Trout

[Dorado]

Stocked trout hurdle in large groups for the first week or so after getting initially stocked. You want to be very mobile until you find the pack. They herd together because they come from

hatcheries.....so once you find one, there will be plenty more close by. 
 

Best case scenario, they will be breaching the surface, revealing their location. If you know where the game and fish stock them, try that area first if you don’t see them surface. In my experience, they don’t swim too far from where they get planted. In my experience, it’s usually by a boat ramp or a man-made dam. Sometimes, they favor being close to shore near concrete structures because it’s reminds them of the hatchery tanks, which also give them comfort. 
 

So, that’s location, now let’s talk baits-lures.  Two rods I take with me:

 

1) Bait rod. Medium-Light Rod with 6# test Fluoro on my mainline. Carolina rig with a light mojo weight and 12”-18” leader of 4# test fluoro. Small Gama mosquito hook with a Berkley Alive Floating Trout Worm. Pink and Chartreuse are my go-to colors. 
 

2)Lure Rod.  Medium-Light Rod with 6# test Fluoro line. I’ll start off my throwing small spoons, like Kastmasters. Just a confidence lure.  If that doesn’t work, small in-line spinners like a Panther Martin. This year, I’ve been experimenting with crappie jigs and they been very productive! I just cast and reel them back subsurface slowly while twitching my rod tip. A black body with chartreuse skirted crappie tube has been a secret of mine.  Last strong recommendation is a pistol pete fly with a casting bubble.  If I bring my fly rod, long casts with either a green or black wooly bugger stripped back with brief pauses. 
 

A lot to digest, but hope this all helps! I’m in the market for a new rod that can casts small 1/16 oz jigs, like a Trout Magnet or tiny tubes for anyone who has any recommendations

[JustJames]

21 hours ago, Dorado said:

Stocked trout hurdle in large groups for the first week or so after getting initially stocked. You want to be very mobile until you find the pack.

Totally different here in SoCal. Stocked trout gone in a day or most two. You’d better know someone in the area since a lot of ppl will show up wit a huge cooler.

[JustJames]

On 12/25/2020 at 9:19 PM, Dorado said:

A lot to digest, but hope this all helps! I’m in the market for a new rod that can casts small 1/16 oz jigs, like a Trout Magnet or tiny tubes for anyone who has any recommendations

Crappie rod - For 1/16 jig head plus plastic (total weight 2.5 grams), I use Shimano Crucial ML (dropshot) very fast tip and sensitivity is super good but very hard to find now.

Another one is Shimano Sensilite UL or Light, pretty nice bend on the bank, the tip is not fast but sensitivity is exceptional.

Crappie rod - Between 1/32-1/16oz jig head plus plastic (1.5-2 grams), this is become my favorite crappie rod the first day I use it. Majorcraft Crostage 7’3 Mebaru rod. Super light weight (less than 3oz I believe) and balance really well. The handle on 7’3 shorter than my 6’6 so you get a full length of casting. I can cast 1/32oz jig head about 70’ easily. The soft mebaru bank is very good for paper thin crappie mouth.

(Bluegill rod) For trout magnet (1/64oz plus 1” plastic total weight 1-1.5 grams) Daiwa Presso is good a little bit whippy on longer rod but 5’6 to 6’ is stiff enough. I got 4 pieces models to add more rigidity on the bank. The tip is fast good for jigging light weight jig head but not 1/16oz. If you want fancy and super fast tip, you might have to get Solid tip UL rod from Japan. I love my Majorcraft speedstyle 6’3 Solid tip lure rated 1/64-3/16oz for bluegill. The tip is fast and sensitive but the bank is considered as bass rod with plenty of backbone. I love this rod when target 8-10” bluegill.

[JustJames]

@Jonas Staggsyou should try Santa Ana river lake. It is a pay lake so you don’t need license and allow 2 rods. One with dough bait on bubble float (tiny trebles hook) and one with split shot trout worm with super long 2lb leader no FC. I think you can float tube in that lake too but don’t go on weekend, it is pretty crowded. The line at the gate started at 5:00AM.

I wouldn’t wasted time on any public lake, by the time they stock, the fish is gone. One lake that public but not well know is Huntington Park Lake. I was lucky once over there and caught my limit in 30 mins on trout worm. 
 

[Dorado]

11 hours ago, Bass_Fishing_Socal said:

Crappie rod - For 1/16 jig head plus plastic (total weight 2.5 grams), I use Shimano Crucial ML (dropshot) very fast tip and sensitivity is super good but very hard to find now.

Another one is Shimano Sensilite UL or Light, pretty nice bend on the bank, the tip is not fast but sensitivity is exceptional.

Crappie rod - Between 1/32-1/16oz jig head plus plastic (1.5-2 grams), this is become my favorite crappie rod the first day I use it. Majorcraft Crostage 7’3 Mebaru rod. Super light weight (less than 3oz I believe) and balance really well. The handle on 7’3 shorter than my 6’6 so you get a full length of casting. I can cast 1/32oz jig head about 70’ easily. The soft mebaru bank is very good for paper thin crappie mouth.

(Bluegill rod) For trout magnet (1/64oz plus 1” plastic total weight 1-1.5 grams) Daiwa Presso is good a little bit whippy on longer rod but 5’6 to 6’ is stiff enough. I got 4 pieces models to add more rigidity on the bank. The tip is fast good for jigging light weight jig head but not 1/16oz. If you want fancy and super fast tip, you might have to get Solid tip UL rod from Japan. I love my Majorcraft speedstyle 6’3 Solid tip lure rated 1/64-3/16oz for bluegill. The tip is fast and sensitive but the bank is considered as bass rod with plenty of backbone. I love this rod when target 8-10” bluegill.

Very good response! That Major Craft Crostege series looks incredible! Ultralight fishing is a ton of fun. I ended up picking up a TFO Trout-Panfish Rod, 6’6” UL rod with XF action. It is rated for 1/32 -3/16oz.  The moment I picked it up, it was love at first sight. Just need to pair it with a very light reel. Can’t wait to fish it man!

[redmeansdistortion]

Some of my most effective trout baits this past season were 2" Powerbait minnows on a 1/16 darter head and the 1/16, 1/8, and 3/16 Rapala Countdowns.  Big browns love Countdowns.  Pulled some big ones from the Rifle in northern Michigan on a few occasions.  I fish trout more than any other species.

 

I run a couple of setups, one for smaller headwaters and brush choked creeks and the other for more open rivers.  For the spinach, I use a 4'10" UL Major Craft Troutino paired with a Revo ALC-BF7, spooled with 8lb Daiwa J-Braid and a 6lb FC leader.  For the bigger water, I use a 6' L Major Craft Finetail and a Daiwa Alphas CT SV outfitted with a shallow SLP Works spool and 8lb J-Braid.  

[bulldog1935]

Here's my loaner box for spin-fishing friends on the Guadalupe tailwater, with my home-made single-hook spinners.
Back when my dad could don waders and join me in the river, he did very well on these.  We have trophy water with single barbless hook regs, and my home-made spinners are single hook.  Small jigs, cats whiskers tied on barbells for casting weight.  

Once they discover crayfish, our holdovers can get pretty beefy.  This happens to be a PB, and was taken on a size 22 midge.  

 

The Japanese make tiny plugs and spoons just for trout fishing and long casts on UL.  I bought these diminutive sinking plugs for winter seatrout, imitating glass minnows, but they would be just as effective for rainbows and browns.  

The plug on the far right is just for bottom bouncing.  

In our crowded tailwater, can always find a spot in the wide, deep, tannin-bottom pools where the water is barely moving. 

Here with the fly rod, I bottom-bounce big trout using a Teeny sinking line with weightless bead-chain-eye cats whiskers and whistlers.  

It's really a white bass technique, but all game fish will chase the mudballs bottom bouncing produces, and usually pick up the fly/lure when it's sitting still.  

 

Speaking of the effectiveness of bottom bouncing.  One opportune spring white bass spawning run, fishing into a flagstone pool and standing on the pinch-point gravel bar they all had to cross to get upriver, I landed 50 white bass on consecutive casts.  White bass were spawning all around me on the gravel bar.  Another December day at a narrow tide pass to the Gulf, landed 40 flounder on consecutive casts (probably could have caught more, but it was a cold 15-mi boat ride back home).

Of course, you pay your dues to hit these days.  

[Jonas Staggs]

So I managed to go 2 days after stocking. All the trout were gone 

[Bluebasser86]

What'd they do? Stock 10 of them in a kiddie pool?

 

It takes a couple months to catch them all back out of the lakes here. Even the small lakes that get tons of pressure will take 2-3 weeks before they get fished out if the catch rate is high.

[redmeansdistortion]

5 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

What'd they do? Stock 10 of them in a kiddie pool?

 

It takes a couple months to catch them all back out of the lakes here. Even the small lakes that get tons of pressure will take 2-3 weeks before they get fished out if the catch rate is high.

Something else to think about, hatchery trout wise up after as little as a few days from release.  Having previously lived on food pellets, they don't know what is and isn't food once they're in their new body of water.  Trout are very intelligent fish and highly attuned to their environments.  Once they have it figured out, the bites become less and less over time.  A couple weeks post release, they become as wary and skittish as their wild counterparts.  

[TnRiver46]

On 12/26/2020 at 10:05 PM, Bass_Fishing_Socal said:

Totally different here in SoCal. Stocked trout gone in a day or most two. You’d better know someone in the area since a lot of ppl will show up wit a huge cooler.

 

6 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

What'd they do? Stock 10 of them in a kiddie pool?

 

It takes a couple months to catch them all back out of the lakes here. Even the small lakes that get tons of pressure will take 2-3 weeks before they get fished out if the catch rate is high.

Sounds to me like there’s a few more anglers in California than Kansas 

[bulldog1935]

I started my girls on the put-and-take trout ponds when they were each about 4.  

Of course there wasn't always a lot of fishing, but that's the key with kids is going somewhere they don't have to fish.  Turtles and crawdads found their way home to an aquarium/terrarium.  

Don't forget towels, blankets and change of clothes.  

 

The night before, they would sit in my lap to tie fake corn kernel flies with yellow chenille.  

Chum up the trout with corn, and let the girls catch trout on fly rod.  

Don't let the fly rod mystics fool you, most fly fishing is just fancy cane pole.  I bet even Theodore Gordon dunked worms.  

[roadwarrior]

For those of us that don't care a thing about fishing for stockers, there is a silver lining:

Just beyond the little trout you might find some GIANT browns. Baby rainbow are a 

deliciously for brown trout.  A trout pattern Rapala can be a winning ticket!

 

[redmeansdistortion]

4 hours ago, roadwarrior said:

A trout pattern Rapala can be a winning ticket!

Generally speaking, trout patterns work best because trout are aggressive towards their own species, although the bigger ones do indeed eat the smaller ones.  One other thing, bigger trout primarily feed on fish and not bugs, so if you're looking to land a bigger trout, the minnow baits will perform best.  I couldn't tell you how many times I've been throwing spinners and getting dink after dink, only to tie on a Countdown or X-Rap and get a 20" brown at the end of the line. 

 

Another fun tactic is mousing.  A deer hair mouse fished at night will produce some of the biggest browns you ever saw.  They like to snack on the terrestrial critters that swim around the banks.  The top water explosion you get mousing is far more intense than you get with bass. 

[Jonas Staggs]

On 12/29/2020 at 5:04 AM, TnRiver46 said:

 

Sounds to me like there’s a few more anglers in California than Kansas 

 

 

Yup, a buddy of mine caught 3 on the stocking day. Still lots of people 2 days later when I went but no one catching anything. 

 

 

On 12/29/2020 at 4:05 AM, redmeansdistortion said:

Something else to think about, hatchery trout wise up after as little as a few days from release.  Having previously lived on food pellets, they don't know what is and isn't food once they're in their new body of water.  Trout are very intelligent fish and highly attuned to their environments.  Once they have it figured out, the bites become less and less over time.  A couple weeks post release, they become as wary and skittish as their wild counterparts.  

 

I doubt they can even live that long here. The only trout I ever got was a dying one with my hand a day after a stock.

[redmeansdistortion]

1 hour ago, Jonas Staggs said:

 

 

Yup, a buddy of mine caught 3 on the stocking day. Still lots of people 2 days later when I went but no one catching anything. 

 

 

 

I doubt they can even live that long here. The only trout I ever got was a dying one with my hand a day after a stock.

I can see that happening if the lake is warm since trout do very poorly in temps above 70.  The DNR where I am stocks very few lakes, but does stock many streams with fish that either become residents or migratory.