Browns are most abundant in the Carson, including its forks.

NEW MEXICO
For the best in combat fishing, head to the San Juan for its huge browns and huge crowds.

If you're like me and you abhor mob scenes, don't despair. New Mexico boasts more brown-trout water than most of us are capable of casting into in a lifetime.

Cimarron in Spanish means "wild and untamed," and that's just the sort of brown trout you'll find swimming its pools and riffles. The river below Eagle's Nest Lake dam is a fertile, spring-creek-like tailwater fishery.

New Mexico Department of Game and Fish estimates it contains nearly 4,000 catchable trout per mile. Since it's Special Trout Waters, regulations demand single, barbless-hook flies or lures. Abundant hatches, with browns programmed to look up make this a dry-fly slingers dream.

One of the more scenic and productive high-country treasures is the upper Chama River. Low September flows bode well for dry-fly artists. Other favorites include Mundo Lake, home to some of the state's heftiest browns. Rio Pueblo, a tributary of the Rio Grande below Taos, is difficult to fly-fish, but its fat browns more than compensate for the extra effort.

Much the same goes for the Rio Hondo, another small but interesting Rio Grande trib north of Taos.

UTAH
With exceptions of the Flaming Gorge Reservoir and the Green and -- perhaps -- Provo rivers, this is another state that probably doesn't appear on most anglers' must-do lists. But brown trout freaks should bear in mind that every Blue Ribbon stream lists brown trout as a principal species. You might want to reconsider.

But beyond the Blue Ribbon list is a host of less famous but productive waters. Some of them are the Ogden, Beaver and Lake Fork rivers, south Uintas, upper Escalante River, Fremont River, Santa Clara River near Veyo and Cottonwood Creek near Castledale, Rock Creek, west Uintas, Antimony Creek and Corn Creek near Kanosh.

Each of these off-the-beaten-track waters provides decent brown trout fishing, minus the crowds. Still waters are another option. Among others, East Canyon Reservoir near Morgan, Echo Reservoir near Ogden, Porcupine Reservoir near Hyrum, Rockport Reservoir near Wanship, Starvation Reservoir near Duschesne, Jordanelle Reservoir near Heber, and Moon Lake near Mountain Home all hold browns, some of them quite large.

WYOMING
Don't spread it around, but it was Ray Bergman who first put me onto the Encampment River's brown trout.

Innocently enough, the Encampment flows north out of Colorado into Wyoming along the eastern flank of the Sierra Madres. At Entrance Falls, its mood suddenly changes as it drops into an 18-mile-long pocket-water canyon infested with brown trout.

It's highly recommended for any anglers looking to score a brown trout fix, Wyoming style. This is a great hopper stream, by the way, and September is prime time.

West of the main Encampment, the so-called North Platte River Valley offers brown trout seekers a wealth of opportunities. This is not the famous North Platte scene, however, but rather its many relatively untapped tributaries within the Medicine Bow National Forest.

Not all of it holds brown trout, but enough does. Most run from 10 to 15 inches, but 18 inches is not uncommon. This is also dry-fly country. Hatches are frequent, but something close is usually good enough.

Want proof?
Consider my wife Gale, who rarely if ever casts anything other than her favorite go-to Orange Stimi -- and does quite well. Size 14, in case you're wondering.