Hello, I am traveling west from my Connecticut home and I am going to get a single day of fishing at a couple of small Utah lakes. They are high in the La Sals against the Colorado border at between 8000 and 10000 feet. I don’t fly fish and live bait isn’t feasible for this quick hit. I’m pretty much only a bass fisherman but these lakes have Rainbows, Brook and Cutthroat. I’m bringing my spinning setup but only have a small Tupperware to carry my gear in. I only catch and release, so whatever lure I use the barbs will be ground off. We’ll be there in July with fishing available from early morning to evening.
So … to all the trout fishermen out there … If you were me… what would be the lures of choice?
My all time favorite trout lure is a silver and orange kastmaster in the 1/4 oz size. I have caught hundreds of trout off of that exact lure. Other colors work well also, like gold, silver, and anything with red in it. Good luck.
Ditto to the previous responses but you also can’t go wrong with tiny treble hooks and a jar of PowerBait- pink, orange, yellow, it doesn’t seem to matter. A package of snelled treble hooks, some sliding egg sinkers and a jar would fit in your box. Have fun!
Ditto the silver and gold spinners. I’m a fan of Blue Fox spinners they seem to cast farther and work the better for me. I also like the Jake’s spin-a-lure, again in silver or gold.
I would try a small assortment of spinners pending cloud cover or not, bright sun, use sliver, cloudy use gold or brass. the spinners body should be the same, but i have used Flo. Orange, green, and or hot pink. go to wal mart and get a 6 pack of cheap mepps spinners, some swivels, maybe a pich weight or two no more than 1/4 ounce to place 12 to 18 inches up the line, clip the spinner directly to the swivel this make a fast change option should a color not produce in 20 minutes time. I prefer to use the bigger spinners up to 1/2 ounce or 3/4 they cast better to your targets and if there is a breeze or its windy you will still be able to cast. stick with the florescent colors though, dont go into matching forage.
You could also use a fly and bubble set up. get you some wooly buggers in black and olive, no bead heads. use a slip bobber (clear one) and the pinch weights you already have about 12 inches up from the head of the fly. put the bobber on the line then your swivel, then use about 18 inches of line from the swivel to the bugger, with the weight in between. just toss it out and reel it back slowly stopping once in a while to let the fly “drop” usually they will pick it up when this happens. that is also a good set up if you do have some power bait nuggets you can put them on the hook of the bugger and just let it dangle in the water by taking the pinch weight off.
Get the clear plastic bubbles that can fill with water - not the little ones and NOT the ones that look like a baseball, just the medium sized ones (drain and dry them between uses- Invasive Quagga mussles!)
Get some black, brown, and green damsel flies. Some 4# test flourcarbon. Oh, and some Griffiths Gnats and/or mosquito flies in size 16-12. I have caught SO MANY trout this way that it is beginning to get boring…NOT!!
I broke down a bought a fly tying vise and I DO NOT EAT SLIMERS, but still spent almost $100!!
do it like this:
Slide the bubble onto the main line (big end first) and tie a swivel on. The swivel is the main weight that will pull a full bubble down at a given rate of sink, so choose accordingly. Big=fast small= slower NO SPLIT SHOT!!
A bubble with only ONE DROP of water out of it will almost float…hint : If the fish are on top…let some water out!
[fishin]
Tie about 8-10’ of 4# floro to the swivel with a loop. About 1.5’- 3’ up from the end make a loop using a surgeons knot and snip one side of the loop. Tie one brown damsel on the dropper you just made with a loop knot (so the line don’t bind on the fly). Tie a black damsel or a Gnat (or skeeter) to the end with a loop knot.
Cast a mile out in the lake and start counting down…
1000 - 1, 1000-2, 1000-3…1000-30 and then start reeling in REAL SLOW. Do this if the water is about 15-20’ deep…I let the fish tell me how deep they want the flies to be. If there are no fish wallowing on top…they GOTTA be deeper! I will start at the surface for a few casts…then count down to 1000-5 for a couple of casts. If nothing…1000-10 for a few…1000-20 for a few…etc…til the fish tell ME where they are!
If this DON’T work for you…I’ll let you kick me in the scrotum! (after we fish together and I show you how to do it - and ya still don’t get any!)
Lemme know if it works! I use this method EVERYWHERE…it works best at night on browns. For browns at night use a blk/brn damsel - No moon
brn/grn - half to full moon and fish where a river flows into a lake. Experiment with the current, but usually I fish where the water is still mixing and flowing but slowing.
Fish with any of the above lures and techniques, you might find something they like.
If you can’t catch anything then I would go with the Panther Martin, you can always get a fish with a panther. Holographic is a cool new color, silver is sweet, maybe get something you think might work.
When your reeling in the lure you should feel the thumping of blade. Reel as slow as you can while still feeling the thump.
Good luck.
i gotta go with the “Jakes”. if i can’t catch a trout out of the high lakes with a jakes, just kick back and have a beverage. they just ain’t hitting right now.
in reality, we all know- the lure/bait we have the most faith in will likely be fished the most, and hardest- it follows we’ll catch more fish with that one. for me, it’s the bronze “Jakes”