Trout Fishing Tips and Tricks to Catch Beautiful Trout

Assorted Trout Fishing Tips for Success

OK, so you live around Chicago or somewhere where trout are stocked and it’s the annual trout stock – your fishing panic mounts as trout fishing opening day approaches. Anglers all around you are loading up their tackle boxes and buying their annual trout stamps so they can hit the waters on opening day morning, ready. If you have never been fishing for trout during the inland trout stocking and are making the 2012 trout fishery your first, there are a few things you need to know.
Opening Day Trout Fishing Crowds

The crowds can be thick. Don’t expect a pristine environment, but think Black Friday (Saturday) with trout. Anglers will be tight in many places along the shore of their favorite pond. Please be patient as the skills of the neighboring trout fishermen are not very good. Expect your line to stray and a tangle is not out of the question in these tight trout fishing ponds.

Hit or Miss Trout Fishing

Assorted Trout can bite into anything that moves in the water and can also swim past every piece of fishing tackle and bait you throw. Don’t expect your perfect method to work every time. The rainbow trout they stock in lakes around cities have been shipped across state lines and have had to adapt to their new environment. Expect to maybe get some hits, but adding time to your fishing could help you catch some.

Live baits for trout

Using live bait to catch stocked trout is usually the way to go. There are some times when artificial baits will work because these trout can be goofy and can hit anything for a few moments. If you want to be the most consistent in catching rainbow trout, you have to be careful with your eyes. Small baits attract trout due to their superior view, they rarely miss a bait. The more natural your offer, the faster they will swim and take your bait. They can see insects the size of a pencil point so the trout can tell the difference between the fake and the real thing. Think of spikes, wax worms and small minnows to score.

Small hook for trout

The smaller your hook and the finer the wire, the more likely your bait will hang up in the water column and the slower it will fall on the drop, both of which are extremely attractive to stocked rainbow trout. Sizes 14, 16, and 18 are great options to increase your trout catch with the trout stock we have in the spring trout season. Choose real trout dry fly hooks to get the right size and try calling your bait shop to make sure these small trout hooks are in stock.

Capture of thin leaders

Turning Sight – These fish can see tiny things, so the stealth line will help prevent trout from swimming past your bait. 2 pounds and even 1 pound. the leading line can be the difference between getting your first stocked trout and being a skunk. When the fishing gets tough, a thin line will mark. The exception to fishing for these thin lines as your leader would be if it is a thick line of weed in your lake. If this is the case, you may need a rake or rake head to clear a path through the brush. If you can create this channel, you can reel in your trout after playing them on the light line. The secret to playing light line fishing is to allow the trout to run around a bit and keep them in the water. Backreeling is pressing the switch and physically reeling backwards towards the running fish, letting the line come off your reel manually. Open face real ones have a switch at the bottom rear of the reel. Flip this one way and the real thing just kicks in. Flip this the other way and you can wind forwards or backwards. Keep tension on your fish with the rod tip and roll back and forth until you feel in control. With the control, you should be able to slide the fish, when calm, over its holding net in the water. With light lines you will need a landing net.

Large float – Small float – More trout

Limiting the many times I have been fishing for trout during the Illinois trout stocking seasons, I have learned a lot. Some days trout can be caught using the larger float, but quantities are rarely caught on a roundbob. The thinner the bite indicator, the more you will see the trout strike. Trout can hit baits accurately, but they are also very adept at ejecting the bait when they feel resistance. If your bobber is wide, the fish can easily throw off your hook before you can set a hook on these very fast rainbows. I have caught them using long cast waggler floats, but have recently had better luck using much smaller floats for hooking. There are some days when stored trout “hit short.” These days, you’ll notice (with balanced property rolling) that rainbows are hitting the float, it sinks, and then reappears with no fish. With the smaller rod floats, casting is limited, but fish rarely leave this setup. A float of 0.5 or 0.8 grams is a deadly bite indicator for trout stocked in DuPage and Cook counties.

trout boots

While you may be stoned and dry on the shore, a pair of boots can be worth their weight in gold. Keeping your feet dry while landing fish, stepping onto the water’s edge, and just settling in is really important to your comfort. All water is cold once it seeps into your shoes, and without a pair of fishing boots, even short ones, your cold feet can mean a very tiring and even dangerous trout fishing outing. Waterproof boots that you can step right into the cold water in will keep you comfortable and warm throughout your fishing trip. Once wet, your whole body temperature can drop and you can be in danger of hypothermia and stress, which can lead to a dangerous day. Especially in the colder water and weather, keeping your feet dry will mean a lot. The good thing about having your fishing boots is that you can take them off, put them on a piece of paper and save your car from all the mud. Throw on some warm, dry shoes in your car and you’ll be ready for a comfortable ride home, instead of a shaky, shuddering ride of terror.

Follow these tips in your next “Trouting” and you will be rewarded. Some of these items will contrast with how you do it now – keep an open mind and try one or two, I hope they work for you, but you can’t tell if your fishing will be any better until you try.

Use these tips to catch more stocked rainbow trout to help you when you head to ponds, lakes and rivers, all the places where trout are stocked for special fishing seasons. Catch you again soon: look, I practice catch and release with you, and you should do the same with the fish you catch.