Northwest Fishing Reports

Im more of a bass/steelhead guy. New to this site and wondering if I could get opinions to catch stocker trout. Gob of PB or lures. I'll be casting no boat to troll.

From shore, bait, From a boat, bait, It always has worked, and always will.

If I'm on shore and fish are out of casting distance (usually are) then I plunk. Bait.

If I have a boat, I'll troll 95% of the time...

Hmm well. Were you thinking worms on the bottom or powerbait?

KurtO wrote:Hmm well. Were you thinking worms on the bottom or powerbait?

Depends if they were just stocked or not. If they were just stocked anything works. However, the "worm inflator" as Sam has indicated is deadly on lakes like Beaver when the bite subsides after a month of so, when the fish key in on natural food sources. I have a link to one I should post up when I get the time! Good luck!

If you are going to be fishing from the bank, pick up a bag of the small Marshmellows and a tub of nightcrawlers.
Put a marshmellow on and slide it up on the eye of the hook and add a half of a crawler and cast it out. The mellow will float the crawler and them Trout love em.

Yep Powerbait for freshly stocked fish.

After that, try worms inflated with a worm inflator. Joes has em for like $2 or something....Will also catch other species (cutthroats most often for me) cause nothing but rainbow trout seem to like powerbait...

Thank you all. Im new to trout fishing and found thats actually pretty fun.

I throw spinners at stockers and Kastmasters at brooders. I really don't like bait fishing. Only do it when I want my little daughter to catch a fish. ...and when fishing with live shiners down south.

Sam Kafelafish wrote:Yep Powerbait for freshly stocked fish.

After that, try worms inflated with a worm inflator. Joes has em for like $2 or something....Will also catch other species (cutthroats most often for me) cause nothing but rainbow trout seem to like powerbait...

ive caught a couple of perches off powereggs at lake washington.

If you use worms, you can catch a little of everything especially at lake like lake wa.

I tried inflating the worms but it deflated real quick like. Ended up catching a small brown on a roostertail. Any other tips or such would be more than welcome.

I you have trouble inflating worms then just use mallo's, if you want to increase your catch rates then you should very slowly reel your bait in the key is slow, this will up your catch rates from shore.

Seems like to would be really east to snag up. But then again the marshmellow would keep me from the bottom.
Thanks where do i get marshmallows?

Any fishing tackle store will have fishing marshmallows or powerbait...

Any grocery store.
Take some out of the bag and let them sit over night.
You want them to dry out a bit.

I have one of those worm inflators (little plastic bottle with a needle) and have had the same problems when trying to inflate worms.
I thought a hypodermic needle would work well, but I have no idea where to buy one, I keep thinking about asking the pharmacy the next time I am at a Wallgreens or something.

Has anyone used anything else (besides marshmallows) to float bait? I was thinking about trying to cut up a wine bottle cork and string a small piece on my line before tying on a hook.

I've used steelhead corkies, but you need pretty good sized ones and usually more than one if you wanna have a big chunk of worm. Just slide the corkies down to the hook, or a little above it and take a round toothpick and shove it into the hole of the corky locking it into place and snip off excess toothpick. It looks a little goofy and big when it's all done, but doesn't seem to stop fish from hitting it.

Gringo Pescador wrote:I have one of those worm inflators (little plastic bottle with a needle) and have had the same problems when trying to inflate worms.
I thought a hypodermic needle would work well, but I have no idea where to buy one, I keep thinking about asking the pharmacy the next time I am at a Wallgreens or something.

Has anyone used anything else (besides marshmallows) to float bait? I was thinking about trying to cut up a wine bottle cork and string a small piece on my line before tying on a hook.

You are exactly right GP -- real hypodermic syringes work WAY better than the worm inflators that Joes sells because the needle is much smaller. I got mine at Rite-aid for free. The pharmacist thought it was a great idea and just gave me one.
Another thing you can try is a styrofoam "fish pill". They come in a wide variety of colors and are not hard like corkies.

VooDuuChild wrote:I've used steelhead corkies, but you need pretty good sized ones and usually more than one if you wanna have a big chunk of worm. Just slide the corkies down to the hook, or a little above it and take a round toothpick and shove it into the hole of the corky locking it into place and snip off excess toothpick. It looks a little goofy and big when it's all done, but doesn't seem to stop fish from hitting it.

i use small corkys to float my jigs when trout or crappie fishing. way better than a normal bobber.