Powerbait- PowerGREAT

This post pains me to write. I've said before that using powerbait is my least favorite way to catch trout. If I had my way trout would only hit flies on either a fly rod or spinning rod with a casting bubble. Catching a trout on flies even in a put and take fishery makes you feel like you caught a wild fish no different than a largemouth or striped bass. Catching a trout on powerbait makes you remember the fish you just caught was in a hatchery living on corn meal and vitamins a couple of weeks ago.

That said, I would rather catch fish than not catch fish. If catching fish means using powerbait, then so be it. Usually I use one rod with powerbait on the bottom and I cast lures with the other rod. Occasionally, the lures will catch more trout than the powerbait, but not often. I will usually start the lure rod with casting bubble/ fly. I will always catch more species with this set up, but usually less trout.

So I am giving credit where it is due ( this is painful) and saying that in general powerbait may be the best trout catching thing out there. This includes live bait such as worms and shiners. The problem with worms is they sit on the bottom. Powerbait floats. If you use the powerbait with an egg sinker and an 18 inch leader, it floats off the bottom and above early spring weeds. This makes it deadly for trout cruising along the bottom. I believe it also easily outfishes shiners for trout. Trout brought up in a hatchery never hunted before, so given the choice of chasing a shiner or eating a pellet that smells a lot like what they are used too, its a no brainer.

The main negative to powerbait is- a trout is almost certainly going to swallow the hook. If you do not plan on keeping ( eating) what you catch it is a terrible idea to use it. Almost every trout I have hooked using powerbait has been gut hooked. If I plan on keeping some fish for the table I will use powerbait. Once I have reached my limit ( 3 trout in Mass, 5 in Rhode Island- although I never keep 5) I put the powerbait rod away. If I still feel like fishing, I will use the lure rod and let go everything else I catch. So I beg you not to use powerbait unless you plan on eating the fish. There is no reason to kill anything if it is only going to waste. No matter if you are holding the rod feeling for a bite or standing next to it, if the trout wants to inhale it, you won't be able to stop it. It may be interesting to experiment with a circle hook, however since most of the hook is covered, it may be a moot point. Can't hurt to try.

There are many types of powerbait out there. There is paste you mold around the hook. There's power eggs, which are molded to the size of salmon eggs. There are also nuggets. These are cylinder shaped baits about 1/2 an inch. For the record, I use the chartreuse power nuggets. I have hits almost every time I use them. I see no need to clutter my box with other flavors/ colors.

An example of how effective the power nuggetts are was this morning. I went down to Falls Pond. As usually I set up one rod with power nuggets. With the other I was using an olive hares ear below my casting bubble. Within one hour I caught three trout on the powerbait. At that point I hadn't a hit on the fly. All three fish were gut hooked so all three will become fish tacos in my near future. I put the three trout in the car and I put the powerbait away. I did not want to go over my limit and kill anymore fish. I kept fishing the fly and was determined to either catch fish with it or strike out swinging. I wasn't changing to a different lure.

After I put the other rod away, fishing got really good on the fly in the next 90 minutes I managed 5 fish. ONLY ONE WAS A TROUT. I caught 3 sunfish a calico bass and one trout about 12 inches long. So I caught more fish on the fly. If specifically fishing for trout however, powerbait won 3-1. and I put it away after an hour. I am sure I would have caught more trout if I didn't put it away.I had a lot more hits on the fly than I caught, the wind picked up. It was a cross breeze so setting the hook was a challenge. I do not think I had any other trout hits. A trout will hit a fly like a rocket, where as a sunfish hits the same as it hits a worm ,it feels like a sharp nibble.

The morale of the story, if you are looking for trout this weekend, put some powerbait on and watch your rod.

Trout Trifecta

Considering yesterday was Easter but it was also beautiful out, I did the logical thing and fished ALL day. I love ham which was for dinner at DJ's grandmother's Easter dinner. I have noticed that when ever I eat salty foods I get massive headaches sometimes leading to migraines ( dehydration? ). Since I have absolutely no will power, if I went to dinner I would have ate at least 1/2 pound of ham and paid the price later. I thought the best decision would be to not go over. I had no idea the weather would be so nice.

I went to Plymouth, MA to investigate some ponds I have never been before. I was mainly looking for trout, but brought my bass gear also. I put the canoe on the car along with electric motor and battery. I also knew I would be driving by the herring run in Bourne, so I brought my surf rod... just in case. I took some shiners ( I have been keeping the ones I bought last week in a fish tank ) in a five gallon bucket. Having waders, trout gear, bass tackle box, and things needed for canoe like lifejacket, seat cushion, battery, motor 4 fishing poles and shiner bucket, there was only room for me. Every other seat in the car was full of gear!

At first the weather was cloudy and foggy. I was pretty happy about this. Unfortunately it was an hour and half ride to Little Pond. By the time I got there, the sky was bright blue without a cloud in it. Since it was so nice out, there were a lot of people fishing this lake. There were at least 4 other boats and 15 groups of people along the shoreline. This is a pretty lake. It is almost entirely surrounded by woods ( Morton Park). There are plenty of " holes " in the woods to get to the shoreline, and ample room to fish at the boat ramp and beach. Long story short, I didn't catch any fish. I fished for a couple hours and put the canoe back on the roof of the car. A guy told me that at dawn the fish were jumping all over the place and he caught 20!!! Frustrating!!!

Literally across the dirt road is the boat ramp for Billington Sea, a bass lake. It was named by a Pilgrim who spotted it from climbing a tall tree. From the top of the tree, he could not tell if it were a lake or part of the sea, hence the name. I thought about fishing there but the wind picked up and even though I was frustrated by my lack of trout, I was not defeated!

I next went to Russell-Sawmill Pond. This is two 4 acre ponds connected by a culvert. They are very shallow and weedy. I have read they produce holdover trout because they are fed by underground springs. They do not look like trout ponds. Pickerel ponds yes, trout no. There is very little room to cast. I found a spot. I tried powerbait on one pole and a Roostertail on the other. Again, no luck

Of everything I have read about trout, the one thing I remember is... if there not biting in one pond go try another. The nice thing about Plymouth is it is loaded with lakes. There are easily 50. Of those 8 are stocked with trout. The not so nice thing abut Plymouth is it is HUGE. The distance between Russell-Sawmill and my next pond was either about 40 miles by taking the highway going back the way I came or 20 miles taking dirt roads. I chose the dirt roads. This was a mistake. I got lost out in the woods. I ended up on some 4 wheel drive dirt roads. You would not believe how far from civilization you can actually get. This is not Wyoming and I was easily 5-6 miles in the woods. I'm not going to lie. The 4 wd roads were fun. My little Hyundai Santa Fe did real good. I almost got stuck a couple times and had to put it in reverse and go down a hill. However, I went to fish not go mudding.

An hour and a half later... I made it to Myles Standish State Forest. It is also huge. 14000 acres. The forest is also loaded with many ponds but only one has trout, Fearings Pond. It was about 4 pm at this time. It started clouding up. Except for the occasional light gust, it was calm and the water was flat. I put on my waders packed my backpack and brought my gear to the water. I tried my fly rod using nymphs. No luck. I love practicing with my fly rod. Usually, I don't really care how many fish I catch with it. I just enjoy working on my casting. However, this was the end of a very long fishless day. I gave up Easter dinner to fish. I wanted to go home with something.

About an hour into fishing, a couple of guys came down to the water. First cast- BOOM! fish. Frustrating! Time for new tactics. I put powerbait on one rod and spinner on my other. I put the fly rod away. The water was pretty shallow ( beach) . I walked out into the water and casted the powerbait as far as I could. I'd walk it back to the beach and set it on a forked stick. I then walked out with the other pole and fish the Roostertail. If you know anything about trout you can see the problem here. Every time I got a bite on the powerbait, it was gone before I could slog my way through the water to set the hook. Finally I made a decision to stay with the powerbait.

I finally started landing fish. I caught a brown trout about a foot long. Ten minutes later a rainbow. I then had a little lull in bites. Fish started hitting flies right near my pole. I got out my fly rod again and put on a dry fly ( adams size 14). I landed a couple fish. They were not trout, but 7 inch sunfish. I didn't mind. Catching anything on the fly rod is fun. After a few minutes of this, it was getting dark and I started packing up. As I was packing, I got another hit. I set the hook on what felt like a real nice fish. I played it carefully and it even took line twice. It was a 14 inch brook trout. It easily went a pound and a half. So there it was 3 trout, 3 species, 1 lake, 1 hour.

So I could classify my day like this. A bad day fishing but a great evening fishing. I did not want to drive home fishless. It would have been painful to do that. I was very happy to catch those fish. That said, I enjoyed the day. I went to three ponds I have never been too. The weather was amazing. It was the first day over 75 degrees all year. I got to go four wheeling ( definately unscheduled ). Also on my ride home I saw 3 deer.

Lastly, I apologize that the only picture of the day is these three fish on the cutting board. By the time I caught them, I had been out 10 hours. I got lazy and just didn't feel like digging the camera out of the pack. The only freshwater gamefish I eat are trout. I let bass go and all other gamefish go. The trout are taken from ponds where they will die by June from the warm water anyway. They were raised in a hatchery. I never keep wild trout. It is just my rule. I tell you this because a picture on a cutting board does not do justice to the fish or the setting I caught them in.

Tonight I will be writing a post about using a casting bubble and fly rig. Unfortunately I lost my last bubble ( actually broke) yesterday. I'm going to the tackle shop tonight to pick up some more.