Thanks Raquettedacker.
Hi guys,
This is not my typical fishing report but it's the story of my own dugout stocked rainbow trout, that I have raised this year.
Back in mid May I received my fish from the fish farm. They were the end of the brood stock and so I took what they had left.
The young trout were a mix of 3", 5" and 6". There were 70.
I have been feeding them regularly over the summer and am noticing the splashes are getting bigger and bigger, a good sign.
They are aggressive surface feeders. Some jump right out of the water, lol.
Here are a few videos of a typical feeding.
Click the photo to get the video working.
I though I would wait for fall to try my luck at fishing for one of them and around mid Sept. I finally threw a hook in the water.
Even though they are in a larger concentration than the wild fish they still have the wild fish wryness and it took half an hour or so before
one even bit.
Here it is.
It went back, I just wanted to see what size they have grown to, not bad so-far.
Since mid Sept I have tried my luck whenever I go to feed them, and would usually land 1 or 2 a trip, 3 trout landed was my best day.
Here are a few photos of some of the fish.
Once Oct. hit they have grown even more, but have slowed their feeding with the cooling water temps.
They are not as aggressive when feeding on the surface and are even harder to hook.
On one of my mid Oct. feedings I finally decided to keep one of the fish as I felt the water was cold enough
that they would not have a fishy taste.
This is the trout I kept.
It was 12.75 inches long and roughly 1 lb. Not bad for one summer's growth.
I got a surprise when I cleaned it as turned out to be a female and already had eggs developing.
I am not sure if she would successfully spawn in a dugout ,but I guess she would have tried in the spring none the less.
I also checked her stomach content and it had some of the food I threw to them that day, 2 leeches and a few freshwater shrimp / scuds.
There are also a breeding population of fathead minnows & sticklebacks present so when they get big enough the smaller fish will also be on the menu.
Here is a photo of the most recent trout taken in late Oct. I also let it go.
I have decided to take some of them this winter {via ice fishing}, but also intend to leave a few to overwinter and see what happens.
The minnows have survived for a number of winters.
Maybe there is a spring flowing into the dugout to keep them going, I sure hope it will be enough for the trout also.
During the open water season the trout went for the usual tiny spoons and spinners, but I also had one on the Northland live- forage rippin' shad and the smallest PK flutter fish.
My best luck, however, was a stationary approach with a bobber called "Bobber with a Brain" and a drop shot rig under it baited with a gulp alive "grub, trout nugget or trout hatchery formula nugget. The bobber stands up in the water and twitches when they nibble at it but when they take it it usually disappears under the surface or stays flat on the surface. The trick is not to reel in or set the hook too early and pull it from their mouths.
The best hook I found was a tiny circle hook. It got them in the lip every time. When you see the tension on the line, just start reeling in, no need to set the hook.
I found the other styles hooked the fish a bit deeper in the mouth, which is OK if I was going to keep them, but not so good for catch and release fishing.
I think my own trout might be the first fish I go for this winter, it will be neat to angle for them through the ice.
I don't really have alot of experience ice fishing for trout, but after this winter I will have some, hopefully.
Whatever happens it should be a fun new experience.
As of Oct. 27th the dugout has now completely froze over so unless we get a heat wave to thaw it my next fish excursion will be through the ice.
P.S- This last report concludes my open water season. It was OK.
Thanks for all your comments to my reports - always look forward to that.
I now eagerly await the start of my new hard water season.
Good luck to everyone in this new ice fishing season and see you all on Ice Shanty.
Water Wolf out!
