Trout Fishing
brown trout
3/27/12 @ 4:12 PM
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Grass hoppers are BY far my favorite live bait to use for trout, however, it is only seasonal. It's difficult to find Instar 3 or 4 grass hoppers in April/May.
For my second favorite live bait, I use creek chub tails. Like Goh said, there are lots of regulations and make sure you check your bible before you go.
I have gotten away from using worms because they expire too quickly and require too much maintenance. I too notice the trout tend to swallow the hook, but an aggressive trout will swallow just about anything.
goh, everything you said is very true. i love to eat trout but very rarely keep any. I try and not use to much live bait at all for all the reasons you mentioned. i know you like catching all the average size trout and you cant beat a grasshopper. i remember the first time i used a grasshopper when i was about 10 years old. they were all over the bank and i decided to put one on. i dont think there's trout out there that would pass up a live hopper on top of the water. plus you get to see the fish hit it which is just awesome. plus its cheap and gives you the challange to keep finding them to. it's a great way for the kids to have fun catching them while dad catch's all the fish on them now. as far as barbless jigs, i try to even file down the barbed part of the hook after flattening it with a pilers if i have the time. i've even used a hook with a longer shank on it( a longer hook) so that i can get a hold of it with something easier.
Be careful with using minnows. Streams that have had work done on them have regulations not allowing minnows to be used. The regulations book says it better. The thing I don't like about worms is that trout tend to swallow them. I have tried circle hooks with some success, but some of them still get swallowed. And yes, those were in-line circles with straight eyes and were properly snelled. Honestly though, any live bait is likely to get swallowed if you let the fish chew for too long...and sometimes there's nothing you can do about it. I've had trout suck a marabou jig down into the gullet. Even with barbless hooks, I worry about the survival of those gullet hooked fish. Just food for thought. If you're planning on keeping those fish, then it's no problem...let 'em swallow the hook. As far as the best live bait, I would make a case for grasshoppers.
take in consideration to the particular stream your fishing. if you have any previous experience on it you may remember certian holes or spots along the way. i usually take everything i know about the creek and the spots i plan on fishing into consideration while choosing my bait. the more time you spend fising an area the more you know just how it flows or works. think about the best strectch of lets say a half mile or even less sometimes. i try to remember what side of the stream is better for casting, how does the current flow in an area and how fast. do you plan on fishing one spot for a little while or just a few casts. also when first casting in a new spot im not real familiar with i get as close as i think i can and cast. then after i feel i casted through the best i can i walk up to where i was casting and try to see the area the best i can. i look for every log, rock bank, structure, depth current flow and speed. i do this for the next time i come through the area i know how things sit and what to expect before i cast. this allows me the best postion for casting possible. taking all that in consideration then i determine what bait i thing will work best for that situation. if i think several will work then i try a different one each time. but to keep from going on to long here, i would say that the good old night crawler is the old faithful of finding fish. if i want to find only larger fish not caring on how many i catch i use chub tail or a full chub. i let the chub tail slow work with the current usually and the full chub i try to let move as slow as possible and even leave it still on the bottom and allow the current to do its thing with just the right size split shot.if fishing ever gets to slow for ya, throw on a crawler. i use a 1/2-3/4 of one at a time. the trick to that is getting that worm to float down to where you want it.
mid-sized creeks and rivers try #8 husky jerks. If the fish are there I would fish it only at night. Something to try. Also, shiners and tuffy fatheads at night with light weight slip sinker rigs close to big pools and holes.
yeah its hard to beat crawlers for trout if your looking to catch alot. if your looking to catch bigger trout, than i would use chub tails or even frogs like they said. leeches are good to. but you gotta remember when fishing larger fish you have to be more patient than normal. i tend to use larger bait myself that dont appeal to the smaller fish. mainly because where i fish once you catch a fish outta a hole its takes along time before you catch another. so instead of throwing something a smaller fish is gonna go after and spook a great hole i'll use something larger. but yeah you can catch nice trout on all of the above. i would check some regs before using crawfish though. i think some waters dont allow it, some even make you cut off the pinchers, thats what ive been told, i could be wrong though. good luck
Big Brown trout love night crawlers! BUT they also eat leeches, although a little harder to carry . How about Frogs? Big trout wouldn't think twice about smashin a frog.I know someone who found a big leopard frog in the stomach of a trout.
If you want to catch your average every day stream trout, go with red worms . Some guys use chub tails at night for hogs too. For any type of big fish usually something a tad different than the last 1000 night crawlers that whizzed over their heads works best.
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