Stocked Trout

[Quarry Man]

Cant wait for the first day of the trout season in a few days. I was shown a type of rig at bass pro that i used when live bait fishing. Basically, it was a mainline with a .125 oz bullet weight, a swivel, a leader and a hook. kinda like a carolina rig. my thought ws to use a bobber and fish powerboat near the top of the water column in the cool morning and take the bobber of and fish the bottom later on. what do you think? also, in my state you are allowed three rods ou at once, so two will have this rig, and one will have a lure did on.

[Mocktopus]

I like a black rooster tail with gold or silver blade depending on water clarity.  I rarely dead stick so its only one rod for me. My favorite trout setup though is my fly rod stringing minnows.

[Crestliner2008]

I don't specifically fish for stockies, but have caught a ton of them while crappie fishing. Most specifically, casting small 1/16 oz. ball head jigs with plastic crappie type trailers. I prefer 2" straight tailed plastics on this presentation. The Bobby Garland's Baby Shads are a prime example. Just cast out and retrieve slowly. Like I said, very effective presentation for both species.

[Angry John]

Duo shadraps.  I destroy trout while trawling these early season from my yak.

[CoBass]

If you're going after stocked trout, I wouldn't worry too much about fishing different parts of the water column with bait. Berkley makes power nuggets in a hatchery formula that is pretty much the same thing they are fed in the hatcheries. Put a few of those on smaller sized bait holder hook using the Carolina type rig you described and you will probably have your limit in a hurry. 

 

As far as lures go, inline spinners, kastmasters, or a trout magnet hung a couple of feet below a bobber and retrieved slowly with some occasional twitches have all worked for me. A small gulp minnow on a jig head can be deadly too. 

 

Coming from a state where trout are as common as flies, it always cracks me up when I hear about states with a trout season. 

[Dorado]

19 hours ago, Crestliner2008 said:

I don't specifically fish for stockies, but have caught a ton of them while crappie fishing. Most specifically, casting small 1/16 oz. ball head jigs with plastic crappie type trailers. I prefer 2" straight tailed plastics on this presentation. The Bobby Garland's Baby Shads are a prime example. Just cast out and retrieve slowly. Like I said, very effective presentation for both species.

Do you have difficulty casting this light rig without a bobber? I want to try this. 

[.ghoti.]

10 hours ago, Dorado said:

Do you have difficulty casting this light rig without a bobber? I want to try this. 

You just need a rod rated to cast that weight. Typically, that would be an ultralight spinning rod and four pound line.

[Bluebasser86]

All I need most seasons for stockers is a 1/8oz Little Cleo. Colors vary year to year, but silver, gold, and copper are usually pretty solid choices. Just reel them slowly and steadily. 

I don't eat them, so I never use natural or prepared baits for them as they always seem to swallow the hook. 

[mrmacwvu1]

trout magnets

 

and an inline spinner called spinny minny or something similar

[Esoxfreak]

You should try a pistol Pete under a tuff bubble if you haven't already! You can add water to the tuff bubble to give it how ever much weight you need, that allows you to throw all kinds of tiny stuff, like pistol petes, Woolley buggers,nymphs and stuff without getting hung up all day.just cast and bring it back.plus you can adjust your leader to fish shallow or deep. And the whole setup should run under 5 bucks. You don't have to change out your mainline either, just run a couple feet of light line as a leader from the swivel to the fly/pistol Pete.

[Largemouth21]

My experience is that stocked trout will hit anything,I was having them blow up, yes BLOW UP!! on freaking topwater poppers the same size as them... good luck though, rooster tails work good. I like 1/8 oz 

[NYWayfarer]

Trout magnets work great. I use the soft body baits that come with the jigheads or switch to Berkley gulp 1" minnows. They can be fished as is, with a spilt shot or my favorite method of suspended jigging with a weighted float.

 

I like Rooster tails, phoebes and Kastmasters as well.

 

I stay away from live bait or power bait when I am practicing catch and release.

[Spankey]

Panther Martin is my inline spinner of choice. 

[Quarry Man]

2 hours ago, Spankey said:

Panther Martin is my inline spinner of choice. 

 

Same, and we should fish together sometime!

[Spankey]

4 hours ago, Quarry Man said:

 

Same, and we should fish together sometime!

I love my bass fishing, I really do. I guess I've been serious about trout fishing since I was 10 years old. It's in my blood. I'll never shake that. Some years I fish it more than others. This year is a lighter year for me. The last few falls I've been fishing it a lot between Thanksgiving to the first of the year. Some guys think fishing stocked trout is on the lame side but after those trout have been in there for a couple of months they smarten up and can be something to work for.