Is the Brown better than a rainbow?

Why?

I keep noticing  you avid trout guys like the monster brownie, over a massive rainbow.

Even in Erie, Browns are given 2 to 1 "credit" over their larger Rainbow cousins in the one fly.

while I grant you that you're small fingerling or barely legal Rainbow stockie aint much of a fight; their small, often caught in cold waterand usually brought in green and (truth to be told) pretty hysterical/crazy for their size.

now on the other a 3#+ rainbow can be all you can take.  heavy forbid you get a jumper.

and they can be just beautiful esp if they get that intense red stripe. (and are nature grown, not lazy hatchery/farm animals)

it has more to do with Wild vs. Stocked than brown vs bow

wild bows are pound for pound some hard fighting fish
problem is finding them over a pound

stocked bows...

you know I've not encased both in the "aluminum coffin of death" but I would say they both taste like fish food--IF stocked.
 
otherwise, trout is rather good smoked and it seems like a smoked trout taste is more how good your recipe is and how fresh your fish is.
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but this feeling that rainbows are much easier to catch seems to be part of why people take pride in browns.  I think they're a little off, though.
 
I think rainbows are only easier because they like current more and in places where a person spooks less fish.  Any big fish in shallow cover or in the tail end of a pool would be a hard fish to target.

agreed... but
 
You do not think that rainbows favor current more than Browns?  Are you sure? I'm not a trout bum..but It always seemed like rainbows hung in heavier current to me.
 
huh.
 
I basing much of this on my experience at the Kinzua tailwaters.  both forage, O2, and temperature are generally appropriate for both fish. 
 
It does seem like rainbows are a easier to catch up here.
 
but then I do agree that the commission seems to go for rainbows because they are cheap.  and because of this maybe we catch more rainbows because there just plain are a lot more rainbows, (not their SO much easier to catch).
 

The reason browns are 2/1 over rainbows, at the "One Fly" is simply because there are less of them, and they are slightly more difficult to hook and land.

It is all about supply and demand.  Or so I was told in economics class year ago.  But seriously, we all want to catch something that is harder to catch.  If it were the other way around we would all want to catch the big bow.

Well, in all honesty, the big bow has been the one that has eluded me. I have caught tons of big browns, but the rainbows, the biggest one I caught was 23" the rest of the bows have all been 16-18".
As far as fights.. The browns although sometimes acrobatic, mostly run and go deep.. the rainbows run and sometimes come 5 feet out of the water. I dont find either one particularly easier then the other.
So i guess when I look at it, maybe the 16-18 inch rainbows are easy to catch, but the big bows seem to be harder to catch for me then the browns.

If your talking about the coloration on the outside skin, that comes from the amount of oxygen in the water they are in. In the case of the Kinzua dam, if you catch a large brown that has spent his time in or close to the tailrace it will be silver like a fresh steelhead with nearly black spots instead of the bright colors you find in a stream brown.

The last two bigger browns I caught in the spillway were very dark fish.
 

Those larger fish are tough in that heavy flow....
 
Of the 3 Brownies I've seen up there, 2-were lighter colored and the one was really dark brown..
 
There's just something about a big old hookjawed Brownie....

I think the major reason Rainbows are caught more is simply there are more rainbow that are stocked then brown, so by percentage, you will catch more rainbows. But those statistics can be swayed by the time of the fishing that is being done. In the summer Rainbows fill the riffles and the browns go to their deep lair. If the majority of people that fish for trout in the summer fish the daylight hours, I am going to make a guess and say they are going to catch more Rainbows. If they swapped fishing times and instead of fishing the daylight hours, fished the night time hours I bet an increasing number of browns would be caught.
The tailwaters holds monsters of both. I have seen rainbows 30" or better and have never caught one. I know there are just as big or bigger browns as well. I think a lot of the fish caught and kind of fish depends a lot on what time of the day people are fishing.
The river gets a tremendous amount of people pressure whether it be fishermen, canoes, or jet boats.. all that traffic pushes those big boys in the deep holes and under rocks until night fall and then they come out and play.
Pound for pound, I dont notice a big difference in the fight of either, I think they both are equal.