A week or so ago I ran down to the White River for a
quickie. I had maybe forty five minutes of daylight left. This is typical for
me to arrive late but when it comes to trout fishing its perfect timing. Ya see
this is when the yahoo tourist types call it quits and the river inhabitants
get a little relief from the folding chair factory fish slayers. AKA the Baitanators. These poor souls come in from
all over for some River Runs Though It trout fishing yet settle for sitting in
a chair and drinking buttwiper beer all
day. Thats just fine because it means more river for us trout bums to fish. Their target is a trout raise in a concrete tank. Its fins rounded, scared
and their color is pail and monotone. Heck when ya cut these sad creatures open
their flesh is white not your salmon orange color as the wild ones. It’s caused
by the food there’re fed at the factory. Cutting open these newly freed fish is the main
goal of the Baitanators and full stinger whatever it is and any size. Limit or
over. Rarely do we see any law enforcement actually handing out tickets and so there’s
little deterrent to stay within the law. So unfortunately few fish are ever measured
or even properly identified for that matter. I once had a guy swear up down,
cause he’s was from Minnesota ya know, that “That fish is a brown trout”. Furthermore
it was one of the biggest ones he had ever seen. It was a walleye. Not even
that big at twenty inches. So ya get the drift why myself a bunch of regulars
get a bit pissy over how our river and favorite pastime is abuse by the in
& outs. Oh and the trash it's predictable to be bad on the weekends.
So mind ya that we
do have those who give a darn and play by the rules and even help shape them.
Ya see a lot of our guest on the river that like to use this thing called Power
Bait. It’s meant to smell and look kind of like fish eggs. One particular kind pushed
on our uninformed guest is a killer. It does not break down in a trout and ads buoyancy
and so often leading to a high mortality rate. Ya can’t blame the locals at the
store a whole hell of a lot for selling this stuff because it works and works
great on the factory raised trout. Even
I’ve been known to break down with the kids and switch to it just so they can
at least land a few. Here’s the thing with bait. Ya got to get off your ass and
pay attention. Set the hook on the bite not the swallow. You have to keep your
casting weight just right too. To heavy and you won’t know that ya got a ten inch
rainbow choking on your fake chartreuse eggs.
The locals depend too
much on the weekenders spending hefty coinage to outlaw this sure thing. So we
all got together and said “Hey let’s just get rid of the barbs”. That made a
lot of scents. If a weekender manages to deep throat a wee one the hook will be
an easy retrieval. Or if you break one off or get hung up your lost hook and
bait stands a good chance of working it’s self out. Cool huh? Wrong if they use standard straight shaft bait
hooks.
So in the photos you
can see the proof of this. The tout was a victim of a broken line and too heavy
a weight placed in a one line rig. The angler did it all legal but did two
things wrong. I was amazed that the line was the right size for a bait rig, about
4-6 lbs. Now see that weight! Boy you use one that big on that line you stand a
chance of it getting hung up. The trick is to use one on a separate thinner
line that will break off before the main line dose. Use a ring to attach the extra
line not a three way swivel as they tend to get hung up too. I prefer using
some non lead split shots that would just slide of the rig if stuck. This way I
don’t have to tie up a new line every hang up. Also note that size again and imagine
how far that baby can cast. True it will get ya out there but you then have to
drag it all that way back increasing your chances of getting hung up. So use
one of the two rigs I suggested and get out there and catch some fish not snags.
OK how about that hook? Straight and too long and it was a bitch to get it out
of the little guy’s stomach. You want to use a fully curved hook that will slip
right out by rotating it. This hook by the way was pulled out to its tounge.
This shot was taken right after I hooked him. Got'em right in the mouth! Notice the clean and turned over rocks under him. This is where he was bouncing off the bottom for who knows how long. The weight is stuck in the rocks about three feet ahead of him. The current was pretty strong right here and he was just swinging back and forth and up and down on that line. 
The lure here is the one I used to rescue him. The rest is the rig and bait.Note the rust on the weight. Thats good. It's steal not lead. 
Hooked all the way down to the stomach. See the bottom jaw? This is a spawning male.
I was able to retrieve
the Bow using my floating Rapala. First cast! It took a bit getting that sinker
to come loose but she finally gave way. The barbless and legal rig was removed
and the trout was released. Then out of know where a immense Bald Eagle swooped
down and plucked it right out next to me! No, but that would be something to
see and I have. Just not right next to me.
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