Minnows are commonly used, particularly in the spring, for catching browns in ponds and lakes. Others troll with live or dead baitfish. Many anglers, however, prefer to troll with baitcasting tackle. But most anglers who use whole crawfish for bait fish on larger streams, ponds, and lakes and have big brown trout in mind. Drift it in the current as above, or use a heavier sinker and drag the crawfish little by little along the bottom.
Many fishermen prefer to use crawfish in the soft-shell stage.
Or drift the insect downstream. Adult insects can often be found in streamside vegetation. Immature aquatic insects can be found by turning over rock in a stream bed, or sifting through underwater venation, dead leaves, and silt or mud. On opening day of trout season on a stream freshly stocked with hatchery browns, you will no doubt see anglers with bits of cheese, kernels of corn, or miniature marshmallows dangling from the tips of their rods. And you will also see these anglers catching fish.