Trout Fishing Tips

[BPRoberts]

This weekend is opening day for the local trout nursery, and my friend invited me out. I haven't been fishing in at least a decade, and never for trout, so I figured I'd reach out for some advice. Anything I should keep in mind? Technique? Gear recommendations? Might be a good excuse to pick up a nice bird and trout knife...

[Vidar]

I'm almost the opposite - I've mostly just done trout and arctic char fishing inland. Which makes giving advice a bit difficult as I don't really have much to compare with. I'll assume lake fishing rather than say river or ice fishing, and fishing with a fishing rod and lures rather than bait. Not sure any of this is very trout specific, but take it for what it is:

The most important factor is the one you have little say about and that is the fish activity in the lake. When a lake is "dead" it doesn't really matter what you do - the fish are not in an eating mood, and your chances are low. On the other hand if the fish are active you can have fish going for your lure at almost every throw. Often they will follow the lure towards land so you can see them coming. If so try again the same spot. Same goes for jumping fish - quickly throwing the lure at the spot will bring you in the ballpark of a fish.

Some fish can also be holding position near land. Thus we typically fish ahead before walking along the lake edge. 

Certain weather and certain times of day will have higher chances of catching the fish in a good mood. That might depend some with your geographic location and temperature and so on, but at least over here very early morning is often a good time for fishing. Very windy days or very hot sunny days not so much.

Equipment advice. Hm. The longer and more precise you can throw the better, and that typically has a lot to do with the equipment. For lures spinners and wobbly moving stuff are my first choices. If the lake has funky edges and fairly big fish you might want to bring a net.

[BPRoberts]

It's a stocked creak/stream. I'll probably just go with those little bait balls for my first time out, pretty inexpensive and easy to use, my friend who fishes the stream has good luck with them. I don't want to turn this into a money pit and then fill my car with so much stuff I get tired of dragging it around instead of enjoying the fishing.

[Vidar]

Polaroid glasses. Makes it easier to see through the water surface reflection and see what is down there

Bait is a winner. When I was a kid I used to have a worm pit and sell to local salmon fishers in particular. Fairly easy once you get going - feed them, keep birds away, avoid that they drown in rain, and they take care of the multiplying themselves. (The worms, not the fishermen). Kept me with good pocket money for many seasons. 

There shouldn't be a need for lots of stuff? Fishing rod, reel and some lures or bait. A net for bigger fish, or a hook for bigger still. Of course some ends up with lots of rods and reels for various kinds of fishing, sizes and species but somehow I've avoided that.

[BPRoberts]

Good to know, thanks for the advice.

What do you advise for keeping/transporting my catch? We can't dress/bleed at the stream. My friend says they usually put them on a stringer, then bring them home in a bucket. Everything I see online suggests that bonking and icing them in a small cooler is a better bet. Bonk seems more humane and less fussy.

[Vidar]

I'm afraid my English doesn't go all the way to bonking and stringers. (I thought I had an idea about bonking, but now I think hopefully not). So I'll just say what we usually do. (For context we are rarely more than half a day from returning back home, and temperatures are usually in the 5-20 Celsius range). 

Once caught we knock the fish in the head, and let them dry up a bit on the ground. From there we usually just put them in a plastic bag. (Isolated bag, ice and/ or cooling bag elements would be beneficial but given the temperatures and timeframe nobody bothers with that around here). For the times when we forget plastic bags we put a thin flexible tree branch through the gills of one or more fish and twist the branch up into a round handle to carry them with. The latter might bleed a bit though.

(Edit: I guess not much of an issue in this case, but if you catch big fish a bag in a rucksack is a better solution then carrying them visible. If you meet someone or are seen carrying big fishes, and they see where you came from, then your good spot might get more fishermen than it can handle. If you are naughty go somewhere else and show off a big fish against the wrong background on social media... )

(Edit 2: Certain locations will also be homes for the likes of stouts, martens and otters. They will happily steal your fishes while you turn your back to fish more. So not only do you have to get the fish, you have to be able to keep them too!  )

[BPRoberts]

Yeah, bonk would be knock the fish on the head. It's on the warmer end of that range, so I'll probably ice them. A stringer is a short line you put in so the fish can stay in the water (where they just die slowly and painfully?)

My friend seems to just like to make it complicated and use as much gear as possible. Special tweezers, clips on the line, etc. I think I'll keep it simple.

[Vidar]

Some setups and gear do work better than others, but if you happen to have a good setup already then not much else or change needed. But each to their own and what they enjoy. For some the gear and making the perfect choice and setups might be the most interesting part of the experience. (Sometimes the fish even agrees with their choices!  ) It is sport fishing after all so whatever brings you joy. If just catching fish was the main goal then there is a plethora of more effective methods - all usually banned in sport fishing contexts.

Actually banning gives an indication of fishing effectiveness as they are inversely related. So for licensed rivers around here bait is banned many places, lures are banned a few, while fly fishing being the least effective is ok everywhere.

I've never used tweezers or the like. For fish with nasty sets of teeth like pike I would consider it. A nice little scissor for line cutting is nice though. (And pliers can be a necessity if someone manage to hook themselves or others).

[Vidar]

Sorting some old hard drives I came across this one, and thought of this thread. I was more active fishing when I was a kid. To date this is the biggest trout I've got. (I don't actually fish where the really big ones are).

[BPRoberts]

The kid I was with wound up with one, and I struck out. Oh well, I'll give it another try next weekend. That's certainly a big 'un.

[Vidar]

That happens. Hopefully still a good time.

As far as equipment goes you're looking at it in the picture. Add two-three lures and that was it.

The normal size there was up to about 1 kg for trout, and 2 kg for salmon. (So small for salmon). But there were lots of them in a tiny river, and you always got some, so great place to just go and get dinner.