I Can't Catch Trout at the Local Lake!

[FrankB2]

2007 and 2008 were great years for FF'ing at the local stocked lake, but this
year I've caught NADA there! While bait/spin anglers were having little success compared to me in the last couple of years, I've only see trout taken
on PowerBait and marshmallows this year. Maybe these are those tank raised
trout, and have never seen a bug....????? I've tossed everything in the book
at them, fishing morning, noon, and night; even fishing in the rain!

The stocked streams have been good to me this year, so....OTOH, the local
lake has produced a trophy LMB, decent LMB, and a ton of HUGE crappie
this year. I hooked about 15 crappie this afternoon, and landed around 10
of them. These crappies were real heavyweights, and several did the whole
aerobatics thing. To be honest, I was happy to catch all those crappie today,
but wonder what's up with the trout.

 

[lifesaflyin]

well you can always go back to a bobber and some corn.

 

[Ronnie z]

Try using a smaller tippet.

 

[GeorgeMcFly]

well you can always go back to a bobber and some corn.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! they will eat flies you just to find the right fly,presentation, and tippet size and you will get um to bite. if it comes down to corn tie up some foam corn! lol.

 

[FrankB2]

Hey Guys,
I thought about borrowing a piece of Powerbait, but...... .

They were rising all over at around 6:30pm today, and I had one take a
#18 Adams...YEEHEE! I've tossed every imaginable combo at them until
now (including 7X), but wind at the lake has been HONKING all month. Today
was the first really calm afternoon I've seen since the season opened, and
I guess that's what was needed.

 

[swirlchaser]

Tie a marshmallow fly!!!
Last summer we took a family vacation to Rocking Horse Ranch for some horseback riding and other outdoor fun. The lake had some huge Carp that basically never left the dock where the kids were constantly feeding them hot dog buns.
I threw every fly I had and came up empty. I finally went to the gift shop, bought a sewing kit with white thread and used the inside of a cigarette filter, yes a cigarette filter to tie a big white ball that I thought looked like a piece of hot dog bun. The Carp thought it did too and I landed 2 of them with my 6WT and my "Marlboro" fly. I released them but they died shortly after of lung cancer...:icon_lol:

 

[Guest1]

If you have ever been to the Keystone ski area in Colorado, they have a little lake by the lodge that has the biggest trout you have ever seen swimming around in it. The place is owned (or was at least) by Purina. They had trout chow in vending machines and you could feed these giant freakin trout. I wondered at the time about tying "hatchery food" flies for stocked fish. If you know where the hatchery the fish in your lake came from is, you might go there and ask them to show you what the food looks like. Who knows, it may work. By the way, trout can't digest corn, (neither can I) and it is illegal to use in many places.

 

[swirlchaser]

By the way, trout can't digest corn, (neither can I) and it is illegal to use in many places.

LMAO :icon_lol::icon_lol::icon_lol: , I thought it was just me!!!

 

[crittergetter]

Try a Flashback Hares hear followed by a red larve
Or
Glo Ball followed by a red larve

And get them down deep. Adjust a bit up or down at 6" at a time.. I will strip wait 2 seconds strip wait 2 seconds etc.... Sometimes the hit will be almost a second bobble on the indicator. That seams to be the time the trout will hit the larve or better yet the bigger flasback or globall (they seam to take them harder than the larve) This is very much nymph fishing just in a lake.

Don't forget looking for cruzing fish they will show you the lanes and column..

oh.. if all else read the farmers almanac.. at least that is what my 88 year old dad still does.. :^)

 

[crittergetter]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! they will eat flies you just to find the right fly,presentation, and tippet size and you will get um to bite. if it comes down to corn tie up some foam corn! lol.

Don't diss it too much... In mo we call it Beer and Bells'.. Set the line with corn and or Zeek's toss it out put a bell on the end of the poll and open a beer and wait for the bell to ring.. After the 6th beer you start forgetting about the bell's.. Make sure you have a bunch of chips cause you will be getting hungry...

PS... look up the YOYO's the Cat Fishers use... they go back to camp to have their beer...

 

[mojo]

How deep is your pond? And have you tried chironomids under a indicator yet?

 

[FrankB2]

The depth varies quite a bit, but the main section is 15-20 feet deep. Most
of the trout I've caught there in the past couple years have been in 3-8 feet
of water. I've used chronomids as droppers, by themselves, with indicators,
and on long leaders. It's just been a tough start for anyone not using those
maggot looking worms and powerbait.

The good news is the crappie and LMB fishing there has been fantastic!
This two species have become our target now, and the crappie are a blast:

That's an 8'6" rod with Ross Rhythm #2, and most of the crappie have been
that size.

We cast out further on occassion to hit last year's trout hot spots, but go
back to the sure thing pretty fast. We'll take the canoe out this weekend,
and see where those trout are.....

I should mention that grew up near that lake, and never liked the idea of
fishing for stocked trout. In fact, I made a point of staying away until the
corn and bobber crowd cleaned the stocked fish out (only took a few weeks
back then). Shooting fish in a barrel was never my bag, unless they're in a
stream :wink: .

 

[crittergetter]

Congrats on the Crappie... They eat better than trout also..

 

[swirlchaser]

Crappie are a blast to catch and the big ones fight pretty hard. I think they have a big fish stuck in a small body complex...

 

[Tracker12]

I fish a pond similar to yours. Guys kill them with power bait and it is very tuff to catch them on anything else. There is one guy that I noticed catching them on a fly. He uses a glo egg type pattern that is the color of brown dog food. He uses a float application to keep it on top. I have also watched him chum them up to the top using fish pond food.

 

[Bigfly]

I like taking the game to them. Care taking a local lake taught me most fishermen are one (or two) trick ponies. If they didn't catch'em on dries or under a bobber, they complained. One dryfly guy who used a clicker to count fish was the most vocal. One day I lined up a 300gr. line and in a rare in your face moment I caught 4 fine trout over 5 pounds in less than an hour. I still feel a little bad about it, but some guys are slow.........learners. Streamers baby! Big fish like big meals.
Just use a large enough rod for the job. Tell'em bigfly sent you.

 

[Bigfly]

Don't lower the bar on life, work it out. They're just fish, they evolve under pressure, you have to change it up and think like a fish. It works on panfish, bass, trout, steelies ect. Now I'm going fishing instead of ranting.

 

[Troutwhisperer]

Hey frankb2,

trout are easy to catch in ponds you describe, once you figure out what fly's they like. i fish one just like it because its the closest body of water i have and have caught some good ones, the ones the worm drowners havn't already caught or killed.

Just keep using small adam's and parachute adams. #16-20's work best for me. maybe if you have a belly or a pontoon boat troll a wolly bugger or streamer behind it. that seems to work good also.

 

[FrankB2]

Hey guys,
I had great success on this lake in 2007-2008, but this spring was tough.
Like I said, I threw everything in my arsenal at them. I fished the banks,
all the coves, canoed out into the center of the lake, etc. Wooly Buggers
were the stuff in the last couple years, but that proved worthless (unless
you count the 24" LMB I caught on April 7 :biggrin:!!!) That made
catching little stockers seem silly anyway..........

 

[FrankB2]

Don't lower the bar on life, work it out. They're just fish, they evolve under pressure, you have to change it up and think like a fish. It works on panfish, bass, trout, steelies ect. Now I'm going fishing instead of ranting.

Why would you be "ranting"? You mentioned people that complain, but I'm not complaining. In fact, I was disappointed to hook into
one of the anemic stockers while fishing for crappie a month ago...LOL! I avoided that lake for years during stocked trout season, preferring
to fish for non-aquarium-raised species.