Mimic Trout’s Meaty Meals With Your Baits

The following appears in the March issue of California Sportsman:

By Cal Kellogg

Big fish eat little fish and trout – whether they’re browns, brookies or rainbows that live in streams, lakes or reservoirs – all gobble minnows with gusto when they get the chance.

But let’s keep this information between you and I, or everyone and their brother will be casting and pulling plugs and scoring big trout. After all, we want those hook-jawed, slob-gutted minnow munchers for ourselves, right?

At this point, you probably think I’m talking about ripping big minnow plugs like size 13 and 18 Floating Rapalas. While fast-trolling big baits like these is a tried-and-true approach for hooking trophy-size fish, that’s not what I’m focusing on.

Fishing these magnum-sized plugs for trout is a bit like sturgeon fishing; the hookup and fights are awesome, but the waiting time between bites can be long and tedious.

What we want to consider are smaller minnow plugs, crankbaits, flies and soft plastics that will catch trout of all sizes.

PLUGS, CRANKBAITS

Plugs in the 1- to 3-inch range are small enough to tempt pan-sized trout, but when you come across a big girl, these baits are substantial enough that she just won’t be able to pass them up.

In all seriousness, I don’t think any trout angler – whether they fish streams or lakes, from the bank or from a boat – should be without a selection of minnow plugs. But they are only part of the story when it comes to trout plugs.

Short, thick-bodied, bass fishing- style crankbaits and boomerang- shaped plugs like FlatFish and Mag Lips should also be part of the well- heeled trouter’s arsenal.

I like to fish my plugs on an 8-pound fluorocarbon line. I go with spinning gear if I’m fishing a stream or casting at a lake. If I’m trolling, I use spinning gear at times, but most often I’ll be running with a baitcasting-style rod, which is balanced with an Abu Garcia 5500 linecounter baitcasting reel.

For toplining, that reel will be spooled with 10-pound moss green Trilene Big Game Line and tipped with a fluorocarbon leader, or it will be set up as a hybrid leadcore rig, which allows me to work depths down to 30 feet without using a downrigger.

It’s important to use a rod with a soft tip. Trout have soft mouths, and the soft tip helps to minimize lost fish. Most crankbaits have smallish hooks that can pull out easily if too much pressure is applied.

My plug selection for fishing creeks and rivers is smaller than the selection I carry for lake fishing. On the stream, I like size 5 and 7 Floating Rapalas in rainbow trout, silver/black, firetiger or orange. For deeper work, slow-sinking Yo-Zuri L Minnows in the 13?4-inch size have proven to be deadly in rainbow trout and chrome and blue finishes.

For crankbaits, I use small Hot Shots and Brad’s Wigglers in rainbow trout and orange over gold. When it comes to FlatFish and Mag Lips, I like to have baits in red, frog and chrome/blue.

While all these baits imitate minnows, I fish them all differently. I use Rapalas and Yo-Zuris to cover water quickly. I cast them across and slightly downstream, allow them to swing across the current on a tight line and then retrieve them slowly. After one or two casts, I move downstream a few feet and repeat. This approach works best in streams that are reasonably open and allow me to cover the water thoroughly and quickly.

I still use Rapalas on brushy streams, but in general I use more crankbaits and boomerang-shaped plugs. Since heavy brush prevents you from effectively walking and casting, you must be able to cover a lot of water from each brush opening.

To accomplish this, I’ll tie on a crankbait and pitch it out a few feet into the middle of the current and close the reel’s bail. The plug will immediately swim to the near bank. I allow it to work there for several seconds and then begin feeding line a foot or 2 at a time, giving it plenty of

pauses to sit and work in the current. It’s amazing how many trout will dart out from under the bank and absolutely slam the bait. If crankbaits don’t produce in this situation, I tie on a Mag Lip or FlatFish and fish it the same way.

My plug selection doesn’t change when bank fishing lakes. Key locations to fish are points and anywhere water is flowing into the lake. These areas should be thoroughly worked via fan casting.

In lakes where the main forage is shad, I like to employ crankbaits and boomerang plugs most of the time. If pond smelt are on the menu, slender minnow plugs tend to work better, but of course this is just a general rule. In reality, minnow plugs work just about everywhere fish swim.

ON THE TROLL

And now we come to trolling. One of the reasons I really like minnow plugs and crankbaits for trolling is that they are baits that I can work quickly. Typically, I troll them from 2.5 to 4 or more miles per hour. These baits work equally well when top-lined or trolled from leadcore or downriggers.

When top-lined, you’ll want the plugs at least 150 feet behind the boat with 200 feet being preferable. If I’m kayaking, I shorten things up and run 60 to 100 feet back. Also, when pulling them behind a downrigger, you can shorten up significantly, although I still like to keep them at least 50 feet behind the ball. With leadcore, the distance behind the boat determines the depth. If fast- trolled plugs don’t do the trick, break out the boomerang-shaped FlatFish or Mag Lips. FlatFish work best when pulled from 1 to 1.5 mph. Mag Lips can be worked faster; they dive deeper and feature a rattle chamber.

Let’s also consider plug color selection. All things being equal, I like to run with natural-colored offerings like rainbow trout or black over silver. When the water is murky, that’s when you might consider breaking out the fire-tiger- and hot orange-colored lures, although I’ve caught plenty of trout in murky water with natural- colored baits. And there are always exceptions when the bright stuff works in crystal-clear water.

I’ve seen a lot of huge trout landed in crystal-clear lakes like Pardee, Almanor and French Meadows on bright-orange Rapalas.

FLIES

When it’s time for fly anglers to imitate baitfish, they reach for streamer flies, and so should anglers fishing with conventional gear, though few do. Anglers working in streams or casting from shore can put a streamer on their line and apply weight in the form of split shot to get the fly down in the water column.

In this situation, apply the action to the fly with the rod and reel using twitches and pauses to simulate the dipping and darting of a wounded or frightened baitfish.

Where streamers really shine is the trolling arena. Some of my trolling flies are colored to mimic baitfish, and others are brightly colored.

While a lot of anglers have heard how effective trolling streamers can be, many of them don’t really understand how to fish them properly. I rig flies a few different ways. Teaming the fly with a clear wiggle disc is an easy and effective way to impart deadly erratic movement to your fly. To vary the action, I fool around with the distance between the disc and the fly.

If the wiggle disc routine isn’t working, I’ll sometimes team my fly with a small dodger like a Sep’s Side Kick or Strike Master. At other times, I’ll run a fly behind a set of Vance’s Little Slim Willie flashers.

If you really want to give the trout something they haven’t seen, try trolling a fly with just a split shot or two pinned on the line about 20 inches above the fly. With this rig, run the fly back 150 to 200 feet behind the boat.

Sometimes when the trout are really finicky, they’ll inhale a trolled fly that exhibits very little movement. If you think you need some movement, you can pick up the rod and experiment twitching and surging the fly through the water. Keep the movements subtle and experiment until you find what the fish want.

When the water is cold, I’ve done very well tipping trolling flies with a small piece of nightcrawler about a half-inch long. When trout are lethargic, that little piece of meat can make a tremendous difference in turning window shoppers into hooked fish.

Why are streamer flies, especially trolled streamers, so effective? The simple answer is that they imitate baitfish, but there’s more to it. Every year, many of the largest fish to hit the net on my guide boat come on flies, the biggest so far being a 13-pound rainbow.

I’m convinced the reason why trolled streamers produce so many big trout for me is that few other anglers use them. Trout at popular lakes see a lot of plugs and spoons, and they may reject a plug as a result. When the same trout are confronted with a fly, they may well respond simply because it is their first interaction with a trolled fly.

Research done by the scientists at Berkley Fishing demonstrates that fish can remember a given lure for up to six months after a negative interaction, and they are far more likely to strike a bait they are unfamiliar with than something they’ve seen in the past.

THE LAST WORD

At the end of the day, trout – both large or small – are apex predators. They eat all manner of insects, shrimp and even plankton, but given the opportunity, they will gladly gobble down another fish. The larger trout grow, the more important large forage items like baitfish become.

As a result, if you are not pulling minnow imitations in the form of plugs and flies, you are selling yourself short in terms of hooking a maximum number of larger-than- average fish. CS