Trout Fishing Tips

The Casselman River provides excellent trout fishing opportunities for folks living in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. Large rainbow and brown trout are stocked each spring and fall, giving anglers the opportunity to catch a trophy-size trout.

The Casselman River is a specially managed fishery ... which means that from October 1 - June 15, fishing is catch-and-release only, and anglers must use artificial lures or flies.

For more information about trout fishing in the Casselman River, click here.

Labels: Casselman River, Maryland, Maryland Trout Fishing, trophy brown trout, trophy size trout, trophy trout

Lake Amador has become a prime trout resort in Ione, California. For those not familiar with the area, Ione is located in North Central California (just South East of Sacramento). It's also just North of Lake Pardee and Lake Comanche (two other popular trout lakes in California).

This 425 acre lake has a maximum depth of 468 feet and approximately 14 miles of fishable shoreline. Lake levels have been down in previous years due to drought, but fishing is still good.

Like Lake Pardee and Comanche, Lake Amador offers large trout (2-6 lbs), commonly known as Donaldson trout (named after the man who created this strain). Donaldson trout are a hybrid cross of Steelhead, Rainbow and Cutthroat trout. Lakes do this in an effort to give anglers a "trophy trout" experience.

Because these are hybrid trout raised in a hatchery, they will eat PowerBait. Other trout baits and techniques are effective as well.

One of our readers reported that he witnessed a man catch one the other night at Marina using a small treble hook with Berkeley Trout Power bait. His spinning rod was rigged with a small split shot about a foot above the hook and a red lighted flasher float about 2-3 feet above the split shot. This young man tossed his line out in the dark part of the water (not under the lights) and let the flashing float do the work of attracting trout for him.

Lake Amador also boasts other "trophy" size fish including bass, catfish and sunfish. So if you're looking for a unique angling experience, give Lake Amador a try.

For more information about fishing at Lake Amador, click here.

For more information about Donaldson trout, click here.

Labels: California, California Lakes, California trout fishing, donadlson trout, lake amador, trophy trout

Collins Lake is one of Northern California's premiere trophy trout waters. This 1600 acre lake is about an hour North East of Sacramento and is open year-round.

Over 40,000 trout are planted each season in Collins Lake, making it the largest private trout planting program. The plantings usually begin in January and continue through May (averaging two plants per week). Many of the trout planted are in the 3-8 lb range.

This year, Collins Lake started raising rainbow trout in pens, in an effort to increase the trout stockings even more!

While trout catches have slowed down for many during these summer months, anglers are Collins Lake are still reporting some great trout catches. This week .....

• A 7 lb rainbow trout was caught by one woman while trolling Sparkle Powerbait 30' down.
  
• 2 Trout over 4 pounds were caught by another woman who was trolling a Blue Fox lure near the dam.
  
• A 5 lb 8 oz rainbow trout was caught by a guy trolling a Rapala lure
  

There is a lot of good trout action at Collins Lake. Catch a tagged trout, and you'll earn a prize!

Labels: California trout fishing, Collins Lake, trophy trout

A few days ago I told you about the new World Rainbow Trout record set by Adam Konrad. While a fish that size is amazing - even more amazing is the fact that he caught it fishing from shore!

Most fish this size are caught from boats - but not this one! Adam was shore fishing one evening and when he hooked this trophy trout.

Want to know his secret weapon? It was a 4-inch orange Mepps Syclops spoon. It was attached to 6-lb test line! In order to keep the line from snapping, Adam loosened the drag on the reel several times waiting for the fish to tire from the fight.

Experienced anglers have known for a while that spoons have a high success rate in catching larger trout (like Steelheads and trophy trout). And once again, a spoon proved to be the secret weapon for this master trout angler!

By the way, if you're looking to stock up, Cabelas sells Mepps Syclops lures!

Labels: mepps syclops, spoons, trophy trout, world rainbow trout record

It's exciting when anybody catches a trophy trout - but it's even more exciting when it's a couple of kids!

Selected counties in Southeast Pennsylvania got to start trout fishing season a bit early this year and 11 year old Billy and his friend Karena headed to Perkiomen Creek to try their luck! This was Karena's first time fishing!

It took the both of them, but they landed a 10+ pound rainbow trout measuring 24 inches in length! This trout was just over 5 pounds shy of the state record!

Thanks to Billy and Karena, the Pennsylvania Trout Fishing Season started off with a bang! And so far, the kids aren't sharing their secrets on how they caught their trout!

Labels: Pennsylvania Trout Fishing, trophy trout

The Conservation Fund's Freshwater Institute have recently donated some trophy size trout for Western Maryland trout fishing waters.

In addition to Town Creek in Allegany County, the Casselman River and Youghiogheny River Delayed Harvest Trout Fishing Areas have been stocked with trophy trout.

A special 'catch-and-release' season has been implemented in these areas through June 15th. After this, anglers can catch and keep 2 trout a day through September 30th.

For more information, click here.

Labels: Casselman River, Maryland Trout Fishing, Town Creek, trophy trout

New Melones Lake is the 4th largest man-made lake in California. Built in 1983, it has more than a 100 miles of shoreline covered with trees and brush. New Melones Lake attracts visitors from all over for its beautiful scenery, boating, swimming, water skiing, camping, fishing and more. You can even rent houseboats!

But what really sets New Melones Lake apart from others is its trophy size fish! Dream of catching a double-digit size Brown or Rainbow trout? Then New Melones Lake is the place for you!

The lake is set in the foothills of the Sierra Mother Lode along Hwy 49 between Angel's Camp and Sonora. New Melones has the size, depth and food sources capable of producing trophy size trout.

On December 2nd, 2006 non-profit organization, Kokanee Power, started the first pen-culture in California for Brown trout. Kokanee Power has already been successful in raising trophy-size Rainbow trout in New Melones Lake. Spokesman Gary Coe stated the goal was "quality, not quantity". Each pen is raising 300 Brown trout. He also stated that they hoped to release them next Spring when they've reached about 5 pounds.

Making the trophy trout program work involves the cooperation of the Department of Fish and Game, which provides the fish; New Melones Lake Marina, which provides the boat slip for the fish-rearing pens and employees to feed the trout each day; and Kokanee Power, which provided the materials and built the pens.

New Melones Lake is also the only lake in the Mother Lode that doesn't charge entry or boat launching fees. There are picnic, horseback and riding trails and shoreline camping.

Winter fishing is excellent at New Melones Lake. Folks are catching 3-5 pound Rainbow trout in Angels Cove using PowerBait and anything else that floats.
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Labels: Brown trout, New Melones Lake, Rainbow Trout, trophy trout