Trout Fishing: Tube Fishing

My favorite trout fishing technique of all time is tube fishing for trout. Tube jigs are small plastic skirts that you tie directly to your main line with 4 lb test. You must use a long rod with heavy action. The heavy action is how bouncy the pole is when you shake it. The more shake, the heavier action the rod is. A heavy action rod is important when tube fishing for trout because you can shake the rod and the jig will shake lightly.

Mini Tube Jigs

The best jigs to use are the 1/16 oz jigs green and white colored Power Bait brand. The official name for the jigs are Atomic Teasers. The green jigs should be used when the sun is bright and high in the sky and the white jigs should be used during low light conditions.

White Jigs Power Bait brand

Green Jig Power Bait brand

Jig retrievals include slow falling retrievals, fast darting retrieval, jerking and pausing retrieval. The slow retrievals usually work best during very cold and very warm water temperatures when the trout are less active and the faster retrievals are good for cool water temperatures when the , but experimenting with retrievals is best to figure out the speed the fish prefer for that respective day.

To enhance your jig's action and scent, add worm trailers which come in various colors as shown rigged on the tube jigs above. I never fish without the worm trailers. If the fish are finicky, sometimes the only way to catch the fish on the jig is with the worm trailer.

Worm trailer for tube jig

Jigs are a great way to catch trout and it can be very fun to fish them. I encourage everyone to try jig fishing for trout if your feeling confident in your ability. Sometimes jig fishing can be frustrating, but it is my favorite way to catch trout. Good luck!

Brandon Lynch

Trout fishing: with bait

Bait fishing for trout is the most basic form of trout fishing. Many times a year, during the summer, my family and I go up to Mammoth Lakes and fish. The single best bait to use when still fishing for trout is a live worm. The ever present difficulty with worms is the fact that the worms sink out of the trout's sight leaving you with no fish. To compensate for the sinking of the worms, many people result to inflating their worms. Inflating worms is gross and worm inflaters don't work well (unless you can get a syringe). The best way to get a worm to float is with a marshmallow. Buy mini marshmallows and baby night crawlers, tie them on a carolina rig with a size 4 tall shanked hook, a half ounce egg sinker, a long leader of 4-2lb test and a small swivel, and hands down you have the best rig to catch trout.

The second best bait for catching trout still fishing is with power bait. Power bait fishing is exactly the same as worm fishing with the change being the hook and bait. You should use a size 12 treble hook and power bait of various colors. Make sure you have enough power bait on your hook to float the bait. A best power bait is hard to pinpoint. I have caught fish on every color power bait but usually rainbow power bait and original yellow is consistent.

The third best bait for catching trout still fishing is salmon eggs. I rarely use salmon eggs because I feel they have the same effectiveness that power bait has but are more difficult to work with as they usually sink. A marshmallow can be used to float the salmon eggs. Rig the salmon eggs like you would rig the worms.

This is the rig, the hook would be good for worms and salmon eggs with marshmallow

Whatever bait you use, make sure you don't litter and leave extra bait places. Bait fishing for trout is fun for the whole family because it is easy and effective. Next time your skiing in Mammoth, make sure you make some reservations for summer to try out these bait fishing techniques.

Brandon Lynch

Surf Fishing: Grubs

A great way to get fish to bite when sand crabs are not present and the fish are active is with curly tailed grubs. I have tried many different colored grubs, but only a few have worked well enough to write about. The best grubs are Big Hammer grubs in motor oil red flake and christmas colors. The key to being a good grub fisherman is soaking your grubs in a scented gulp product. I always buy Gulp! sandworms for all times of the year and I throw the grubs in with the worms to get them... Stinky...

This is the Big Hammer grub in christmas color

So after throwing the grubs in the scented liquid it's time to use them, you should hook the grub using a tall shanked hook with barbs on it (preferably red colored), with a longer leader than usual (maybe 3 feet long), on a carolina rig with as little weight as can be used according to wind and surf.

3 foot leader, light weight, small less than 3 inch grub

You should fan cast the rig in each direction and try to find structure (trenches and holes) and fish around them. Often times you can feel structure as you reel in slowly. Try different retrieves starting slow and increasing speed. Sometimes fish will hit the grub, often with heavy current, when you are not moving the rig on your own. Other times fish will hit by reaction meaning a fast retrieval is needed. A good retrieval is often a jerk and reel method where you jerk the rig once hard and reel in the slack at medium speed causing the grub to dart and stop. The fish will often hit the grub when it is still, but when you jerk the next time, you will surely hook it.

Grub fishing can result in many different species being caught. One time, fishing on a jetty in Long Beach, I hooked up on a small halibut with a christmas grub. From halibut to surf perch, grub fishing is a fantastic way to catch fish in quantity and quality.

Brandon Lynch

Winter Surf Fishing at Bolsa Chica State Beach

Over this past winter break I spent a lot of time at the beach. I camped at Bolsa Chica state beach from December 22 to January 4 and everyday I went fishing. The first few days I went fishing early in the morning and the typical winter surf fishing catch manifested. Winter surf fishing catches, at Bolsa Chica State Beach, usually consists of small and sometimes VERY small barred surf perch.

Typical Surf Perch Caught

Fortunately, as I continued to fish each day, the fishing got better. My dad caught a one pound yellow fin croaker and we both caught some very nice sized barred surf perch. Some walleye surf perch even found their way on my hook which was a first for me in huntington beach.

This is a walleye surf perch

The conditions at Bolsa Chica beach were cold and windy. The waters were rough and the tides were climbing and falling steeply. These conditions support the previous hypothesis that winter surf fishing is miserable and poor. The difference this winter from last was the presence of trenches that were observable from shore at the middle and high point of the tide. Great surf fishing seems to depend most on structural presence than it does other conditions. Fishing the rising tide was better than the falling tide. This past trip has shown me what I don't know. All that I do know for sure is that I will be back very soon to fish Bolsa Chica this winter.

Brandon Lynch