Stocked Trout

[Mobasser]

Our conservation dept here in Missouri stocks trout at several area lakes each fall.            Most of the trout are around 12" to 14" long, rainbows, with a few browns. They also put a handful of larger trout in also, and I have seen a 21" fish caught.          Power bait is what most folks use. Nightcwalers are a close second for bait.                     I usually try a Panther Martin spinner, or a small Marabou jig. If these don't work I throw a nightcrawler on and try that.                                    Here's something I've noticed about these stocked trout: when they first stock them, the trout will hit almost anything, and are very easy to catch. After some have been caught, say, maybe two weeks after the stocking, they become wary, spooky, and are harder to catch. I like overcast days to fish for them the best.                     It's a fun way to finish off the season, before the lakes and ponds freeze over for winter. And, if not for our conservation dept stocking these trout, there wouldn't be any trout fishing close to home for me, without driving to the Ozarks, which is three or four hrs away.                               Do they stock trout in your area? What are your methods for catching them?

[roadwarrior]

We have a city park pond that is stocked in January. Great for kids, the fishing is easy.

[Jar11591]

Trout are stocked all over upstate NY, from urban park ponds and streams to the big adirondack lakes. Browns are the most commonly stocked but rainbows and Brookies are also stocked in lake, ponds and streams, and lake trout, splake, and landlocked salmon are stocked in lakes that are habitable.

The adirondack mountains also have a protected native, wild brook trout called Heritage Trout that have descended from the same trout that first inhabited the lakes 10,000 years ago when the glaciers melted. 

 

A couple times of year I’ll target Brooks, brownies and rainbows in streams or rivers with little inline spinners, spoons and night crawlers. 

[AlabamaSpothunter]

They stock them monthly below the Smith Lake Dam, and it supports a year round 1/4mile stream for rainbows to live in.

 

Magical place.   As you noted, the best time to go is when they stock them, further out you get, the more the "meat hunters" have come in a fished them out.

 

Bumping power bait on the bottom, or using night crawlers up top on a bobber.  Also little spinners, all the things you mentioned.    

 

Perhaps the best tasting freshwater fish imho.  

[TnRiver46]

They stock them anywhere they can around here. I avoid all those places if possible 

[Drawdown]

Just now, TnRiver46 said:

They stock them anywhere they can around here. I avoid all those places if possible 

Wonder if the glide bait bite is good at any point downstream from the riffle?

[TnRiver46]

1 minute ago, Drawdown said:

Wonder if the glide bait bite is good at any point downstream from the riffle?

Oh yes, big striper love trout on clinch and Holston.

 

I just hate trout fishing so much that I quit buying the stamp. I just fish national park for wild trout now 

[Drawdown]

5 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

 

I just hate trout fishing so much that I quit buying the stamp. I just fish national park for wild trout now 

To quote the Plain White T’s, hate is a strong word!

 

What’s wrong with trout fishing? I myself never go to Reliance to fish the Hiwassee trout because I always want to fish for bass way further downstream. But I don’t suppose I hate it.

[TnRiver46]

1 minute ago, Drawdown said:

To quote the Plain White T’s, hate is a strong word!

 

What’s wrong with trout fishing? I myself never go to Reliance to fish the Hiwassee trout because I always want to fish for bass way further downstream. But I don’t suppose I hate it.

I’ve fished reliance many times for trout. Hate isn’t a strong enough word for me, it’s a long story. Guiding trout trips for 15 years didn’t help at all 

[J Francho]

I don't mind tangling with our stockies.

[Darth-Baiter]

I like how trout stocked bodies of water tend to have bigger bass.  or so I have been told.

 

can a bass eat a 12" trout?!

[Jmontgomery87]

This spring I went to Roaring River in SW Missouri. Caught 13 rainbow all on a 3" bubblegum trout worm wacky rigged on a #12 hook.

[casts_by_fly]

The state stocks trout in fall, winter, and spring.  Fall is bigger streams, winter is lakes, spring is a bit of both.  Tons of nj stocked locations are put and take with the fish gone by the summer due to fishing, birds, and heat. That said, there are lots of cold lakes and streams that hold them over in the summer.

 

i used to love trout fishing.  I used to fly fish a lot and worked in a couple shops. My grandma had a bait shop while I was growing up and until she died where the bulk of the business was two weeks before and 4 weeks after opening day. In the UK, there wasn’t much trout fishing that was affordable, let alone free, so I didn’t really do it.  When we moved back here I picked it up again a little because the shore based bass fishing is negligible. In 2020 the state did a catch and release early season opening due to Covid and I put a hurting on some trout that week. On 4 part days of fishing over two weeks I put 150 on the bank including a one hour period where I caught 47 fish. It was fun, but it was too easy and I got bored of it. 
 

then I bought the kayak and I haven’t bothered with trout since. Trout season is prespawn bass so bass wins. Fall trout is archery, so archery wins.  Winter trout is cold and you can’t beat Mother Nature. So for the once or twice a year that I would do it I don’t think it’s worth buying the stamp. 
 

3 hours ago, Darth-Baiter said:

I like how trout stocked bodies of water tend to have bigger bass.  or so I have been told.

 

can a bass eat a 12" trout?!

yes, but they really love the 8-9” stocked fish that are more common. Trout have soft bodies and fins.

[TnRiver46]

4 hours ago, Darth-Baiter said:

I like how trout stocked bodies of water tend to have bigger bass.  or so I have been told.

 

can a bass eat a 12" trout?!

Yep. We have a trout pond where I instruct fly casting. We put trout in during winter. 5 lb bass gobbled up a 13”, then a 16”, then followed a 19” trout everywhere it went. I’ve also seen it follow 4-5 foot water snakes 

[AlabamaSpothunter]

Just now, TnRiver46 said:

Yep. We have a trout pond where I instruct fly casting. We put trout in during winter. 5 lb bass gobbled up a 13”, then a 16”, then followed a 19” trout everywhere it went. I’ve also seen it follow 4-5 foot water snakes 

I watched the last Duckling get sucked down by a monster Bass one morning.....I was in shock lol 

[TnRiver46]

1 minute ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

I watched the last Duckling get sucked down by a monster Bass one morning.....I was in shock lol 

Ain’t no mercy inside of a bass 

[Darth-Baiter]

18 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

I watched the last Duckling get sucked down by a monster Bass one morning.....I was in shock lol 

Brutal!   Nature has no favorites. 

[padlin]

Around here some folks key in on the stocking trucks and hit the spots shortly after they leave. It's not like the fish quickly disperse.

[Spankey]

Pennsylvania has a extensive trout stocking program throughout the year. Helping the state stock fish is pretty fun also. Fall stockings are minimal compared to spring but in my section of the state the creeks they do stock are great pieces of water. Fall lake stockings are ice fishing holes for guys over the winter. I prefer stream fishing. I’ll fish them past Christmas up into the new year. Iced streams is what stops me. I’m fortunate to have stocked, wild and native trout fairly close to me. I put a lot of time on trout waters every year. 

[Bankbeater]

The conservation dept. does some trout stocking down this way also.  Right after the ponds get stocked I fish with Kastmaster spoons.  I'm not sure if it's because of the trout getting wary, or the population gets thinned out, but after a couple of weeks I go back to bass fishing when the trout bite dies off.

[jbmaine]

Best way I ever saw for catching stocked trout was a trick an old fella showed me many years ago. We were fly fishing the same pond and he was out fishing me 10 to 1. I finally asked him what fly he was using. He was nice enough to show it to me. It was nothing more than some brown felt spun on a hook. I stared at it for a bit, then asked him what it was supposed to represent. He smiled and asked me, have you ever been to a trout hatchery? Ya , when I was a kid, it was fun feeding the trout. What did you feed them? he asked. Well, the light dawned on marble head, and I realized that bit of brown felt on his hook was an exact imitation of the brown pellets those trout had been eating all their lives. 

 I've kept a couple of flies like that in my fly box ever since.

[redmeansdistortion]

Trout are stocked here, but very few are actually stocked in easy to reach waters for angling purposes.  The only three off the top of my head they stock for put-and-take are the Clinton and Huron Rivers in SE Michigan and the Island Lake Recreation area.  The mutant tank scrubbers many catch in other states aren't common outside of a few spots.  For the most part, they are stocked to augment wild populations and aren't released at sizes near the legal limit.  Most are an inch or two under.  The Michigan DNR will sometimes close streams to fishing in order to release parr and let them gain a foothold before they reopen it to fishing. 

 

As of late, they have been releasing grayling and brook trout parr into waters that used to hold them, but were once extirpated due to logging and damming of the rivers in the old days.  My favorite project that I hope to see the fruits of someday is the coaster brook trout restoration effort taking place in the Lake Superior and Lake Huron tributaries in the UP and northern parts of the lower peninsula.  For those that don't know, coasters are lake run brook trout that grow to about 30" and weights of 10lb+.  They used to be very common in Michigan until all of the urbanization, logging, damming, and industrialization took place.

[TnRiver46]

1 hour ago, jbmaine said:

Best way I ever saw for catching stocked trout was a trick an old fella showed me many years ago. We were fly fishing the same pond and he was out fishing me 10 to 1. I finally asked him what fly he was using. He was nice enough to show it to me. It was nothing more than some brown felt spun on a hook. I stared at it for a bit, then asked him what it was supposed to represent. He smiled and asked me, have you ever been to a trout hatchery? Ya , when I was a kid, it was fun feeding the trout. What did you feed them? he asked. Well, the light dawned on marble head, and I realized that bit of brown felt on his hook was an exact imitation of the brown pellets those trout had been eating all their lives. 

 I've kept a couple of flies like that in my fly box ever since.

Pellet flies, slap em down hard on the water and they go crazy. Also throwing a handful of rocks near any fly will send them into a frenzy 

[Deleted account]

Soft cat food kibbles for bait, and Purina poultry chow for chum, you'll catch them all. 

[Mobasser]

I have seen them feed these trout at a hatchery in south Mo. They walk in between the tanks and throw pellets. Yes, the trout go crazy.