Rainbow/brown trout stocked in deep lakes

I've been fishing a lake that is deeper with very clear water for many years for panfish, etc. and know the lake pretty well for the "easy" fish. It has had rainbow trout stocked in it every year for as long as I can remember, but this is the first year I've actively tried to get the trout. So I bought a downrigger, and have spent a ton of time reading about trout and trying to understand them. But despite having tried all kinds of stuff I simply can not get them to bite anything, whether it's trolling with a downrigger or simply dropping a bait down to them over the side of the bait. The lake gets to about 90' deep, I mark fiah that I think are trout in 40' to 80' of water, usually 5-10' above the bottom. The lake is not connected to a river, like I said it's stocked so this is not their natural habitat. Anyone else have any luck with stocked trout in these kind of lakes? Am I wasting my time or is there hope that I'll get one?

Re: Rainbow/brown trout stocked in deep lakes

I too have a fishing lake here that is stocked with rainbows. 20' deep.

I only can catch them with a small minnow lure with a spinner. Run it deep. And only in early spring or late fall when the temps are colder --- sweatshirt weather.

Rainbows like cold water. And they really don't like to be caught. hahahah. Fun fish to go for.

Re: Rainbow/brown trout stocked in deep lakes

Stocked trout like minimarshmallows.

Pop gear----snubber-------------3' 6# leader----- #1 hook with the barb mashed down and 1.5" of night crawler.

Slow trolled at different depths, hasn't failed me yet....

summer time, trout travel in thermoclines. thermoclines are collums of water generally deep.. if your in 100ft of water, the thermocline may be 75 feet down.. trout need cold water to be happy..if you see them at a suspended level that's why they are there,, .that's why in the summer they are "boxed in" a bit to those levels.. how does one get there,, downriggers yes,, also consider getting a line counting reel.. you can target your bait in the area you seeing fish and wont be guessing... I just bought (2) Okuma cold water line counters (trolling reels), they work nice on the 9 ft trolling rod, you also can toss them on a med/heavy 6 ft rod for jigging and get to the right depth every time,, Okuma fan here!! very nice product... I too am hunting deep water lake trout.. in NYS Finger Lakes.. good luck

The only thing I have ever used is needle fish,and get it down to them.

In the high mountain lakes in Arizona, we used to slow troll worms on the back end of a 24" Cowbell set. trolled at about 3.5 MPH 40-50 yds behind the boat. We would catch them all day long.

-E