01-06-2004, 04:17 PM
I apologize again for my late reply.
My fishing is 99% stream trout fishing.
Although I've heard strips of sucker belly are great for trout, I haven't yet tried any on streams. I've tried them on lakes, but like the rest of my lake fishing -- no great success. Colorado doesn't allow the use of sport fish -- whole or any part -- as bait.
For bait fishing, I start with whole crawlers. If the fish are small -- 10 inches and less, I halve the crawler. When crawler fishing is slow and the water clear, I switch to a single Fireball which seems to work better than crawlers when Rainbows predominate in clear water. Except for big waters, these are fished unweighted or at most with one of Fly-Rite's small, cylindrical weights. On big water, I weight with Bass Pro's XPS clam shot (#8 to #4).
For artificials, I use plain Mepps Aglias -- 00 and 0 on small streams and beaver ponds, #1 on medium to large streams and #3 and #4 on big canyon rivers. Silver when the waters are murky to slightly turbid, gold and then Black Fury as the waters clear. In addition, I size down as the waters approach crystal clarity. I've also used Rapalas on the big waters like the Yellowstone upstream of Livingston with excellent results.
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My fishing is 99% stream trout fishing.
Although I've heard strips of sucker belly are great for trout, I haven't yet tried any on streams. I've tried them on lakes, but like the rest of my lake fishing -- no great success. Colorado doesn't allow the use of sport fish -- whole or any part -- as bait.
For bait fishing, I start with whole crawlers. If the fish are small -- 10 inches and less, I halve the crawler. When crawler fishing is slow and the water clear, I switch to a single Fireball which seems to work better than crawlers when Rainbows predominate in clear water. Except for big waters, these are fished unweighted or at most with one of Fly-Rite's small, cylindrical weights. On big water, I weight with Bass Pro's XPS clam shot (#8 to #4).
For artificials, I use plain Mepps Aglias -- 00 and 0 on small streams and beaver ponds, #1 on medium to large streams and #3 and #4 on big canyon rivers. Silver when the waters are murky to slightly turbid, gold and then Black Fury as the waters clear. In addition, I size down as the waters approach crystal clarity. I've also used Rapalas on the big waters like the Yellowstone upstream of Livingston with excellent results.
[signature]