Things I've Learned While Failing to Catch Rainbow Trout

That it is easier to catch catfish.

No, seriously. I fished something like a total of 12 hours so far in 30 degree weather and didn't get so much as a nibble. The trout were jumping all over the place, biting every single bug that hit the water, and completely ignoring me. These were stocked trout.  I thought it would be a piece of cake, fo sho.  Fail.

I was all set to stack my freezer with them, too. Trout are my favorite eating fish, second only to bluegill (which are delicious, if you've never eaten them!). Oh well, it's only the beginning of the season for them - many more weeks to try!

Here's what I learned (from advice, obviously not from experience).


The Basics:

1. They have really, really good eyesight, and are so freaking picky. 4# line is great, 2# is best. Keeping give-aways like weights away from the hook-side of your leader will do better than making a big, obvious splash with bobber, weight, lure, all that jazz right next to each other.
2.  Along those same lines, hide the hook really well.  Those fuckers will just know.  They'll just know.
3. A (probably) awesome rig would be a swivel with a weight attached, and a leader attached to the same swivel.  The bait would ideally float the hook away from the bottom.  The weight will depend on the kind of water, and the length of leader will, too.
4. Just leaving it out there for ages will not usually work, and on the other hand, neither will tearing up the water reeling it in too quickly.  Unless you're fly fishing, the best cast is one you let sink for a couple of seconds, then reel in at a moderate pace.

Baits/Lures:

1.  Recommended baits (completely cover the hook):  corn, marshmallows, Powerbait, worm, fake corn, dough.  Don't look at me, I couldn't get them to bite.  Then again, I didn't have any Powerbait!
2. Recommended lures:  1/16 or 1/8 oz rooster tails or panther martins, small mepps spinners

Aaaaand that's all the info I've gleaned so far.  I didn't expect fishing for stocked fish to be quite so difficult.  Maybe that was all obvious to everyone else - but I'm used to fish with horrible eyesight and whiskers.  It doesn't help either that the pond is seriously overfished (though in the winter time it's mostly due to birds, because the hardcore fishermen who are willing to stand in the cold aren't fishin' at the city pond).  I'll post more when I start catching (I'm about to go on vacation in Iowa, so probably not going to hit the water again until New Year's), and I'll let you know what actually works.

If I can't get *anything* to work this season...I think I'm going to just start getting my trout from the store, for goodness sakes.  Fuck trout.

I wanna go back to catfish.

*grumble grumble*

-CC