mightyboosh
Well-known member
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.
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.