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Tired of the mess dough baits (such as PowerBait) leave on your hands? If you answered yes, then you may like the Trout Berry Dough Bait Press. This little gadget is designed to get perfect balls of dough bait on your hook, and not on your hands.For folks who don’t like getting their hands messy, this is a handy little fishing gadget. But it does serve another important function as well.One of the primary concerns of anglers is not to transfer unwanted odors from their hands to their baits, knowing that these human odors can turn fish off. Sunblock, lotion, and bug sprays are some of the odors that anglers may have on their hands when fishing. While these things are necessary to protect anglers, they can be inadvertently transferred to your bait while handling it – which can then turn fish off.This is where the Trout Berry Dough Press can help. This gadget eliminates the need for you to touch the bait, thereby keeping you from transferring unwanted odors to your bait. If your bait smells “fishy”, it will smell more natural to fish.Watch the Trout Berry Demonstration video to see how it works.The Trout Berry Dough Bait Press has also recently been reviewed by Salmon, Trout, Steelheader magazine. You can read the review by clicking here.

How to Clear Muddy Fish Ponds
One of our readers wrote in the other day asking what he could do to clear his muddy pond.  The pond is home to speckled trout and became muddy after heavy rains.  Since the pond is rather small, a quarter acre in size, the muddy water doesn’t seem to be clearing.In response, I did some research and came across this article published by a group in Texas.  Hoping others will benefit from the information, I wanted to publish the link here.The article is title, “Clearing Muddy Ponds”, and you read it by clicking here.Folks at Virginia Tech published another good article, titled, “Clearing Muddy Pond Waters.” If you have a fish pond you need to take care of, make sure there is plenty of grass around the shoreline.  This will help prevent more mud from washing into the pond during a good rain.There are compounds you can add to the pond to help clear the water also.  The most popular compounds include gypsum, agricultural or hydrated limestone, aluminum sulfate (also called, alum).  But be careful using these compounds as they can change the pH of the water.  Adding Alum to the pond will lower pH, and keep in mind that trout typically don’t do well in water with a pH lower than 6.  The lower the pH, the more acidic the water.  If using Alum, most experts recommend using it in conjunction with limestone at a ratio of 2:1 (Alum to limestone). Read the above mentioned articles for more information and if you have questions, your local fish and game department will most likely be able to offer more detailed help in regards to using compounds to clear your muddy fish pond.

How to Attract Trout While River Fishing
Rivers, streams, and creeks are a lot shallower than lakes – which means that trout can usually see movement on nearby banks. This is why experienced anglers often use care when approaching the water (so as not to startle fish).It’s also important to stay still as much as possible when fishing on the bank. Trout have a wider field of view than we do and can often see us before we see them – and our movement will chase them away.Likewise, careless wading and walking in the water can result in overturning rocks – which in turn send a signal to trout that you’re nearby. This again, will chase them out of the area.While excessive movement can scare trout away – being still can have the opposite effect. The more safe and secure trout feel, the more likely they will be to swim into an area. This is why trout often hang around submerged logs, undercut banks, and large rocks. These structures give them shelter from predators.So, if you want to catch trout, you’ll want to look for these structures when fishing in rivers, streams and creeks and fish close to them. The next key is to be as still as possible when fishing so as not to startle fish away.The video below does a good job of demonstrating this point. It was created by my good friend Timothy Kusherets. It’s hard to see the fish swimming by him in the first two minutes of the video. But about 30 seconds more into it, the fish become much easier to see as they rise out of the water. Notice how they gradually get closer and closer to Timothy as he continues to remain still.

What Lure Works Best for Trout Fishing?
One of the questions I get asked a lot is, “What lure works best for trout fishing?” Of course there are different variations of this question, such as “What lure works best in lakes?”, etc. While the question is simple enough, the answer is not. There are too many different variables involved in fishing to say that one lure works best. In fact, one of the biggest frustrations in trout fishing is that one lure may work great one day and not all the next. Why? There are a lot of possible reasons for this.Several variables affect trout fishing including:Water temperatureWater clarityWater colorWeather conditions (sunny, cloudy, windy, rain, ice, snow, etc.)Season (spring, fall, winter, summer)Available food sources Pressure from other anglersThese are only a few of the variables which affect trout fishing. And of course, each of the variables mentioned above not only affect trout, but also your lure selection. The reason why is too complicated to explain in a blog post, but are addressed in the Trout Fishing Tips eBook.But in short, the variables mentioned above affect how your lure looks underwater to trout. These variables also influence trout activity and feeding habits. Trout are sluggish in very cold water and therefore might need a bit more flash to entice them into striking. And yet too much flash, might scare them off. Water color and clarity can affect a trout’s ability to see your lure. A bright red lure in your tackle box will appear black in blue water. That’s because red is filtered out in blue water. The deeper the lure is fished, the blacker it will appear under water. This is just one example of how water color and clarity can affect how trout see your lure under water.Advanced anglers have observed that dark colored lures tend to work well on overcast days, murky water and when fishing at night. Likewise, nickel and silver lures tend to work better on bright sunny days. These are some of the reasons that a lure may work well one day and not the next. There’s just too many variables involved in fishing.The real key to successful trout fishing is to understand trout: their physical needs as well as how their environment affects them. This understanding will help you in turn better understand how different lures, baits, and fishing tactics affect your ability to catch trout. Advanced anglers will pay attention to all of these factors and take note of what lure, bait or fishing tactic worked given a certain set of conditions. Often times, they will keep track of these details in a fishing log or fishing software program. After a while, they’ll start to notice trends which will help them make better lure selections, etc. So while there’s no real answer to the question, “What lure works best for trout fishing?”, hopefully the information above will help you understand some of the variables affecting your lure selection.

Mepps Spinners Aren’t Just Good for Trout Fishing
Mepps Aglia Spinners have been a favorite lure for trout anglers since their invention. These simple in-line spinners have a great success rate in catching trout. Check out any trout angler’s tackle box, and you’re sure to find a couple of these spinners in it.While in-line spinners aren’t typically used by bass anglers, one guy discovered that Aglia spinners have helped him catch more white bass than the traditional spinner baits usually favored by bass anglers.Judging by the Mepss Lure Selection guide, this comes as no surprise to them. They suggest several different Aglia spinners for white bass anglers.So why are in-line spinners (like the Aglia) often overlooked by bass anglers? Probably because they’re famous for getting stuck on weeds and rocks and anglers are always losing them. Unfortunately for anglers, large fish often hide in those same weeds and rocks (especially bass) and so if you want to catch them, you’ll have to contend with the frustrations of getting your spinner stuck (and possibly losing it).One of the attitude problems that many anglers tend to adopt is a “spare the spinner” mindset. Out of fear of losing $3-$6 lures, they tend to avoid rocky, weedy areas when fishing. While this can be more cost effective for the angler, the downside is that you’re sacrificing opportunities to catch more and larger fish.One way to combat this mindset is to make your own spinners. You can buy the parts in bulk and assemble your spinners which in turn can greatly reduce the cost of each spinner. And when they cost less, you don’t mind losing them as much. So the moral to story is don’t be afraid to think outside the box (as this one bass angler did) and don’t worry so much about losing those spinners (especially when the opportunity exist to catch more and larger fish).

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 27th, 2010 at 3:08 am and is filed under Outdoor News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.