Rainbow trout..help

[schwartzie]

Hi, I'm looking for some tips.  The  lake I'm going to has rainbow trout and the maximum depth of the lake is 87 feet.  I'd like to fish with tip-ups.  I think the typical depth is 40-60 feet.  Can anyone recommend what bait and depth and any techniques I should use?  What time of day?  I'm in Minnesota if that matters.  Thanks a lot!

[Ice Troll]

We catch our Rainbows and Browns in 10 to 20 feet of water during the day and as shallow as 3 feet at night. I prefer a live minnow for trout and the size depends on the average size of the fish in your lake. You can experiment with positioning of the bait off the bottom because trout will range pretty freely. I usually fish within 18 inches of bottom because I am targeting walleye in the waters I fish that also have trout. I catch an awful lot of trout with a medium size chub or sucker minnow fishing like this. Sometimes they can be annoying when your main quarry is walleye.......lol. You can also use a variety of other baits to target trout such as nightcrawlers, powerbaits, jumbo meal worms, salmon eggs and jigs. When trout are aggresive, they are not too finicky about what they will hit. Best time of day will most likely be dawn and dusk but I have caught trout all day long many times. Hope this helps.

[rob3197]

it depends if your fishing stocked trout. if you are try wax worms on teardrop jigs, powerbaits work well also fresh trout roe hope this helps you out.

[CrappieGuy]

Try to match natural bait fish in the lake, I've jigged for Cisco in some of the trout lakes that I have fished and used them for bait.  One thing to remember is have plenty of line on your tipups, trout will run it out fast!!!  Also keep your tipups spread out so that you don't have a fish get tangled in another tipups line.  I know this one from experience.  The first time that I fished trout, we set our tipups like we were fishing Walleyes about 20 to 30 yards apart.  Big mistake, the first flag went up and we took our sweet time walking over to it.  It was set about 80 ft. in 120 ft of water, when we got there it wasn't spinning so we waited, until it started banging on the side of the hole, all of the line was run out and you guessed it, tangled in one of our other tipups.  What a mess, other guys near us were laughing like h#ll.  Lesson learned!

[salmotrutta]

2 to 5 feet of water over a sandy or pea gravel bottom.Use salmon eggs or power eggs with small hook with no weight.Set up before daybreak and stay away from traps.

[Fish Monger]

I agree, right on shore in just a few feet of water with small bait. Be patient, Bows can be a royal pain.

[TroutFishingBear]

I've never had any problem averaging about 100 rainbows a day. these are wild ones too. On a tip up, a night crawler at about 15 ft of depth sitting about 1 ft off the bottom works the best. Some people fish much too shallow I've noticed from reading these. maybe thats why they think they are tough....

note....... if water is murky, putting a salmon egg on b4 the night crawler can be a good attractant.

CAN THE POWER BAIT THAT STUFF REALLY S     U       C      K     S

My unmoving oppinion

[salmotrutta]

Browns are tough to catch.Rainbows are not.

[Ice Troll]

 Here, out west, we have both native and stocked trout. Mostly rainbows, Browns, cuthroats, cut bows(cuthroat/rainbow hybrid), splake(laker hybrid), lake trout and brookies in small creeks and ponds. Maybe it varies from region to region but I have never known any of the trout species to be tough to catch. They can be downright annoying at times when fishing for walleye. Brookies can be caught with a piece of tin foil on a hook or with just about anything else you care to try. Again, maybe this is different in other areas of the country or with certain stocked fish but I have never personally witnessed a trout that was tough to catch.

[Big Dawg]

icefishingbear, when you use a nightcrawlers, do you use a whole one or half or what?  and also, how would you hook em? thanks and goodluck

[Frank-Ct]

I have not had any trouble fishing for rainbows here in Ct using the follow method, Fish drop offs and close to shore in 5' to 10' of water, inlets and outlets and sandy beach's
I use a 1/16 or 1/32 lead jig with mealworms, waxworms, mousses or spikes...

[NickP]

Frank where do you set up on mashapaug? Im a Ct regular as well- hitting the mash next weekend on 8-10in of ice still after this rain 

I got all the goodies (avid crappie guy) I got 4 tip downs- 3 berkley tipups (the flat ones with ajustable drag) - a artic warrior deadsticker and my trusty jigging pole and vezilar fl-8.



Me and my dad are going along with my friend and hsi dad who have the power auger and there share of tipups- My dad is the kinda guy that will sit around for hours with his spread of 6 and just wait around and so is my friends dad but I love to jig and tip downs get me excited lol.


How deep? We will be heading out from the state launch (after the 1/4 mile walk in) hoping for some snow before the trip so we can drag the sleds

[Frank-Ct]

Hi Nick, I was up to Bigelow today and it looks like they are working on the road to Mashapaug don't know what is being done...I have not been up to Mashapaug this year but have ice fish Bigelow and Black for rainbows, did very good so far, I am going to Black Pond tomorrow afternoon, 2 guys ice fishing today in front of the YMCA Camp..

[jflood]

I've never had any problem averaging about 100 rainbows a day. these are wild ones too. On a tip up, a night crawler at about 15 ft of depth sitting about 1 ft off the bottom works the best. Some people fish much too shallow I've noticed from reading these. maybe thats why they think they are tough....

note....... if water is murky, putting a salmon egg on b4 the night crawler can be a good attractant.

CAN THE POWER BAIT THAT STUFF REALLY S     U       C      K     S

My unmoving oppinion

1oo rainbows a day Are you kidding me... I would like to fish with you some day and catch 1/10 of that.

[iceintheveins]

The shallows, say the 2 - 5 feet range, are generally devoid of trout in Colorado. Trout prefer 7 - 25 foot depths with 15 being prime. They are very aggressive and generally if you see them on sonar you can get them to hit if your using a baited jig.
Somedays trout will devour anything, and I mean ANYTHING. I have caught them on cigarette butts and salami. I have found rocks, sticks, and even tin can pieces in their stomachs. Browns are just as easy or easier to catch than rainbows. But that's here in Colorado.