Just getting back into the stocked trout groove that will keep me sane for the winter. Aside from the fish stocked by the state hatchery, there is a private trout farm with very nice rainbows on the river I fished. All of this rain allowed some of those fish to leave the farm and head into normal stocked trout waters so I got to catch some nice ones today! The biggest was 18", the other two were 16". We did get our two man limit of 12 fish, headed for the smoker some time in the near future.

Nice  Mess-O- trout.

 

Whenever I see trout on a cutting board, they always look so surprised to be there . . . . .

 

 

A-Jay

Nice! What did u catch them on?

Nice rainbows!

Nice! What did u catch them on?

I catch most of my trout, like these ones, on berkley power eggs. I drift them with as little split shot as I can get away with. It may seem easy but I promise you it takes time to master the drift and being able to pop the bait out of rocks to continue the drift while keeping the right amount of slack in the line so that the bait doesn't "swing". 

 

Once you figure it out it's almost unfair. I use 2# mono when I'm fun fishing in my area where the current is usually pretty tame and so are the fish but when I go to south western VA I use 6# fluorocarbon since down there the fish are as mean as the creek they come from! Oh yeah, #12 or #14 fly tying scud hooks, even if you have the wimpiest accidental hookset they will be "stuck".