Stocked trout

[Mobasser]

If I were given a choice for alternate species besides bass, crappie would be my first choice. Their a great tasting fish, and fun to catch. For a few seasons now, I've been going after stocked trout too. Our conservation dept stocks several small lakes in November each year. Lots of folks use powerbait, and other dough baits or nightcrawlers, and do very well. Since I like to walk and cast, I use small marabou jigs. Cast out, let them hit bottom, and pop them up off bottom several inches. Like most jig fishing, strikes are light, and come on the fall 95% of the time. I use a 6'6 light spinning rod and 4lb mono. Most all the trout are 12" to 14" inches long, although some larger ones are planted too. Within the first week of stocking these trout will hit lots of small lures and baits. They become more wary over time, and are harder to catch.Its a fun way to spend an afternoon. What are your methods for stocked trout?

[Arcs&sparks]

What kind of trout?

[Dorado]

Clear casting bobber with 24” leader to a Christmas-colored Pistol Pete..........shhhhhhh

 

runner’s up- 1/4 Oz silver or rainbow-colored Kastmaster. 

 

Honorable mention- Berkeley Atomic Tube (grasshopper color please) 10” below a bobber.  Pop, pop long pause..... repeat

[Mobasser]

9 hours ago, Arcs&sparks said:

What kind of trout?

Rainbow

[Arcs&sparks]

I frequent a lake in my area (So Maine) in early spring and late fall targeting rainbows.  This lake is stocked with 9” trout,  but all the ones you frequently catch are 14-18” with some larger ones too.  These are fish that have grown up in the lake for awhile.  I like to get my boat in the water just before the sun comes up in early spring.  I set a couple rods to troll shiners behind dodgers, or a fly rod, and wait for the bugs to start hatching and the birds to start flocking around the surface. I’ll pull in one of the trolling rods when I start to see the fish rising.  These are almost always off shore over 40-70 FOW. I slowly troll around and wait for a fish to rise within casting range and put the bait in front of them.  I pretty much exclusively use Berkely Gulp smelts on a jig head for all species of trout and LL salmon. I get about a 50/50 shot at getting the rising fish to bite the jig.  If I was more skilled with a fly rod,  this would presumably work better for obvious reasons.  When the fish aren’t rising,  I can pick up a few on the trolling rods,  or aimlessly cast a small Johnson blade bait so search around.  I’ve been out once in summer time and found a few jigging on the bottom.  But there’s nothing like being out in the middle of the lake and watching those pretty guys swimming around with their fins out of the water.  

 

Two years ago Nov 15 my BIL and I took his bass boat out to a spot we located trolling in my boat the weekend before.  In 3 hours we netted 28 rainbows with several doubles without moving more than a couple hundred feet.  He used a perch colored blade bait and I used my gulp smelts, fan casting, we caught equal numbers.  This spot was outside of a large shallow flat where a stream came in,  but over a steep drop off from 12-50 FOW offshore.  All taken within 6 feet of the surface with virtually no rising fish in sight.  It’s that time of year,  gotta go out and re-duplicate that day!

 

[Bluebasser86]

Little Cleo, 1/8, 1/6, or 1/4oz. Gold, silver, copper, silver/orange, silver/blue, copper/red, and rainbow are the best colors for me. A Turner Jone's micro jig under a bobber is good when they won't hit the spoons. I won't fish powerbait for them, I don't need to catch them that badly. They're fun to catch, awful to eat, they make great cutbait for catfish though. One of the lakes I fish for them stocks giants.

 

[Mobasser]

3 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Little Cleo, 1/8, 1/6, or 1/4oz. Gold, silver, copper, silver/orange, silver/blue, copper/red, and rainbow are the best colors for me. A Turner Jone's micro jig under a bobber is good when they won't hit the spoons. I won't fish powerbait for them, I don't need to catch them that badly. They're fun to catch, awful to eat, they make great cutbait for catfish though. One of the lakes I fish for them stocks giants.

 

Bluebasser86 I agree. Stocked trout are fun to catch on light gear, but don't taste good to me either. I'll have to try some Cleo spoons. I too like to cast and move. I'm not a powerbait fisherman either

[jbmaine]

I was flyfishing a pond that had recently been stocked. I was doing alright but there was an older gentleman that was having great luck. As we were heading out I commented on his luck and asked him what he was using. He showed me a hook with a brown piece of felt wrapped on it. I asked what does that represent? He said ever been to a trout hatchery? I said yes. He said ever feed the trout? I said sure. He smiled and said Doesn't this look just like the pellets they feed them? 

 

I also fished a recently stocked stream when it started raining. The trout hit like crazy. The rain drops were just like pellets hitting the water at feeding time.

 

[Mobasser]

42 minutes ago, jbmaine said:

I was flyfishing a pond that had recently been stocked. I was doing alright but there was an older gentleman that was having great luck. As we were heading out I commented on his luck and asked him what he was using. He showed me a hook with a brown piece of felt wrapped on it. I asked what does that represent? He said ever been to a trout hatchery? I said yes. He said ever feed the trout? I said sure. He smiled and said Doesn't this look just like the pellets they feed them? 

 

I also fished a recently stocked stream when it started raining. The trout hit like crazy. The rain drops were just like pellets hitting the water at feeding time.

 

I agree. These stocked trout become conditioned to the brown pellets in the hatchery. That's the only food they know

[J Francho]

Berkley Powerbait Trout dough uses the same formula as trout chow, and works pretty well.

[soflabasser]

Last year I went on vacation up north and fished for rainbow trout for the first time. I went to a beautiful river that has stocked trout and also some native trout. Ended up catching 38 trout (1 of them was a Palomino trout) and my better half caught 4 trout for a total of 42 trout in less than 4 hours of fishing. A couple months later I went back up north and caught more trout. I learned that trout are much more line shy than bass and I did better with 6 pound test line than heavier line. I caught most of these trout on inline spinners and small crankbaits.

[Arcs&sparks]

@soflabasser 42?!  That’s a lot of trout sir.

[soflabasser]

29 minutes ago, Arcs&sparks said:

@soflabasser 42?!  That’s a lot of trout sir.

Yes I caught 38 trout (1 of them was a Palomino trout) and my better half caught 4 trout which is a total of 42 trout in less than 4 hours of fishing. We caught them from land in public waters as well. I tend to do research for a couple months before going on vacation and that is why all my fishing vacations have been successful. I like to be prepared for my fishing trips and do not like doing things last minute. It was an experience I won't forget since they are beautiful fish and will consider going up north again for more trout fishing.

[Bluebasser86]

Wasn't fishing for them, but I caught a stocker Friday.

[Mobasser]

5 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Wasn't fishing for them, but I caught a stocker Friday.

Nice. Most of the ones we get are 12"-14". Good fish!

[Bluebasser86]

3 minutes ago, Mobasser said:

Nice. Most of the ones we get are 12"-14". Good fish!

They supposedly stock a minimum of 400 of them over 4 pounds in this lake 2 or 3 times a year, in addition to all the smaller fish, some over 10 pounds even. The main reason I started fishing the lake in the first place. 

[Mobasser]

1 minute ago, Bluebasser86 said:

They supposedly stock a minimum of 400 of them over 4 pounds in this lake 2 or 3 times a year, in addition to all the smaller fish, some over 10 pounds even. The main reason I started fishing the lake in the first place. 

Bluebasser86, I'm not sure what the ratio is on our lakes. I did see one fish last year I figured to be 18". That's good, because it makes for more fun knowing you can hook into a bigger one

[ATA]

On 11/13/2018 at 3:14 AM, Mobasser said:

If I were given a choice for alternate species besides bass, crappie would be my first choice. Their a great tasting fish, and fun to catch. For a few seasons now, I've been going after stocked trout too. Our conservation dept stocks several small lakes in November each year. Lots of folks use powerbait, and other dough baits or nightcrawlers, and do very well. Since I like to walk and cast, I use small marabou jigs. Cast out, let them hit bottom, and pop them up off bottom several inches. Like most jig fishing, strikes are light, and come on the fall 95% of the time. I use a 6'6 light spinning rod and 4lb mono. Most all the trout are 12" to 14" inches long, although some larger ones are planted too. Within the first week of stocking these trout will hit lots of small lures and baits. They become more wary over time, and are harder to catch.Its a fun way to spend an afternoon. What are your methods for stocked trout?

@Big 'un , I am addicted to trout fishing, I love stream and lake fishing. I love bass fishing in those lake that they stock trout. I do bait and wait and I do fish for bass, Usually with large(8" Plus) Swim baits and glide baits. This year since I got to BFS fishing so I do cast small/micro swim bait 1/32oz and as you might know I catch couple of bass while trying to catch trophy trout.

Anyways after bass fishing, trout is my second choice. I never do cat fish or carp. BTW my son is always very lucky and his trout last year was around 6lb and we had so many 3 or 4 pounder.

Anyways I was reading about trout fishing and I saw your old post and I wanted to bring it up again and lets see what others have to say.

 

Cheers

[Mobasser]

11 minutes ago, ATA said:

@Big 'un , I am addicted to trout fishing, I love stream and lake fishing. I love bass fishing in those lake that they stock trout. I do bait and wait and I do fish for bass, Usually with large(8" Plus) Swim baits and glide baits. This year since I got to BFS fishing so I do cast small/micro swim bait 1/32oz and as you might know I catch couple of bass while trying to catch trophy trout.

Anyways after bass fishing, trout is my second choice. I never do cat fish or carp. BTW my son is always very lucky and his trout last year was around 6lb and we had so many 3 or 4 pounder.

Anyways I was reading about trout fishing and I saw your old post and I wanted to bring it up again and lets see what others have to say.

 

Cheers

Good one! Most of the stocker trout I catch are around 12" to 14". 

[ATA]

Just now, Mobasser said:

Good one! Most of the stocker trout I catch are around 12" to 14". 

Here in this lake smallest are 14", thats our luck, but we never catch lightning trout yet, they said the chance is 1 to 1000.

[mrpao]

You guys are lucky. Most of our stockers are only 10" to 12".

I caught a 17" the other day which is a good one around here.

I do enjoy chasing trout though.