Trout Fishing Tips

I spent most of last week taking my nephews and other friends trout fishing. The kids were on Fall break from school, so we spent most of the week on the lake.

Fishing with kids is always a lot of fun for me (despite all the tangled lines). I love watching their joy and excitement as they're reeling in fish. And I'm always happy to to take time to capture the memories on film!

I've been working to teach our boys the secrets of trout fishing - and so it's always exciting for me when they call it a day after catching their bag limit. They go home proud, knowing they're becoming skillful young anglers.

Despite the great week we had on the lake, we watched other anglers around us struggle. Although some of these anglers were fishing right next to us, they just couldn't seem to catch trout.

Several frustrated anglers came over to ask what our secret was. Each time, I was happy to show them how our poles were set up and offer some bait and fishing tips. As I explained to others, the real trick to trout fishing is understanding trout - what their needs are and how their environment affects them.

While all of these secrets are shared in my "Trout Fishing Tips" eBook, I did my best to condense the information into a few verbal tips.

Of course, I did my best to help other kids on the lake too by re-rigging poles and offering them some of our bait. And it was exciting to watch to watch those efforts pay off as they too started catching trout.

Our boys enjoyed their Fall break trout fishing adventures. Each day became a competition to see who could catch the most trout.

My oldest nephew (pictured on right above) usually caught the most trout - but my youngest nephew (also pictured above in the middle) usually caught the largest trout! His biggest for the week was an 11.5 inch rainbow trout on his little Jack Sparrow fishing pole!

My nephew's best friend (pictured above on left) caught his first fish ever that particular day (not to mention several more). He was so excited that we told him to take the all the trout home and tell his family he was providing dinner that night!

The whole week was like this! We caught our bag limit every outing - and captured many new memories on film.

Fall is one of the best times to be out trout fishing due to cooler water temperatures. And since trout are easier to catch this time of year, it's a great time to get the kids out fishing. Enjoy it while you can!

Labels: fishing with kids, secrets of trout fishing, trout fishing

Lynx Lake is one of the nicest fishing lakes in Prescott, Arizona. I spent much of yesterday fishing there with family and friends ... and despite the water levels being very low (lowest I've seen in 30 years), we were still able to catch our limit of rainbow trout.

And of course, as we continued to reel in trout after trout, folks continued to ask us to share our secret - which we were happy to do. But few realized that as the weather changed, so did our fishing tactics - which is what allowed us to keep catching trout when others weren't.

We started off the morning fishing spinners - which worked well. The water was cool and the trout were feeding on the surface. So spinner were very effective.

But by about 10 am, the sun was starting to get a bit warm. As we took our off jackets, we knew water temperatures were rising and trout were no longer feeding on the surface of the water. So we put away the spinners and rigged the poles for bottom fishing.

My favorite bottom fishing rig consists of adding an egg sinker above a snap swivel, and then adding an 18-20 inch leader with a treble hook to the swivel. I like to use the 1/2 oz. egg sinkers because it gives me greater casting distance. We were also using 6-lb test line.

There were three of us fishing yesterday, and some of us used nightcrawlers and some of us used powerbait (all colors). Another thing we did was to add a bit of trout attractant to the leader and bait (many anglers don't think to do this).

Bottom fishing worked very in the late morning and early afternoon hours. And because we were able to recognize when trout changed their feeding zone, we were able to keep catching fish (when others weren't).

These are the kind of secrets that I've revealed in the "Trout Fishing Tips" eBook. Learning to recognize changing weather and feeding patterns is one of the biggest secrets of trout fishing.

Not only did we catch our trout limit yesterday, but we had a fun watching the bald eagles catch their trout too. And I was even fortunate enough to catch some great photos of the eagles. You can check out some of our pictures below.

Labels: arizona, lynx lake, secrets of trout fishing, trout fishing, trout fishing tips