Going Deep for Quarry Trout

Many quarries are stocked with trout in the spring, and hold trout throughout the summer. There are many ways to target these trout: bottom fishing, bobber fishing, slip bobber fishing, using jigs, spoons, spinners, and the list goes on. However, one method that usually outperforms others is bottom fishing.
Bottom fishing is an effective method because trout usually orient themselves on or near the bottom. It is true that trout in quarries will wander around the water column, however these fish are hard to target. It is much easier to target the bottom dwelling fish. In order to do this, one can make a simple bottom rig by placing split shot about 24 inches from a small hook baited with a minnow, worm, or power-bait. A twist to this simple method is to make sure your bait floats off of the bottom. This makes it easier for fish to find. To do this simply fish with power-bait, which floats, or fish your minnow or worm with a power-bait ball ahead of it. The ball ahead of it will suspend the bait just enough to get off the bottom. Give it a try sometime, you might be surprised. Tight lines.

High Water Trout Fishing

If you are like many fishermen, you dread lots and lots of rain. Lets face it, lots of rain makes the creek's water levels rise, and very high water makes for very tough fishing. However, high water isn't the end of the world. There are ways to get around it, and even have a good day fishing doing so.

One way I have found to beat the high muddy water is to fish with worms, nightcrawlers to be exact. The reason being is that when water levels rise, worms are washed off of the bank and into the creeks, making all the fish in the creeks turn their attention to worms. Because of this, it can be very difficult to fish minnows or other baits. Not to mention nightcrawlers have a great scent for fish, and are easier to find than most other bait in the water.

In order to fish high water, you must locate an area where water seems to either whirlpool or not be flowing as fast. Such areas can be found below waterfalls, where there is a plunge pool then a little area of slack water. What you would do in that situation is to put a lot of weight on your line to keep it down and in one spot, then bait your hook with a worm and cast into the slack water. The key is to let your bait sit, and let the trout come find your bait using their superior sense of smell. This technique works, I was able to do it today and catch a limit of trout while others were not able to even get hits due to the high water. As proof, here is my catch.

Good luck to everybody!

Recent Catches

Here are some recent catches from this current year.

8 1/2 lb. Steelhead from 20 Mile Creek Erie, Pa.

18 1/2 inch 4 pound rainbow taken from Hereford Manor Lake.

Both of these fish were taken with 4lb line with a 4 lb fluorocarbon leader and a mini foo jig with a minnow under a float. For more information on how to fish jigs for trout check out jigs for cold water steelhead.