Consider Advanced Bait-fishing Techniques for Trout

By John Hayes / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Keith Gill of Trafford wades into Pine Creek in 2011.
Photo Pam Panchak/Post-Gazette

Having multiple bait-fishing techniques at your disposal can make all the difference.Depending on how you fish, trout can seem persnickety and selective or opportunistic and voracious. Both perceptions are accurate.

For a fly fisherman standing hip deep in Deer Creek during a spectacular hatch of No. 22 Blue-winged Olives and fumbling through a fly box of Black Stoneflies and Wooly Buggers, trout can seem particular about their diet. When he comes back with No. 16 Olives and still can't get a rise, trout can seem frustratingly, irritatingly sensitive to food size -- almost like the snub is personal.

Trout fishing seemed a cinch in recent weeks for anglers taking advantage of the Early Season Trout-Stocked Waters Program at Keystone and Mammoth lakes. Dozens of anglers limited out with ease on paste baits, red worms, butter worms, salmon eggs -- just about anything they threw into the water.

In most cases, when the statewide trout season opens at 8 a.m. April 14, the most successful anglers will be those who adapt their equipment and techniques to changing conditions.

That bobber-and-crawler rig that worked so well on the lake last summer will catch fish until an atmospheric cold front pushes the trout too deep to see the bait. Hooking minnows under the spine is fine until you cast into a creek and turn your bait into a propeller blade. And those 1/0 treble hooks and 1-ounce pyramid sinkers you bought at Walmart are absolutely perfect ... for your Virginia Beach surf fishing vacation.

"The biggest mistake I see people making is probably using a too big hook and too heavy weight," said Karen Gainey, a state-certified fishing instructor who teaches at the Community College of Allegheny County and hosts the Venture Outdoors Downtown TriAnglers outings Wednesdays in the summer on Pittsburgh's North Shore.

"They're using the wrong equipment for conditions," said Gainey. "Heavy line in low, clear water, or an ultralight rod rigged for big fish. God help them if they every catch one -- the rod won't handle it."

Gainey likes golden hooks. "The fish don't see them as easily as they do bronze hooks," she said. On moving water, she baits a No. 6 hook with half a crawler. Instead of balling the bait, a common rig, she inserts the hook once at the head and lets it hang out. "I want it to look as natural as possible," she said.

Gainey crimps on three BB-size split shot about 18 inches above the hook, spreading the shot about 2 inches apart, "so they don't drop like a rock." Cast upstream into the current and reel in the slack.

"It works well in the least bit of a hole or waterfall, and at North Park Lake where the bottom drops off," she said. When conditions call for baits to be suspended at a particular depth, she turns to live minnows. "For trout, I like small minnows, 1 1/2 inches to 2 1/2 inches," she said. "Hook them under the chin, straight up under the eyes so they'll stay alive and swim around, with no weight between the bobber and the hook."

If a frightened minnow runs to the surface, said Gainey, the action excites the predator into chasing it. "At Canonsburg Lake and North Park, I like about 3 feet between the hook and bobber. A 1 1/4-inch round bobber gives you enough weight to cast."

It's hard to find 2-inch crayfish at a bait shop, but Gainey said there's no better tidbit for trout. Pinch off the claws so they don't clamp onto the bottom and hook upward through the tail shell. In moving water, weight it, toss upstream and work it through the current with a tight line. In a pool, she said, swim it across the face of the downstream riffle.
"Little fish won't take the crayfish," she said. "We're talking serious fish."

Mike Milvet, owner of Cross Creek Bait Shop near Avella, said too often anglers get comfortable with a single technique and use it in all conditions. When the fish change what they're doing, he said, tackle and techniques should change.

"In a stream with a steady current, I like to put on a bobber and cast upstream with a Mini Foo [jig] or a minnow," he said. "If I'm using a minnow, once I find the depth of the stream I set the bobber to keep the minnow off the bottom, and put on a B or BB-size split shot to keep the minnow down."

In cloudy water, Milvet goes to a classic muddy water rig. "My dad's old favorite was a Velveeta cheese ball," he said. "A PowerBait or any of the more scented baits will work, too, mostly with rainbows. When it's muddy, fish it deep."

Lake-bound browns and rainbows are attracted to paste baits, which generally float. Milvet uses their buoyancy to his advantage, fishing deep with a smorgasbord of baits. "If I'm fishing [an impoundment] such as Canonsburg Dam, I'll slide on a barrel sinker [one-eighth or three-sixteenths ounce] and tie on two treble hooks [No. 16-14] -- one on the end, one above," he said. "I put a BB shot about 12 inches above the upper hook. The line runs through the slip sinker so the fish feels no weight, just the split shot. I like to use PowerBait on the end, then put a combo of meal worms and a couple of maggots on the other hook. The PowerBait will float and pull the meal worms and maggots up, so they're not laying on the mud bottom."

When the trout streams near Seven Springs get a little murky, John Dressler, co-owner of Red's Bait Shop in Acme, fishes salted minnows with a spinning rod. Unlike the fly rod salted minnow technique, in which a needle is used to thread the minnow onto a double hook, Dressler's spinning method spears the bait behind the head with a No. 8 hook.
"I put split shot at least a foot away from the hook," he said. "I usually cast out and let the current work it, or if I'm in a nice hole, I'll jig it, let it settle, jig it, let it settle, then reel it in."
On Donegal and Laurel Hill lakes, Dressler likes wax worms under a wooden egg bobber.

"Set the depth at 5 or 6 feet below the bobber," he said. "I use the egg bobber for weight for casting, and put two eyelets on each end of the wooden bobber. I usually tie the line to a snap swivel, and snap it onto the [top of the] bobber. I tie 5 or 6 feet of line onto another snap swivel and snap that to the bottom of the bobber, and run the line down to a split shot and the hook. If you want to change the depth, just unsnap the line and snap another on."
On the hook, he hangs three wax worms or four to five maggots.
"I've been doing that for years," he said.