Northwest Fishing Reports

Using Power bait when trolling has always seemed wrong to me. I always felt that the floating action of Powerbait wrecked the action of what ever lure I would be trolling with. I've had several guests in my boat watch me sigh in disbelief as they bait there lure with it. Despite the fact that I have always thought this was a bad thing to do my guests generally catch a fish with it. I know Berkly came out with a lure made for this. But I think that is a little different than putting a gob of powerbait on the end of a wedding ring or roostertail. The Berkly lure was designed for the floating action of the powerbait by evenly distributing it in a special cage type lure body.

Do you think trolling with powerbait is silly and only works on a fluke basis or am I wrong about the loss of action and I should start to embrace the tactic?

I have found that trolling with PB, just the same setup as if you were plunking PB, works very well in the lakes that I have fished in eastern Washington.

Well the thing is that you don't need to put it on a lure. Just use a regular #8 or smaller octopus hook and put some powerbait on it with some split shot and there you go. It works good with worms too.

This is too funny me and my roomate had this same converstaion not but 3 hours ago. We said the exact same thing, wouldnt is screw up the action. I didnt even think anybody did it until a few weeks back when I started posting/reading forums. I just dont see it outfishing a worm. I know the lures your talking about as well. I thought it was a great idea and bought 5 of them, I have yet to catch a fish with one

I will never use powerbait but if you're talking about trolling, the action isn't going to be much different than trolling with a worm. It all has resistance!

Dude stick with the tried and tested worm...It's always a guarantee...The powerbait glob will be hard for many short striking fish to hit and stick on your hook...When plunking with powerbait, those trout take a few seconds to nibble and swallow that powerbait, so I'd imagine you'd miss a lot of strikes with a glob of powerbait on your hook..I tried it once, and just like I said, tons of hits, but nothing stuck...
The powerbait stuff seems to attract the small planters too cause they are the ones that were eating that hatchery formula stuff for a while...Plus if your fishing in a lake with other species other then rainbows, they usually stay away from the powerbait stuff, so your putting yourself out of the competition to get a brown or cutthroat....I never have gotten either of those on powerbait....There's plenty good scents too, like a powerbait scent which seems to do good for me...

i have a retired friend who fishes a lot, 150-200 days a year and he swears by slow trolling powerbait on lakes he is new to to find fish. he fishes a small treble hook to hold the bait and a large marble or bigger wad of powerbait to attract the larger fish. i do not troll power bait on lures or at speed because it comes of the hook or washes away easily. however i would slow troll or mooch powerbait or rub it on a roostertail for scent. what happened to marshmellows at a buck forty nine a bag? when still fishing i go powerbait on a long leader to get above the weeds and worms when i want to be on the bottom. all that said i grew up with egg hooks and two pautke fireballs as the best trout medicine.

I've been trolling power bait for over 10 years. It works on most lures, I use it on wedding rings all the time.
Caught 20 plus fish today using it, and had over 80 bites.
bigastrout, your late to the dinner table again](*,)

fishinwithg

GeryG wrote:Caught 20 plus fish today using it, and had over 80 bites.


fishinwithg

Kinda the problem with it...I've never missed 60 out of 80 bites fishing for trout..Worms keep the hook out so those 60 missed bites will stick...

FYI, I have a worm to, they just take the dough bait most of the time, if they come back for the worm, fishon