Trout Overview

Timothy Kusherets

Trout in general prefer cool clean water and feed on smaller offerings that traditional fishing gear cannot offer. Drift-fishing gear offers an alternative that all trout love to hit. Properly presented, drift-fishing these fish can feel like shooting monkeys in a barrel. It’s incredibly easy to get them to strike; as a matter of fact, these fish will bite so often that they can appear to be rather stupid animals when in it’s simply in their nature to compete.
Some species of trout can get so huge that they could be mistaken for mutant forms of salmon; they get that large. Other species are so small that fishermen who prefer to go after larger prey would swear that they’re only good for bait that they “might” buy in a bait shop. All of them are worthy of drift-fishing and all of them will battle to the end whether that means a release or a good fish fry. These species of fish satisfy the need of the outdoorsman wanting to get fish on the hook.
As a general rule of thumb it’s best to match offerings with the size of each species of fish, that is to say, fishing with as number 2/0 spinner will scare the life out of a two pound fish. Get to know what you want to fish for and the proper gear to use and these fish will keep any angler happy from sunup to sundown. When holding trout become skittish enough not to bite just change lures, corkies, baits, and flies and they’ll start biting again immediately.
If you’re ever in the field without a regulation handbook and you don’t know if the fish in your hand is a trout or salmon simply count the rays on the anal fin. With the exception of an Atlantic salmon, trout have between ten and twelve rays making it easily identifiable.

© Timothy Kusherets 2004/10