Headed to the Sutton River on July 29th. This will be my first time fishing for these monster brook trout and I am not feeling very confident when I look at my tackle selection. I have #4 and #5 Blue Fox spinners in oranges and yellows, some spoons, a couple topwater plugs, planing on picking up some mouse pattern baits........I am thinking about taking a few buzz baits and some jigs. Any suggestions from some Sutton River Veterans?

I am no Sutton river veteran but it would be very interesting to see the results from a buzzbait for huge brook trout. Not your typical brook trout offering but maybe because no one has ever tried it. Same with the topwater plugs.

I am a huge fan of spoons for trout........but only in still water and think they generally perform poorly in streams.

Moving water is the realm of spinners and that is what I would be bringing. I would suggest bringing some outsize spinners as well........look into Helen's Muskie shop and look at some of the smaller Muskie offerings. Avoid any spinners which sport 2 sets of trebles. But some of their smaller spinners are gorgeous and made out of a bigger variety of materials than just buck tail.

Do NOT neglect premium Sampo ball bearing swivels with cross lock snaps while tossing spinners. Toss you spinner out at about a 45 degree angle to the current, give it a snap to start the blades and allow the current to sweep it across the stream with little or no reeling. Let the current do the work. Hold the rod at about a 45 degree angle upward and guide your spinner along raising and lowering slightly depending on depth and current flow. Rinse and repeat.

My set up would be a bait caster and 30 lb braid and 15lb fluorocarbon leader of 10ft in length connected via an FG knot. The bigger braid will be less likely to cause you problems. The heavier leader will let you feel the true power of the fish and give you the upper hand with big fish in the current. The bait caster will make bringing in big powerful trout less like work.

Bring back everything........line, leader, reel.

Lastly, I would definitely have a boga grip and avoid netting these fish which I think may lead to some of them dying. I would also have a waist mounted needle nose pliers to dehook quickly and efficiently.

Fly rod and mouse patterns.

I fished the Sutton a couple of years back, strictly spin fishing. The trout there will hit just about anything, but I found it extremely helpful to focus on being able to cast my lures a long distance, thus being able to cover more water. I fished heavy spinners (1/2 ounce plus) with a 7 1/2 rod, which allowed me to cast fairly far.

The fly-fishermen I was with did well on just about anything as well, but particularly seemed to enjoy surface flies like mouse patterns.

Your mileage may vary, but while we were there, the fishing improved a few miles downstream from the confluence with the Aquatuk river. Even all the way down to the pickup site the fishing was solid.

Thanks user0317, solid information. When using a spinning rod did the size of the line seem to make much difference? I had been told to use 6 lb test but was wondering if I could bump that up to 8 lb test.

No need to overthink this, and no need to bring a huge tackle box full of lures. These fish are very aggressive and hungry. As mentioned, they will hit almost anything, and they are not line-shy, so 8 or even 10 lb mono is fine. I have run the river four times, twice with Stu Oshoff and twice on my own. These are nice brookies, but they are not monsters, so lines heavier than 10 or 12 lb are not necessary. The average fish is 20" to 22" with an occasional 23" and a very rare 24" fish. Average weight 3 - 4 lb, occasional 5 lb. These sea runs don't get much bigger than that, but they do fight like hell.
Stu fished exclusively with spinning gear, and all he ever used was a #4 Vibrax spinner with barbless hooks and a squirrel tail. He generally outfished everyone with that rig, but he is a maniac fisherman, and he has fished the river more than anyone. If I were you I would bring some topwater lures. These fish look up and will aggressively eat off the surface. One fish that we ate had TWO mice in it's belly.
Of course the most fun that you can have up there is with a fly rod. If you have any skill with a fly rod at all, bring one (5-7 wt) with a supply of Dahlberg Divers, woolly buggers, mice and bass poppers. No dry flies or nymphs -- they like the big stuff.
A good sized net is very handy when fishing from the canoe (one per boat is fine), but not really necessary when wading.
At the time you are going the fish will be moving up to about mid river, with a few up near the lake, but higher concentrations beginning about 10 miles downstream. There should still be plenty of fish below the confluence of the Aquatuk.
Water level can vary tremendously from year to year, and will affect the way you wade, but not necessarily the fish numbers. One trick that I learned on my last trip last year was to bring an anchor bag (basketball net is best) and anchor in the center of the rapids and fish from both sides of the canoe. You will catch several fish, then raise anchor and drift down 50 yds, re-anchor, and catch more. A nice diversion from wading all the time.
Let me know if I can help further. Is this a self-guided trip?

I seriously doubt it will matter. Those trout are anything but cautious. For what its worth, I lost very few lures on that trip. The combination of heavy spinners and gravel did best the paint off of them quickly though. I picked a lot of cheap spinners up from panther Martin's website, in their discount section. A lot of them come with single hooks that you can swap the tables for. The hooks are a bit large, but when debarbed they come out easily.

One thing I recall about the river is that it was almost disturbingly warm above the aquatuk junction. When you would release trout they would lethargically swim by your feet. At times there would be several of them just hanging out. The aquatuk is cooler than the sutton, and it felt much more like trout water downstream from there.

Thanks for all of the great info. Yes, this is a self guided trip but I did talk to Stu for close to an hour at CanoeCopia, he was very helpful. Maybe I am over thinking the lure selection. Based on Stu's advice I have bought 60 #4 and #5 Vibrax spinners for our group of 4, sounds like this may be about all we need. Two of our party will be alternating between fly rods and spinning gear, but they are beginning fly rod users. Thanks again for the input.

Brook Trout on a black buzz bait

panther martins and a few orange cleos.

Trout is an excellent fish, for which special bait is required. And I think that the problem is not even in the river. Do not worry, I was in your place, because you do not know everything about the bait and how to fish properly. I improved my knowledg that my catch would increase, and I did it for a good reason. We are all mistaken. So do not worry.

I haven't fished the Sutton, but have fished the area west of Kuujuuac in Quebec for big Brookies (to 6 lbs). One thing I would concur with here, is that the fish are ravenous. Mepps spinners, Phoebe spoons I love, Mepps Syclops is also great. That is ALL you need to bring if spinning.

One thing not mentioned enough on this thread, these are incredibly beautiful fish and frequently you will catch one and have 5 or 6 following the one you have on. Please pinch the barbs on your hooks. It is far too easy to hurt them in the dehooking process. Try to take them off while still in the water with wet hands.

Best of luck!!

Having now fished the river once I will defer all questions to CanoeKev, his advice was perfect. Yes, I caught a few on buzz baits and it was a lot of fun, but the strike to hook up was about 1 to 4. With the #4 Vibrax spinners we hooked about half the strikes. The fish are fragile, the barbless single hook regulation is a good one that needs followed even though no one is around to check.