Rainbow Trout Fishing

One of my favorite activities is fishing for Rainbow Trout. The Rainbow Trout is a very popular fish, and anglers of all kinds attempt to catch them all year long. Whether it's standing in a flowing river, on the banks of a lake, in a boat or canoe, or on the ice, fishing for Rainbow Trout is an incredibly popular activity. The first thing I want to discus is the fish itself, followed by a couple of techniques used to catch them.

Rainbow trout thrive in clear, cool streams and rivers but have been known to survive in warm silt bottom streams as well. Rainbow Trout prefer a temperature range of 55 to 60 degrees, but thrive in various temperature ranges. In early spring, as the water temperature begins to rise, the adult rainbows migrate to shallow riffles or small, clear streams to spawn. Spawning can continue as late in the year as June. During the first two or three years of life, rainbow trout will feed mainly on crustaceans and aquatic insects. At approximately 3 years of age, they will move into larger water and change their diet to fish, large insects, and even small rodents when they can find them.

The best time of year to catch a Rainbow is the spring and fall, before and after spawning. They become fish with an incredible appetite and can be caught on an assortment of spinners, flies, and baits. Many trout anglers have success with small colorful spinners, spoons, jigs, and of course live bait.

There are many different baits that anglers use to attempt to entice these fish, and the two most popular have to be live bait and small lures. Let's begin with live bait. Live bait can include such things as minnows, small frogs, grasshoppers, leeches, maggots, and my personal favorite worms. The important thing to remember when trying to catch a rainbow trout with live bait is that you want the bait to appear as natural as possible. For example, when many anglers fish with worms, they simply thread the worm onto a hook and think its okay. Does this look the least bit natural? No it doesn't. When using worms, the angler should employ gang hooks so the worm looks completely natural. This theory includes all manner of live bait. When fishing for Rainbow Trout (especially trophies) the live bait needs to be presented as naturally as possible.

Now for lures. There are many different types of lures available to trout anglers. Some of the more popular types would include: Minnow plugs, rooster tails, spinners, spoons, and jigs. For rainbow trout you're goings to want to stick with smaller sizes. Most of the lures that you will use will be •¼ ounce or less. I've caught some very large fish on small lures, so don't be afraid to use these small sizes. Just think about the type of forage that the tout normally eat. That's the size you want to go with. The biggest tip I have as far as lures go is to always make sure that you have back ups of your favorites. The last thing that you want to have happen is to find the lure that's working, only to get snagged and lose it, and then realize that you don't have a back up. I know from experience that this situation is no fun at all.