Secrets for using Minnow Baits on Marginal Trout Streams

[Woody]

Mining Monsters in Marginal Waters

Trophy trout often live in ?marginal? stretches of streams, and key on minnows as a food source. Sometimes, the scenery might not be classic, but when a bruiser strikes, everything looks beautiful. (Photo: rapala.com)

Trout, especially brown trout, can persist, survive? even thrive? in streams you would hardly classify as classic trout water.
Pristine mountain streams with healthy insect populations are the opposite of what we?re talking about here. Close your eyes and picture pastureland rivers. Or the lower stretches of blue ribbon trout streams, where they widen out, warm up, tend toward the muddy side, and the species mix includes bass and other non-salmonids.
Lurking in these waters can be eye-popping trout, fish of 4 pounds, six pounds, 10 pounds or more. If you talk to fly fishers, these stretches are thought of as ?marginal? trout water. But when you?re tight to a fish of that size, marginal is not the first word that comes to mind.
You can tempt these monster trout into striking, if you try a proven method developed by veteran Rapala pro Dick Sternberg.
Sternberg, a fisheries biologist, outdoor writer and publisher, has developed numerous deadly techniques. After quietly using a specific method for catching big fish from ?marginal? trout streams, he is ready to reveal it to readers of this column.
Mining Monsters in Marginal Waters
?In the warmer, wider reaches of trout streams, in the lower end, that?s where this works best,? begins Sternberg. ?The water is deeper and often siltier. It?s thought of as being marginal trout habitat. But that?s where the big fish are, and that?s where the better Rapala ground is.?
Even within these ?marginal? stretches, you can usually find shallow riffles and runs, places where the current carries food to fish holding in slacker water ambush positions, waiting to pounce on food washing by.
?Big fish move up onto riffles in the evening,? says Sternberg, ?and they?re there to feed. You cast a floating Rapala straight upstream and reel it down through there as fast as you can go, to get the bait wobbling.?
He stresses that, if you don?t get that bait moving fast, it will not wobble at all. You have to move it faster than the current is washing it downstream, or it simply slides through the water like a stick.
?Those fish are used to things coming down really fast past them,? says Sternberg, ?and they?ll hit it hard.?
Even on tiny streams, Sternberg uses relatively large floating Rapalas, up to the No. 11 size, with three treble hooks. When asked whether that lure might be too big for such a small stream, he says: ?These places are home to giant trout. Those fish are minnow eaters. You might be dealing with trout up to 10 pounds or more, even on streams so narrow that you wouldn?t imagine such a fish coming out of them.?
The evening riffle pattern is reliable, and can continue after dark at times. Big browns are notorious for feeding at night when they can see and/or sense prey through their lateral line. So if you enjoy night fishing, you can be rewarded with the fish of a lifetime.
Along any places where slack water meets the crease of faster current, you might catch a big trout by reeling the floating Rapala along that transition line. During slower periods, try swimming the lure down through and along the edges of deeper water, brush, and overhanging banks.
Choosing Lure Color
Sternberg typically alternates between silver and gold color patterns. ?I have used the trout-colored ones for this, too,? he says, ?and they work. But day in and day out, I pretty much go with the silver. Some minnows in such streams are goldish, but the majority of the minnows in these systems are silvery, and that?s why that lure color works so well.?
Potential on Prime Fly Water
Even along stretches of blue-ribbon streams ripe with insect life, this technique can yield eye-popping fish. ?The bigger trout tend to be minnow eaters more than insect eaters,? says Sternberg. ?Generally, the better a stream is, with lots of insects, the less this pattern applies, but it seems like trophy fish are always susceptible to a good minnow imitation.?
On truly pristine, beautiful, painfully cold trout streams, this approach tends to be less effective. In that type of water, you tend to find more trout per mile, but they tend to be of smaller average size.
Scientists classify water types as being ideal for certain sets of fish species, largely to help them manage those waters. But it?s funny how places considered ?marginal? for trout can harbor the biggest specimens.
This year, spend some time stalking the marginal stretches. Reel like crazy as that floating Rapala is carried downstream by the current. And be ready for the tightest line of your life when a monster slashes out to eat your bait.