Trout

[millerp]

I went Trout fishing opening day at mud run lake I was using powerbait on a lite fast action rod. I was riged up with a 1/8 oz egg sinker about 1o inches above a 6 or 8 otapus hook tied with a Snell knot and I was fishing from the bank. got skunked .was getting real quick bites but couldn't hook them, what am I doing wrong?

thanks

[Bluebasser86]

Paste power bait or eggs? I've never had much luck with the paste, but they love the eggs. I use a #10 or #12 Octopus hook so they'll float off the bottom and use 2 eggs. The Gulp eggs are the best I've found, but color makes a big difference sometimes so you might have to play with different colors. One pink and one white is my favorite combination but I've done well on orange and yellow also. 

[millerp]

Thank You, I have been using the paste, I will definitely try the eggs and a smaller hook .The paste didn't float with the hook I was using , they just stocked and no one was catching anything. Thanks again

[Abuss55]

Im not sure if your fishing in a lake or on a stream, I agree with bluebasser I prefer the eggs to the paste usually in both, I think trout are the finickiest fish I guess that what I love about em hahaha. I also like to throw a similar set up with a trout worm in water with current twitching it every once in a while to keep it from hanging up in the weeds and just let the split shot weight bounce on the bottom. Another set up i like is a orange and yellow power nymph under a float with a 16th or 32nd oz jig and twitch it back at whatever speed you like. My all time favorite is throwing a joe's fly in 1/4 oz I know that sounds big but its worked really well for me. Good luck!

[SDoolittle]

If you like the paste style trout baits, try some of this on a small treble hook. I've had much better luck with it than with power bait.

[Boomstick]

I gather the salmon egg scent powerbait is generally the most effective, then the cheese. A lot of people absolutely slay them with Powerbait, but sometimes the trout seem to prefer something else. As others have said, the eggs should be worth a shot as well.

 

Trout are finicky -- make sure your line (or leader if you are using one) is 4lbs or less. Since it's a light rod I would assume you run 6lb line with a 4lb leader, where I will spool ultra light rods up with straight 4lb and use a leader if the rig calls for it.

 

The other thing is try a smaller sized hook. For trout, you can try a 10 or 12 sized hook. The smaller presentation is going to look much more appealing to your average sized trout, so if you aren't getting big ones on larger hooks, try smaller hooks. You can also try a 16-20 treble hook if you prefer.

[millerp]

Thanks for all the great tips. It was a lake I was fishing in. Never seen that Zekes bait before and I'm going to check on them  power nymph s. I went out and bought some smaller hooks .

Thanks again

[wisconsin heat]

Gotta throw them 1" Gulp Minnows. Trout devour them, attack them with reckless abandon. We have an early catch and release trout season in Wisconsin from January until May, which is when the regular season opens up. I do a lot of trout fishing in this time and these right here are by far the best producers. I also fish a lot of inline spinners (rooster tails, mepps, etc.) and they are great at getting strikes but hooking them is another story. Some days it is no problem, other days you will miss them all. Not with the minnows though; they absolutely chomp the minnows.

 

Also, as others have stated small line and small hooks. The line I'm using here is 6lb mono, and that is because I was lazy. I use the same setups as I do for bass, just downsize line and lure. 4lb is ideal, but 6 will work too - I would expect bite numbers to go down drastically with anything rated higher. Notice the size jighead I'm using with the 1" minnows, the hook is probably a size 14, which is very small.

 

This is knowledge I have gained when it comes to catching what I normally catch, small brook and brown trout in small, clear, cold, fast moving streams. You may need to modify tackle based on the size of trout and water conditions you are looking at.

 

[millerp]

I restrung my reel with 15 lb braid SW and use a 2 ft 4 lb fluoro leader I like the way the braid handles .Any comments?

[wisconsin heat]

On 4/5/2018 at 10:28 AM, millerp said:

I restrung my reel with 15 lb braid SW and use a 2 ft 4 lb fluoro leader I like the way the braid handles .Any comments?

Sounds Ideal 

[soflabasser]

Try fishing small inline spinners on 4 pound test line.