Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition 3816 Jul 19- Aug 2 2019 | Page 8

6 HOW TO... July 19 - Aug 2, 2019 VOL.38 • ISS. 16 Tips To Help YOU Catch More Trout! < Slip bobbers are great tools for targeting suspended trout. They can be used to present baits, flies and jigs. Both bank anglers and boaters can utilize them. They are particularly useful for bank anglers fishing during the cold months. > When teaming flies with slip bobbers a number of different patterns will work, but few if any are as effective as a black woolly bugger in size No. 8 or 10. ^ A threaded night crawler like the one pictured here is perhaps the most effective offering you can use when a trout bite turns tough. They can be trolled in combination with blades or flashers, but they can also be trolled naked for a super stealthy presentation. presents Trout Fishing Problems And Solutions T rout fishing is a pretty straight forward endeavor in most cases whether you fish from the bank or off a boat. For bank anglers soaking floating baits off the bottom works much of the time. For trollers pulling spoons and small plugs typically does the trick. Having said that, there are times when standard approaches don’t work or don’t work well enough for whatever reason and you’ve got to change up your game if you’re going to be successful. In this week’s column, I’m going to outline some common problems that confront trout anglers and offer up some potential solutions. to 6-pound fluorocarbon leader tipped with a hook is tied to the swivel. Once you’re finished what you end up with is a rig that has the ability to fish a bait at virtually any depth without compromising casting distance. For example, let’s say you are fishing on a bank that drops off into deep water. Since the water temperature is in the low 50’s you suspect that the trout are cruising 15 feet deep over 35 feet of water about 50 feet offshore. Using a standard sliding sinker rig these fish would be difficult if not impossible to catch, but with the slip bobber rig you simply slide the bobber stop up the line to a point 15 feet above the hook. Since bobber stop is made out of string, it is soft and you can reel it right onto the spool of your reel and cast without it hanging up on the eyes of the rod. After reeling the bobber up to within a few inches of the rod tip, bait the hook and cast the rig out to the area where the trout are. When the rig hits the water the split shot will take the bait down, pulling line through the bobber. Once the bait reaches the desired depth the bobber stop and bead wedge against the top of the bobber and the bait is left suspended 15 feet below the surface right in the suspected strike zone of the trout. Most baits such as night crawlers, meal worms, salmon eggs and even crickets work well when used with slip bobbers. On the other hand, buoyant baits such as dough bait and marshmallows should be avoided. When these baits float upward they inevitably wrap around the main line and create tangles. FISH SNIFFER HOW – TO by Cal Kellogg ^ Sep’s Pro Tackle provides outstanding simple to use side planers that allow you to target spooky trout that are holding close to the surface by getting lures or baits away from the boat. Hooking Suspended Trout From The Bank While trout do a lot of their foraging near the bottom there are times when they move up in the water column to feed. One of the most effective tools anglers can add to their arsenals to deal with these situa- tions is the slip bobber. Slip bobbers have been popular in Europe for decades, but anglers in the United States are even now just discov- ering how effective they can be. As its name implies a slip bobber has the ability to move up and down the line and therein lies a large measure of the bobber’s effectiveness. The system works like this, the spinning rod’s line is passed through a small plastic sleeve that has a pre-tied string knot attached to it, known as a bobber stop. Once on the line the string knot is slid off the plastic tube and snugged down tight on the monofilament. The plastic tube is slid back off the line and discarded. Next a bead is slid onto the monofilament followed by a slip bobber. After that a swivel is tied to the end of the main line and one or more split shot are place an inch or two above it. Finally, an 18 inch 4 Trout That Won’t Hit Trolled Hardware Briskly trolling a spoon or plug is a great way to hook trout much of the time, but when the aggressive approach fails, it’s time to slow down and go natural. When confronted with trout that are CONTINUED ON PG 18