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