Unconventional Trout Techniques

[Al Agnew]

I've always found that trout do not like a lure to pause for very long. The trout I've caught on jerkbaits have taken them while reeling, not on the pause, and if I'm targeting trout I reel them fairly steadily instead of pausing them as you do for bass. Trout seem to lose interest if you stop a lure and let it sit for a bit. I've watched them do so when I was fishing jerkbaits. Even when stripping streamers, I try not to let them pause long enough to start to sink.

I have caught some trout on crawdad colored crankbaits, but I have more confidence in crankbaits that imitate fish, like a Shad Rap.

I've never heard of any being caught on lures that operate at the surface or near surface. You'd think that a big brown might come up and take a walk the dog topwater, since it loosely imitates a crippled fish. But I've never heard of it happening. Of course, that may be because nobody ever tries it in trout water!

[ColdWaterFshr]

Zoom worms (for bass) will fool an occasional Eleven Point river rainbow, just ask my nephew.

[hoglaw]

Come to think of it I did catch a rainbow in the little red on a spittin' image years ago when it was the only lure I had with me for a work weekend. I imagine a big brown would eat one too Al, but more of a reaction bite than anything. Now, if you had a stream with naturally reproducing rainbows so they had lots of forage that size, that might be a different issue.

[Mitch f]

In a very shallow fast riffle, I like the Yozuri Pin's minnow worked very fast. In a little deeper riffle, the pointer 78 is hard to beat. Any deeper than that the pointer 78DD is my favorite. Funny about the cadence thing...I've usually always work it fast to very fast but always cpmpletely stop with a slightly slack line in between twitches. Sometimes they only hit it when it's stopped for a second or two. Sometimes only a half second, but for me, it always seems to come on the hesitation.

[stlfisher]

My Uncle saw a young girl catch a big rainbow on a 10 inch plastic worm in the bait area at Bennett many years ago. One of his favorite stories to tell.

A few years ago at Busch Wildlife I saw a young kid catch a rainbow...at midday on a popper in June. The fish was half dead, but it came right up and smacked it pretty good too.

While not unconventional I have been swinging a lot more streamers my last couple of trips. Kind of my " I want to cover a lot of water, but I am lazy and I don't want to work that hard in the processs technique" Seems to be working pretty good.

[Gavin]

Trout usually like a faster retrieve...Brown trout usually like it ripped with very short pauses. They seem to shy away from a jerkbait if the pause is too long. If they are inactive and you can position your cast right, a long upstream cast a slower retrieve with small twitches every couple of seconds. Browns are pig dog ambush predators and they eat the front hook 95% of the time. Rainbows are curious, and they like to chase, but they seem to be passive mid-water grazers for the most part. No pauses to keep em chasing. They usually take the tail hook most of the time, especially on the bigger baits.

Have not tried a wart on them, but I dont see why it wouldnt work. Moved some warts and blade baits to my trout kit this winter. Figure they might work well in some of the deeper spots were its hard to get a bass sized 1/8oz hair jig to the bottom in a timely manner...A couple spots on the Eleven Point & NFoW come to mind.

[ozarkgunner]

A pins minnow, shad rap, and lucky craft pointer have always worked. A shad rap is a killer trout bait.

[jdmidwest]

I have seen trout eat a cigarette butt, I don't think they are really picky.

[hoglaw]

I've seen BIG trout that would probably eat a cigarette butt during a western stonefly hatch. And the wild mountain stream fish will eat just about anything if it's presented on a natural drift without spooking them. But the caliber of fish I'm after in the White don't operate that way JD.

[Gavin]

Have you ever thought about tossing those big swimbaits that they use for bass California..8" Huddlestons and the like...Might be worth a shot if the regs allow it.