How would you approach this water?

As our winter approaches, I'm starting to think about trout fishing. Don't stop reading, this has got a coarse angle to it!

Also, please note that I live in an alternate universe, where bait fishing for trout is entirely acceptable and legal. However, groundbaiting of any kind is not allowed.

The venue is a very deep natural lake with clear water which gets hit hard by wind. There is a wide, shallow shelf around the edge of the lake and baits need to be presented beyond it.



It is stocked annually with rainbow trout which grow big rapidly through eating large quantities of crayfish. There are no other significant species of fish present. Here's a trout caught by a work colleague that I took fishing. It was the first fish he's ever caught!



I'm an experienced fly fisherman and spent many years lure fishing for pike, but I don't enjoy either technique on this venue due to the depth and wind. Also, neither have been very successful for me, so bait fishing is my main approach. It also gives me a rare opportunity to practice some "coarse fishing".

You'd think the trout would be easy to catch, they are not. This is somewhat due to the nature of the venue, but the fish are very shy of resistance and often drop baits.

I have honed my approach to the water over a couple of seasons. Given the depth and wind, and a weedy lake bed, bait presentation is a problem. Freelined big baits have caught me some stunning fish, but bite detection is hit and miss. Somewhat counterintuitively, I prefer using braid because mono sinks down in to the weed. However, the braid is hard to manage on windy days.

Ledger rigs pull baits down in to the weed. As an alternative, I thought I'd give float fishing a go. Since there are no tackle stores in New Zealand that sell coarse fishing tackle, I made some floats. I'm not a craft person and the floats aren't pretty, but they do the job. I fish them as sliding wagglers with the bait about 20 feet below. They hold 14g of weight.



I'm sure you're thinking these floats are fairly hefty, they are, but I'm combating depth and wind and using large baits. It's more like pike fishing than roach fishing. Float fishing has also worked really well, but it's a struggle on exceptionally windy days. The bite detection is good as you'd expect and it's made me realise that I'm probably getting bites on my freelined baits and not seeing them. On the downside, the fish caught on the float seem to be consistently smaller.

The questions are, what do you think of my approach and is there anything I could do differently? Over to you.

Anyone? I would have thought this would have been right up FMs street! Try and pretend I'm not talking about trout

Thoughts out loud.....

Use that balsa to make slow sinking ledger weight stems. Bomb on bottom/long stem to avoid weed/ swivel on top?

Dead baiting? Live baiting?

Use crays for bait? Langoustines/Prawns?

As they are predators regard them as though pike or perch?

Think I would try air injected worms, they should stop above the weeds, and trout will always take worms.

And with them being off the bottom should be safe from the crayfish.

I did read this yesterday but I could not understand the weed being a problem at those depths you are fishing and its not a type of water I am experienced with so I did not post a reply. However, my only two thoughts were a negative weighted bait and try to get the fish near the surface to make float fishing easier with maybe some fine cloud ground bait and sprinkle with maggots every now and then.

My approach would be lives or deads adjusting the depth I fished at if no takes were forthcoming to try to find a depth at which the fish were on that day, if two rods are allowed I would start with them at different depths keeping them at least 6 feet from the bottom to try to avoid the crays.

mightyboosh said:

Anyone? I would have thought this would have been right up FMs street! Try and pretend I'm not talking about trout

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Gotta allow for the time-lag. Telecommunications may be instant now but ageing brains take a while for the 'valves' to warm up.
My own thoughts were to be loud and garish, with perhaps a team of lure flies or string of beads above a worm. Be interested to hear what you do try and how it works out.

john step said:

Use crays for bait? Langoustines/Prawns?

As they are predators regard them as though pike or perch?

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You're an astute angler! The secret bait is whole tiger prawns, 3 - 4 inches long. I'm treating them as pike, they certainly don't behave like any trout I've come across before which probably reflects their size and diet.

markg said:

However, my only two thoughts were a negative weighted bait and try to get the fish near the surface to make float fishing easier with maybe some fine cloud ground bait and sprinkle with maggots every now and then.

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No ground bait allowed unfortunately. If it was, I think it would be very effective. Just for the record, can't buy maggots here, although I could breed my own if I was desperate enough (I'm not!).

thecrow said:

My approach would be lives or deads adjusting the depth I fished at if no takes were forthcoming to try to find a depth at which the fish were on that day, if two rods are allowed I would start with them at different depths keeping them at least 6 feet from the bottom to try to avoid the crays.

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Just one rod allowed. Two rods would really open up my options, so may have two setup, but use one at a time (which is legal).

Well the only way I can think of is to approach it with a sliding rig stopped with a float stop.

Freelined prawns, pink egg imitation or small silver fish if allowed.

The float would be a typical carp controller that you could get pretty tight to.

I would fish this from wind direction side and grease line on surface and either keep rod high fixed or hold rod allowing it so move across water.

That’s a thought, the ‘pink egg’ approach – I’ve had quite a lot of success with grayling in the past trotting pomegranate seeds, must be worth a go with very little expense................

An old trick on the trout reservoirs here, is using floating crust, strictly illegal and a ban if you get caught, but needs must and many a limit acheived after rescuing a blank, combine it with a candle rig and you might be surprised.

Nice one! a good, big crust or a slice rolled and tied up will sort of self-groundbait. Carp certainly seem to be able to home in on them...

There's also the Bill Penney trick of a bit of crust on the hook at the centre of a dollop of "bread paste"... itmight work in midwater, though he was after roach, near or on the bottom. No one can expect bread still to be on the hook when you retrieve, yer honour...

Bread is legal. My main concern would that it would not survive the fall through the water column. I'm sure it could be made to work though. I almost never see a fish take food off the surface, again, hardly typical trout behaviour, so haven't rushed in with surface baits.


“Bait” means:
• Natural insect.
• Natural spider.
• Natural worm or worms.
• Natural crustacean.
• Natural fish, excluding fish ova, or any portion of a fish, or
shellfish (mollusc), except where stated otherwise in the second
schedule of this notice.
• Uncoloured bread dough.
• Any scented lure, soft bait and other synthetic imitations with
chemical attractant properties, except where stated otherwise
in the second schedule of this notice.