Lure fishing for trout in commercial lake

[hammer_jamie]

Can i have some tips and advice on lure fishing for trout in a commercial lake, It's mostly stocked with Ide, Roach, Rudd, Perch, etc No pike, The odd carp that have sneaked in.


Is the best approach just keep casting a small rubber lure on a jig head and reeling it in?

What weight jig head is best?


Thanks in advance

 

[spoonminnow]

It's amazing the number of fish species that attack small plastic lures rigged on light jigheads! The waters I fish usually hold shallow fish in 2-8' , but the key to catching them is finding them. The best way of finding fish (other than using sonar) that can be provoked into striking a lure or live bait, is casting to as many areas as possible and at the depth(s) fish are holding.

The ball head jig IMO can't be beat. It comes in many weights and hook sizes and holds a huge number of soft plastic lure designs.

With the introduction of no-stretch braid and less stretch fluorocarbon lines, strike detection and hooksets from a long distance is greatly improved.

Rod and reels don't have to cost much. Most rod/reel combos I own cost less than $40 and have allowed me to catch hundreds of fish every year. Spinning and spincast reels do fine with light or heavy lures whereas baitcast reels are better suited to heavier lures.

Live bait fishing is the slowest technique of finding and catching fish but lure fishing can also be as slow as one wishes with ice fishing the perfect example. One is forced to slow down fish through a hole, but when an area doesn't produce I drill my holes elsewhere and start jigging again, meaning, dropping a jig-rigged small plastic bait and twitching it off bottom. One year my partner and I caught over 40 crappie as it was getting dark jigging a dozen holes drilled in a large circle .

But as with any fishing, confidence is essential and once you've caught your first fish on a light lure, the world of lure fishing opens up ways to fish and lures to fish them. But if all you want to fish with is only one lure that you've mastered, who says variety is the spice of fishing (except those who sell fishing equipment)? I have quite a few lures most of which just one will do as well as the others, but I an a sucker for variety. LOL

Good luck.

 

[103841]

I take it the rules allow for lure fishing? Many commies don’t allow it.

 

[O.C.F.Disorder]

Live bait fishing is the slowest technique of finding and catching fish

Not sure I agree with that..

 

[spoonminnow]

Live bait fishing is the slowest technique of finding and catching fish

Not sure I agree with that..

I can cover far more water using light lures than an angler fishing with a live bait. Specifically, I can fish many depths to find where fish are hitting best and do so in many areas of a lake.

Today I decided to go south and fish depths 4-7' parallel to shore. Northern areas haven't been producing like last year most likely because of the huge difference in rainfall. All casts were 30' long and worked at different depths to find what was biting and where. Crappie, bass and sunfish cooperated where I searched with new soft plastic designs.

I started with a 1/32 oz jig., found fish were deeper and then switched to 1/16 oz.
Caught 26 in a short period with water temperature 84 degrees. Covered water that showed no fish on the sonar, supported by no bites. Live bait might have done better in some areas, but it would have take far more time to find areas fish were holding.

 

[thecrow]

Sonar is fine on a commercial trawler, lots of anglers here prefer to use experience and watercraft to find fish as well as feeding a swim to draw fish into the place they are fishing.

Most fishing over here is done from the bank and is very different to your own type of fishing.

What do you mean by "a live bait" because over here it mostly means using a live fish as bait.

 

[stillwater blue]

Take a look at Lures and lure fishing tackle at great prices! and Lures, Relax Kopyto, Salmo - Lure World Fishing Tackle

I'd suggest

1" Kopyto shads and 2" grubs both with a size 6 jig head in 1.5g & 3g. Before you use these baits drop them in boiling water for a minute and then into cold water, it softens the plastic and gives the lure more action. I catch loads on these lures.

2" Kopyto shads on a size 1 or 2 jig head in 1.5g, 3g and 5g.

You can fish these by casting them out, counting them down to the desired depth and then a straight retrieve or you can straight retrieve whilst gently twitching the rod tip to give them more action. You can jig them too, I find this particularly effective for perch, watch the video from 11.04 to get an idea of how to work the lures.

Oh, don't forget spinners! They're not fashionable but catch loads of fish. I like mepps spinners over the cheaper copies as they seem to spin at a slower speed.

 

[spoonminnow]

Sonar is fine on a commercial trawler, lots of anglers here prefer to use experience and watercraft to find fish as well as feeding a swim to draw fish into the place they are fishing.

Most fishing over here is done from the bank and is very different to your own type of fishing.

What do you mean by "a live bait" because over here it mostly means using a live fish as bait.

Live bait usually means minnows , earthworms, grubs, some insects (crickets, grasshoppers glued to the hook), crawfish, etc.
Some use dead preserved minnow, grubs and insects. Even if one doesn't fish from a boat and use sonar, bank fishing might still be more productive walking to open areas and cast in a 180 degree arc, letting lures sink to mid depth or jigging off bottom. When the wind has been to strong, I'll leave the rowboat in the back of the truck and walk the bank in search of fish that can be incited to strike. If I catch a few or none, I move on.

But one thing I haven't mentioned which a friend showed me. To get a light lure far from shore to deeper water and therefore cover a lot more territory, he uses a weighted float, a 4# test leader and a small lure rigged on a jig. Leader length is variable depending on how close to the bottom the fish are biting. Rarely does he fish water over 7' deep, but cast huge distances and slowly drags the float towards him, pauses and allows wave action to give the lure action. Just a suggestion I found works at times.

 

[O.C.F.Disorder]

I can cover huge grounds on a float paternoster rig with live bait.. I just cast out far and slowly bring the float towards me.. I also use a little quick change clip type thing so that I can just remover the weight and use it as a normal float rig. Lures are great and I use them often but live bait is king.