Back by popular demand! Super good story !

Another Fish Tale – second installment

“Hey Mike” my friends yelled as I approached the fishing boat Outlaw. This was my first trip aboard this boat and my first ever salmon charter. When everyone was aboard the boat glided easily through the opening in the Half-Moon Bay breakwater and out into the Pacific Ocean. It was a beautiful calm day with a very light swell on the water. We came up to speed and headed north along the coast up to Lindamar cove and deployed our anchovy rigs as we came to trolling speed. We circled into the cove and shouts immediately rang out “fish on”! Two of my friends reeled in two keeper salmon about nine to ten pounds each. When we came back up to speed I noticed anchovies flying out of the water as a large school of salmon chased them to the surface and birds pounded them from above. I had seen this type of action on TV programs but this was the first time I’d seen it in person. Quite exciting! Looking toward shore I saw fishermen on the beach casting lures into the surf trying to get in on the fun. Then I had my first strike hearing my clicker scream as the fish pulled drag on my Penn reel. “Fish on” I yelled as I grabbed my rod from the holder and lifted it to keep tension on the line. After a good exciting fight, I landed my first salmon of the day – 16 pounds. The morning continued this way with multiple hook-ups until we had our full limits including the captain and deck hand before noon. The largest salmon weighed in at 32 pounds with an average of 15 pounds all totaled. What a great day!

Pretty much just made the move from Georgia to Seattle. As the old adage goes "anglers target what's common", the best game around here is trout.

I'd consider myself a competent Bass and Catfish angler, but I am truly at a loss for this trout stuff after doing about 4 hours of YouTube and forum searching.

I brought up my 6'6" medium casting rod and abu garcia silvermaxx. Running 25 pound braid (6# mono diameter equiv.). Should I get one of those smaller light/ultra light spinning reels?

Should I be looking to swap out for some lighter line too? I hear 6-8# mono is the sweet spot for trout.

For tackle, I really loved jigging for bass with craws. All of the jigs for trout seem to not be weedless; this terrifies me. I was aiming to pick up a few blue fox/rooster tails, some trout magnet style jigs and worms, and maybe some undersized finesse craws for my 1/8 oz finesse bass jigs. Any thoughts on this?

I guess I'm just wondering if I should be getting a ton of new gear or just adapting my smaller/finesse bass gear for trout.

--
by kohTheRobot

On a recent trip to the Rocky Mountains & Steamboat lake fishing for trout, I tried these Power Bait fake worms (more like mini night crawlers). They come in a small sealed packed soaked in in some kind of liquid garlic sent.

I fished with a double bait setup with atwo hook leader. One treble hook with Power bait ball and a second single hook with the Power Bait garlic worm. In a two hour period I caught my limit of 4 trout. All but one of the four smacked the fake worm...and I mean smacked it!

If you happen to be fishing for trout, I would highly suggest you try to find this artificial bait and give it a try. Of course if you can get your hands on some fresh night crawlers...go for it!