Northwest Fishing Reports

What are some good techniques for bottom fishing for trout from a boat.

What do you mean by bottom fishing? Are you trolling, still fishing? If you plan on trolling there is a thread in here about going deep for trout, and there is some good info on it. But just let me know and Ill help you out

Sorry, I meant still fishing from a boat.

i like to first put on a slip sinker then a swivel, make yourself a leader line mines usually about 2-7 feet with a small hook. i use alot of powereggs they seem to work pretty good. play with the depth see where alot of fish are holding. try different colors of bait as well they could ignore one and slam another.

To still fish for trout is a lot more complicated then one may think. With all the different powerbaits, power eggs, real eggs malows, and not to mention leader lengths. It can take a little guess work. I fished a lake for an entire weekend and only caught 3 or 4 fish to find out on the way out our leaders were 3' too short and we would have limited every day. So the first thing to do is talk to people, the best people are the people who run the bait shops, but your fellow fisherman will be good too. I like to use 1/2 oz egg weight, barrel swivel, 4lb fluorocarbon leader, and a size 6 - 14 hooks, I never use the leader that comes on the hooks I cut it off with nail clippers and tie on my own. This year my most productive trout bait is 3 power eggs on a hook. Stacked single file, one usually I slide up the line right above the hook and the other 2 are on the hook. The colors that I like the most, this year, are pink, yellow, orange, sunrise (yellow & orange) and a little green. I either use 3 pinks or a combonation yellow and orange. You cant go wrong with rainbow power bait, get one of those dough bait hooks with the spring and your set, but don't try to put power eggs on a treble hook. Iv also had a lot of luck on 2 garlic mallows and a worm, and a garlic mallow and 2 salmon eggs. Another thing that works really well is an orange power egg slid just above the hook and a nice big hunk of chartreuse powerbait below it. Smelly jelly always helps I like the garlic and shrimp scent. With all these set ups I use between 3' - 6' of leader. Now...... if all these fail this is catch some fish, its very hard to do but it will put fish in the boat. You take a your egg sinker the smaller the better, just enough to keep your bait weighed down and to put the bait out there, a step or 2 down from the 1/2 oz, put on your barrel swivel, and at least 7' of leader, I use more like 9', but when I was taught this the man was only using 6' but Ive found the longer the better, so a little experimenting wouldn't hurt. Then you use a size 16 egg hook with one single power egg. It ll work it just isn't very fun. Good luck

On the East side of the mountains:

From shore I set up as follows:
1) 1/2 oz egg style slip sinker
2) Red Bead (to protect knot to swivel)
3) Swivel with 24" - 36" of leader on #6 hook (or smaller)

From boat I set up as follows:
1) & 2) ---same as above.
3) Swivel with 48" - 72" of leader on #6 hook (or smaller)

For Bait: Orange Power Bait w/ Glitter & Extra Scent - AND - believe it or not Berkley Bass Attractant.

Now you may be thinking I am nuts, then again maybe not - but all I know is that one day I went fishing off shore at one of my favorite lakes. I had forgotton the typical trout attractants - but I did have the Bass stuff in the bag. I tried it, why not - it has now become my first choice for attractant when fishing for trout - especially when the area is crowded. I can walk in and limit in an hour right next to someone who has been fishing for hours and got nothing. Done it many times so far this year.
Last time out - I baited up a hook for a lady with this set up - they had been there at least an hour or so - no bites - before I got my pack on and grabbed my gear - FISH ON !!!

fishnislife wrote:The "Dreaded Threaded" is the way to go. Thread the worm and use a blower to inflate the back end of the nightcrawler. Use a 12' to 24' leader.
This is the deadliest way to fish for trout on the bottom.

fishnislife

I used to use a hypodermic needle on a syringe to "pump them up". People would see that in my tackle box and think that I was a Junkie!!!!:bounce:

i think that how you present your bait is the big thing. next to that it is the bait itself. for instance it does you little good to fish worms on a 12 inch leader in weeds if the fish are not there. instead fish a longer leader and an inflated worm or a worm and a mallow or power bait to float above the weeds. or if all you have is short leaders then fish straight down and reel up 3 cranks. i just got done fishing the same suburban lake three mornings in arow because i am on vacation. i watched the old guys who fish all the weekdays and did what they did and i limited easily. worms the first day, worms and powerbait the second and power bait only the third. but each time i got my leader length right to put the bait where the fish wanted it. i have to remember to put some small mallows in the tackle box as they seem to be very versital. i would think early in the morning the fish would be closer to the top before the sun comes up and a bobber might work also. watch the retired guys, they are wise.

Sorry Marc,
I don't think you could pull that one off even if you tried. I get people looking at me funny because I have a nice stereo and listen to old blues and rock. I get the wow, you listen to good music! Can we fish by you? But I know what you mean. o:)

Go out to an open part o a lake and put your bait about 5ft off bottom, and just let the boat drift, every once in awhile just give the boat a little jiggle it attracts strikes.




When you are slowly moveing the bait in the water then you will get more strikes. sometimes i move it untill I get a small strike then just let it sit there untill it hooks itself.



GOOD LUCK!!!!!!