I just got back from 3 days of fishing the Owyhee River in eastern Oregon with a fellow rod builder, Rick Robbins, from West Virginia.  Lots of big browns.  I chose a 8′  3″  5 wt bamboo rod for most of my fishing.  We had great success on  #22 Trico Spinners every morning, and matched them on Furled Leaders from Cutthroat Leaders in Boise, Idaho and 6X tippets.   Tan and/or black ants on 5X Tippets worked well in the afternoons and evenings.  Check it out.

Morning on the Owyhee River.

Trico Spinners.

#22 Trico Spinner Patterns.

A nice Brown Trout that fell to a #14 Tan Ant pattern one afternoon.