presentations, pretty sure I will have open access to any spot I want. I might get skunked, probably will... but ya never know and that is the beauty of fishing. Will definitely learn something and might even get the hang of it one day. I have some mouse patterns and streamers too. Prob will start with streamers. The guide I'm referring to is Donovan Clary and the post where I saw him advertising night trips on the LMF stated he was throwing streamers on sink tip. On another forum a member mentioned he has had some success on the LMF mousing. Am hoping to learn a few things and put them into practice out West too.



exerpt from another article

"A mistake anglers often make is fishing the same deep hole they typically would fish during daytime. Brown trout will move into shallow sandy tail-outs, or push into the head of a run where the water might be less than 24” in depth. The inside seam of a deep pool also offers a great ambush point for a large brown trout."

Neat thread.

update
I threw mice patterns Friday night,I had 3 eats and caught one little stocker bow. Saturday evening I fished dry flies until dark and then fished mouse patterns until about 10:30. The dry ly action between 6:30 and 8:30 was insane. Storms were blowing up all around, wind, lightning, and some rain, but the fish loved it. I was tired from staying up until 3 am the night before, so I didn't stay out as late as I had planned. I may have had an eat, but missed it. Gotta remember to strip set.. The fish were going nuts in the dark. Could hear lots of swirls and splashes up shallow. Looking back I should have fished another hour or two and maybe switched over to a small popper or tried a streamer. All in all I'll call it a success. The browns I did catch were on dry flies. Learned some things and will try it again in the future.

Where are you fishing is the most important question. Anywhere you fish for them in headwaters in the Rockies they’re probably going to be rising for dried just like everything else will be and it’s a daytime bite. Just stay downstream of them so they don’t spook. If you’re fishing the white then yes, you may want to fish at night. Either way a big sculpin pattern is going to be hard to beat. Sculpin and sometimes wooly buggers are the only way to go on the white if you’re fishing streamers. In areas with lots of Shad a white clouser minnow or a white zonker pattern is a dang good pattern for them. When there are lots of crawfish the will demolish a crawfish pattern of some kind in olive colors and if the crawfish are orange in color I hand tie a pine squirrel zonker in a rusty orange color. Tailwaters are generally where you go with the big streamers and headwaters are where you will want to stick with the match the hatch dries. When fishing for browns at night I generally try to use the same things I’d toss if I were fishing for walleye. If the waters real deep fish you might even want a sink tip. Here’s the general rule of thumb, headwaters fish dries in the daytime, tailwaters with big fish you want streamers and nighttime might give you a leg up. Get a picture of the baitfish that live in those Rivers and develop a fly pattern that matches.

Good info Mckinneycrappiecatcher.
Interesting, I have seen a lot of crawfish in different places, need to add some craw patterns to the box.