Photo by Tom Evans

A bluff-bound creek bend and small upstream drop form a huge pool along a small creek. The creek's current races toward the bluff at the head of the hole. A toppled tree spreads its branches into the deepest water, guarding a dark, bottomless-seeming eddy that's beside that rock wall. A big brown trout lurks in the bottom of the hole in a spot where no angler could possibly present an offering.

Adult brown trout like the deepest, darkest holes they can find and the thickest cover they can bury themselves in. They also tend to be warier than rainbow or brook trout and often become largely nocturnal as they grow older. These factors add up to make browns more challenging than their cousins, adding intrigue for veteran trout fishermen and increasing the likeliness of individual fish reaching larger sizes.

A little less domesticated than hatchery strains of rainbow trout, even stocked brown trout tend to do well in the wild, where the habitat meets their needs. A few individuals usually escape early harvest for a few years and grow to large sizes, creating high-quality fish that look and act like wild trout, despite being hatchery raised.

The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources (KDFWR) began stocking brown trout in Commonwealth waters in 1982. That first stocking occurred in Lake Cumberland's tailwater. The immediate success and obvious appeal of brown trout caused the department to consider ways to expand the brown trout program, and in 1986 they began stocking browns in other streams.

Brown trout waters currently include four tailwaters and nine free-flowing Kentucky streams. In addition, the KDFWR stocks brown trout in two streams on Fort Campbell, which fall under special management. These waters are actually in Tennessee, but the licensing is reciprocal.

All Kentucky brown trout streams stay cold enough and have sufficiently good habitat to support brown trout throughout the year, and the fisheries are managed for put-grow-and-take opportunities. Minimal natural reproduction appears to occur in a couple of streams, according to Jim Axon, assistant chief of fisheries for the KDFWR. However, all of Kentucky's brown trout populations are primarily dependent on hatchery efforts.

Except on Chimney Top Creek, where fingerling browns are stocked, all brown trout are stocked as 8-inch fish, once per year, on an unannounced date, which is typically in the fall. With a statewide 12-inch minimum size on brown trout, the fish are not yet legal for harvest when they are stocked and typically will not be for another year. This allows the fish to get acclimated and creates "semi-wild" brown trout populations.

Brown trout stocking densities are generally lower than rainbow stocking densities and smaller fish are used because they are put in the streams with the purpose of creating populations, as opposed to stocking fish that likely will be caught out quickly. Catchable-size rainbows are also stocked in most of Kentucky's brown trout streams.

Kentucky has a statewide three-fish limit for brown trout (part of a combined eight-fish limit for rainbow and brown trout) and a 12-inch minimum size. Additional protection is afforded on a few other streams, and more special regulations are being considered with an aim of creating more high-quality brown trout fisheries.

All streams included in the brown trout program provide cold enough water through the summer and good enough habitat to sustain brown trout populations, and all provide good fishing opportunities, according to Axon. The Cumberland, without question, is the best of the group, both in terms of the amount of opportunity and the sizes its fish can reach. However, the other streams provide very different types of experiences.