You'll also send them signals that "something's up" when they encounter the silt, noise and surface ripples you simply cannot avoid creating when wading.
Cast your 'crawler or other bait upstream past the suspected lair and let the current bring it back to you. Keep your rod tip up and slowly reel in the slack to detect any pause in the drift. Experiment with leader lengths up to 3 or 4 feet, depending on the strength of the current long lengths for strong flows.
Use fine-wire circle hooks. Circle hooks typically lodge in the corner of the trout's jaw, reducing or eliminating injuries caused by hooks of other designs. When handled carefully and immediately released, a trout caught on a circle hook is much more likely to survive.
This is especially important for small trout and for fish where length limits are enforced. Because S-L-O-W" is the keyword in lure presentation in springtime's cold waters, it is important to fish lures that have good action at very slow retrieve speeds. The flash and vibration created by weighted spinners with broad, flat, French-style blades are especially good spring trout lures.
Accurate casting is always important when fishing lures for stream trout, but accuracy carries even more weight early in the season. Trout will not move far in the chilly water to intercept or chase a lure. Muddy or stained water also lowers their ability to see the lure.
In addition to representing food, flashy lures also appeal to the trout's curiosity. It pays anglers dividends to cover a lot of the stream.
Present the lure often and with broad coverage upstream of holding areas and cover so that many trout will see your spinner as you retrieve the lure downstream. You can also tease sluggish trout to bite. Sneak up even with, or slightly beyond, the likely holding area when the stream size and water turbidity allow you to stay undetected. Cast the lure across the stream, let it sink a bit, and sweep it in front of the trout. The sudden increase in lure speed can entice a fish to strike, especially when presented close to trout.
Ultralight spinning rod-and-reel combos are ideal outfits for both bait- and lure-fishing for early-spring stream trout.
And spinning reels of high quality should be used -- those with a sturdy bail system to support the many short casts you'll make each outing. High-quality reels also operate smoothly and easily in cold weather. The key is to realize that trout are not necessarily looking for food, but are aggressive.
Bright, flashy lures will get them to strike. If you do catch and keep a female spawning trout, preserve and store her roe to use as bait. The other trout will quite literally eat it up. Trout are generally not very active in winter.
Fish are cold-blooded animals, and with colder water comes a very slow metabolism. They will find somewhere protected to hunker down, and will not feed regularly. Winter is usually an off-season for trout, both officially in many areas and unofficially in the minds of anglers. But there are still ways to catch them, and some people swear by winter fishing as a way to avoid the spring and summer crowds and test their skills.
In warmer climates, winter is the best if not only time of year to fish for trout. While mountainous areas in the South can have year-round trout populations, most areas are too warm throughout the year for trout to survive. In those areas, fishing in winter is much more like the fall fishing described above.
Most of the trout will be stocked trout, with little to no wild population. In colder climates, the key is understanding that winter trout are at their most lazy. You have to make your bait, lure, or fly extremely easy and enticing for them to grab.
When spin fishing, keep your retrieve slow and your lure or bait small. You may have to just about hit them on the head to get a reaction. For fly fishermen, stick to smaller wet flies and nymphs. Again, keep everything slow and steady, and concentrate on getting as close as possible to your target. Even though winter is the opposite extreme to summer, many of the same tips apply.
The water that is cooler in summer is warmer in winter. In lakes and ponds, trout will be deep, although they will still move into shallows to feed occasionally. Springs and tailwaters will also be popular with trout due to their consistent year-round temperature. For many, fishing in winter means ice fishing. However, you will have to fish them differently from most species. Even though, like most fish, trout will often hold deeper in the warmer parts of an iced-in lake, they feed fairly shallowly.
You can often drop your lines just a foot or two below the bottom of the ice and find actively feeding trout. Once you get deeper, the trout nearby may not be actively feeding, although you may get bites from other species. Remember, too, that trout have very good eyesight. Live minnows are not the best bait for ice fishing trout for the same reason.
Throughout the day, there will be more boat activity, float-tubers, kayakers, swimmers, kids throwing rocks, dogs chasing after sticks and people feeding ducks than any other time of year. When focusing on when to fish, something else to consider is the moon phase. When the moon is full or nearly full, many trout will feed throughout the night when it's cooler, disturbances are fewer and there's still plenty of light to make prey visible.
In some portions of the West, where it's legal to fish at night, it's a good idea to try trolling through the twilight hours. You'll quickly realize that night fishing can be very productive. If night fishing isn't legal or you aren't keen on the idea, simply try to avoid fishing within a few days of the full moon. There can definitely be a lull in the action.
Anglers often overlook the value of the thermocline. Hands down, it's one of the most important factors when looking to catch summer trout. In any body of water, the thermocline is a zone of greatest temperature change. For those of us who aren't scientists, all you need to know is the thermocline is a trout magnet. In summer, when surface temperatures can rise well above of 80 degrees, the thermocline is a sanctuary for trout because it harbors cooler water and food.
To elaborate, in the summer when the surface temperature might be 80 degrees throughout the first 15 feet of the water column, there's a layer below the warm water. This layer is considered the middle layer -- or scientifically, the thermocline, that section of the water column that experiences a drastic drop in temperature. The thermocline is the smallest of the three layers in lakes, ponds and reservoirs, but will possess the widest range of temperature.
The bottom layer harbors the coldest water and is consistent, like the upper layer. But the bottom layer doesn't hold as many actively feeding trout as the thermocline does. A thermocline develops in most lakes, ponds and reservoirs in the West. However, most of the time it doesn't form until early to mid-summer as warmer water floats on top of the cold water. By mid-summer, that middle layer -- the thermocline -- becomes more visible and stands out as a greater fish-holding zone.
Algae and other zooplankton hide out in this zone, while pond smelt, shad, minnows and other baitfish stay near the upper and lower layers of the thermocline. Baitfish and game fish are commonly found in the thermocline throughout the warmer months, partially because of ideal water temperatures and also because their food is here. In summer, you'll increase catch rates by trolling spoons, stickbaits, spinners and night crawlers through the thermocline.
It's also effective to drift salmon eggs, dough baits, worms, crickets and grasshoppers. Locating the thermocline isn't as challenging as it might seem. Most reservoirs take daily or weekly readings to keep track of it, and the officials often make their findings public. High-end fish finders can also indicate where the zone is. Your best bet may be to call local marinas, tackle shops and lake offices to ask how deep the thermocline is. Most can give you up-to-date information, which will help you catch more trout.
If you are a troller, you'll probably need downriggers or lead-core line to fish the thermocline, which wanders from 30 to feet or deeper, depending on water temperature, elevation, recent wind and weather patterns, the size of the lake or reservoir and its depth. The thermocline can vary by week. From July through September, this will likely be the zone you'll want to target for the best trout-fishing action. When working the thermocline, experiment.
Try running some lures near the top of it, others in the middle and a few towards the bottom. Once you discover where the fish are most active, then it's safe to concentrate your efforts close to that depth. One of the most fun techniques to try at night is mousing. The bigger trout are looking for prey that may have fallen in the water on accident due to the darkness.
When throwing the mouse pattern, try and fish near a place with reeds around the water. The mice will often fall off the reeds and make a splash on the water where the large trout wait to feast. Throw the fly diagonal up stream toward the reeds and twitch it back towards you. Caddis flies will also hatch during the night in warmer months. Make shorter casts and try to fish slower moving water. This is one of the main questions asked by beginner anglers.
You wander up to the stream, see all sorts of trout rising, tie something on and cast in hopes of getting something to bite. Nothing is more frustrating than when you see hundreds of trout feeding on everything but your fly. Take a step back and pay attention to the insects. Do your best to grab one out of the air. Place it on top of your fly box and examine it. What do you have in your box that looks similar?
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