Big Trout

[black hills tj]

Over the past few years my dad and I have never had much of a hard time finding smaller trout in the area.  We often take our boat to Sheridan and Pactola and have pretty good luck, especially early spring and in the fall.  We've never really hit anything worth bragging about though.  We've caught a few rainbows around 20" just dragging night crawlers off the bottom, but that's about it.  What's the secret to finding the big guys?

We do have a boat, so location isn't on the water really isn't a problem.  I'm not sure where they hide though, or what gets their attention.  I'd love to hook into a big laker or a nice big brown!

[royjulius]

I knew a guy once that would get his picture in the paper every summer for trout over 10lbs. They actually quit putting him in there because they thought something was "fishy" about how many of these big trout he caught. I went with him a couple of times and what he did was inject his nightcrawlers with air and then just fish from shore. The sinker would stay on the bottom and the crawler floated right in the strike zone, about 18" from the bottom. One time when I was with him he caught a 9lb rainbow in Memorial pond by the civic center. Another time I was with him he caught an 11lb rainbow at Canyon Lake in Rapid City.

[black hills tj]

I knew a guy once that would get his picture in the paper every summer for trout over 10lbs. They actually quit putting him in there because they thought something was "fishy" about how many of these big trout he caught. I went with him a couple of times and what he did was inject his nightcrawlers with air and then just fish from shore. The sinker would stay on the bottom and the crawler floated right in the strike zone, about 18" from the bottom. One time when I was with him he caught a 9lb rainbow in Memorial pond by the civic center. Another time I was with him he caught an 11lb rainbow at Canyon Lake in Rapid City.

Thanks for the tips.  I'll have to give that a shot!