Rainbow Trout

[rwise]

What is the best bait for rainbow trout? There is a lake near me that is stocked with them starting the 2nd of November through March 29. The last time I went trout fishing was in Colarado many years ago.

 

[Ross J]

Re: Rainbow Trout

Are you telling me that you're allowed to use bait over there for Rainbow Trout?<br />Ross

 

[rwise]

Re: Rainbow Trout

Last time I used salmon eggs! Most areas need a barbless hock, this area you need the barbless hook if you are going to catch and release. They want you to take the fish, they are put there and when the weather turns hot they will not survive!

 

[mountainboy]

Re: Rainbow Trout

Hey Rwise--rainbow trout love powerbait, fireballs, worms. I like to use rainbow glitter powerbait. If you want to use spinners-- panther martins, mepps work very well. Good luck

 

[Fishbusters]

Re: Rainbow Trout

I like flies but if what you want is to catch as many trout as you can regular old night crawlers. I hook them on a #6 hook. If the trout are a little small I use half a worm. Now the kicker is I use as light a line as possible preferably Berkley Vanish and no weight as the crawler gives it enough weight to cast and it sinks naturally and drives them wild. Also only thread the worm on or hook it through once. DO NOT bunch up the worm you want it to dangle and wiggle naturally. This is my #1 trout bait and it works for other species too.

 

[rwise]

Re: Rainbow Trout

Well I'm headed out in the morning, I'll post how it goes. Read in another thread that "Emby" uses starburst fruit chews, for $.35 I'll try them! Thanx for the tips, it should be fun.<br /><br />Richard<br /><br />Well looks like the only thing that worked was the power baits! Wind 15 to 25 mph. maybe they don't know what real bait is comming from a hatchery! I did get one hit on the starburst fruit chews!

 

[digimortal777]

Re: Rainbow Trout

rapala make some great trout baits

 

[Emby]

Re: Rainbow Trout

Go Starburst! What color/flavor did you get the hit on!?<br /><br />As I said in the other post, they work well in still water. If that wind was moving the water much, or if the lake has any kind of current, the smell seems to dissapate quickly. The times my kid bank fishes with me, he uses Power Bait - Capt. America (red/white/blue with sparkles), flo orange, & flo yellow/green stripe are his favorites.

 

[Fishbusters]

Re: Rainbow Trout

I second Emby I wanna know how the trip went and what you caught fish on.

 

[Moose_Miller]

Re: Rainbow Trout

I'm assuming you're going to be dealing with ice before long. Through the ice here we use a little tear-drop ice jig - #10 or #12. I'm guessing these are "stock size" trout - about 10-12 inchers. Use the smallest minnows the baitshop has and nose-hook it. I use 4# Trilene, only because of the Pike in the lake here would shred anything smaller... 2# would be best though. Go down 5' or so and slowly vertical jig it - kind of like you're jigging in an imaginary gallon can. Alot of people make the mistake of jigging too fast, or too extreme. If no bites at 5', go down a few more feet and repeat, and so on. Most folks around here that catch Trout in the lake when the ice is out, use a bobber and small minnows - down 5-8'. Good luck.<br /><br />- mOOse -

 

[rwise]

Re: Rainbow Trout

Wind was 15 t0 25 mph The starburst was orange, at least the one that I got the hit on. I did not try minnows, did try worms, the only thing I have landed them on (so far) was green power bait. 10" to 9 lbs. is what they say is being put in the lake, but several people I have talked with are saying they have hung 3" fish. Gee that’s what I want to keep!? NOT. The season has just opened and this lake is near my house, .5 mile out of my normal trip home. So most of the time I'll be stopping in the evening just before sunset. So far everything I have caught is 10 - 14". The last time I was there, a 3" rainbow was jumping 6 or 8" out of the water and grabbing mosquitoes! I am stopping again tonight as they are dropping 2200 more fish in today! It's crowded compared to where I go for catfish, but it's fun! I think I'll try the red tonight.

 

[Fishbusters]

Re: Rainbow Trout

No hits on worms? Odd even for stocked fish. Anyway I hope you have some luck there. I know a pond where it is a put and take fishery will most all the trout stocked about 12 inches if that long. There are a few monsters in the pond which i believe eat one of the 12" fish when they get hungry as I have never seen or heard of one being caught. The monsters are what I call draw fish they draw you in and then you can catch the eaters out there twice to three times a week during the busy season. They don't even taste right to me I prefer wild or at least gone wild fish.

 

[rwise]

Re: Rainbow Trout

The truck arived after I got there today, it is coming out of Ava, Mo. crystal lake fishery. I am going to try the worms again as they have always been one of my favorite baits! I'm also going to try the starburst again!

 

[rwise]

Re: Rainbow Trout

Well I used the worms again this weekend but the bass and blue gill would not leave them alone. Twice I thought the rod was going to be pulled into the lake before I could get to it! Everone that has fished this lake before says its very slow now and will pick up when the weather gets colder! I have caught a few 9 - 13" fish, I have seen one 4 Lb 10 oz pulled out and heard about 3 or 4 more. It was full of eggs, is that unusual for a stocked fish? It explains why the green power bait works so well as the eggs were green!<br /><br />On another thoght, what is your favorite way af fixing them?<br /><br />Richard

 

[bvassel3]

Re: Rainbow Trout

Trout fishing in Utah can be excellent, both for small to medium size fish in streams as well as some real lunkers like this one. I caught her in a lake on a black wolley bugger, using a sinking fly line and 4 lb. test 9 foot leader. I was using my #2 weight 7 and 1/2 foot fly rod and it took about 20 minutes to land the fish. She was 28 inches long and weighed 11 pounds. I released her after this picture was taken. BV Sr.<br /><br />

 

[Scoop]

Re: Rainbow Trout

Nice Fish BV. Glad she is back in the water where she can be caught again.

 

[rwise]

Re: Rainbow Trout

BV, very nice fish! The lake I am fishing in it is not allowed to return them to the water, as they are not native to the lake and they claim “they can not survive” in Pretty Water Lake.

 

[bvassel3]

Re: Rainbow Trout

Hi rwise,<br /><br />I've found that trout, more than almost any other salt or freshwater fish, are extremely sensative to being caught. When I catch a bass, northern or catfish, they seen to be able to take almost any abuse that I give them...and still live to be caught again tomorrow. On the other hand, when I catch a trout, even if I handle it very carefully they sometimes die. One thing I have learned is that when any fish is hooked badly, meaning they have partly or mostly swallowed the hook, if I try to get the hook out of the trout with pliers or a de-hooker of some kind, it will almost always die within minutes. The answer for trout is to NOT pull on the hook once the fish is out of the water if the hook is swallowed, but to just cut the line and let the fish go. I'm sure I've caught the same large brook or rainbow trout more than once and the previous hook is always gone...digested or disintigrated by the fishes own juices I guess. That's another reason I like to use flies and not bait. The trout tend to swallow the bait much more often than they swallow the artificial flies. <br /><br />Also, unlike bass and most other fish, those trout that I just throw back seem to be stunned and don't seem to be able to recover very well on their own. What I do is to hold them in the water facing into the current for up to 5 minutes, especially the big ones over 8-10 pounds, helping them to recover. All of a sudden they will then snap out of their stuper and swim off. BV Sr.

 

[Fishbusters]

Re: Rainbow Trout

Unless I can release them alive after carefull ressucitation I usually don't keep any fish. But in the mountians I have to keep a few trout just for the daughters if nothing else. The overall favorite method is to get a good bed of coals from the fire I built earlier and take the whole gutted fish (I have to remove head for the girls otherwise leave it) and salt and pepper the inside cavity. Squeeze some lemon into the caviety and put the rind and such in the caviety. Place a small pat REAL butter inside the fish and then some more outside as well as a lemon slice or two. You then wrap the whole package a couple of times in alluminum foil and place directly on the coals. Turn once and remove from coals I usually turn it when I think it is time then remove shortly after I turn it. I am sorry I don't have an exact cooking time but i guarentee when you unwrap that fish or those fish in my case you will not have any leftovers. If you have a grill I guess you could use it instead of a fire but I like cooking over an open fire especially when camping.<br />BTW Many other species of fish are cooked well this way and you can use filletts instead of whole fish if you want you just don't have the caviety to fill that's the only diffrence.

 

[bvassel3]

Re: Rainbow Trout

I do the same thing...i.e. use aluminum foil to cook the trout when I am out in the woods or mountains. It's a great way to travel VERY light. Just a few matches, some 1 foot by 1 foot foil sheets, salt and a lemon. By putting the fish in the foil and then carefully sealing all the edges, the fish are really steamed. I find that it takes about 7-10 minutes to cook small brook trout (3-5 fish that are 7-9" each, in a foil packet). The packet gets really hot and buiges out if it is sealed properly. Be careful when you open it of the HOT steam!! I've used this with other fish and with larger fillets also, both on open fires and on the grill. It ALWAYS keeps the fish very moist! Happy eating! BV Sr.