Hardwater Trout

Hardwater Trout

By Rod Woten

I LOVE to catch trout. Pound for pound, trout are one of the strongest fighting species that swims. Anyone that’s tried to subdue a trout to remove a hook, know that they are one solid muscle mass with unbelievable strength. Being a coldwater species, they also remain very aggressive at temperatures that put other species into a state of near suspended animation. When a trout decides it wants to eat something, the take can be almost heart stopping! I’ve talked before about how great the fishing in Iowa’s “Trout Country”–the northeast corner of the state–can be in the winter and how you will have most of the streams to yourself, but what if you don’t have the time or means to travel to northeast Iowa to catch trout? What if stream fishing isn’t exactly your cup of tea? Well, you’re in luck! Iowa has a program to bring trout fishing to the masses and it grows in popularity every season. To sweeten the pot even more, the program takes place largely during the winter months when many other species are lethargic and the ice makes fishing accessible to almost anyone willing to try it.

Urban Stocking Program
During the cooler months, starting in October and running until April, typically, the Iowa DNR stocks around 2,000 trout in each of several bodies of water located near urban areas across the state. If you live near any of Iowa’s larger urban areas, chances are very good that there is an urban trout fishery near you. The goal of the program is to introduce more people to trout fishing; people that typically would not travel to Northeast Iowa to do so. The lakes/ponds/lagoons that are stocked for this program are bodies of water that would be too warm to sustain trout during the warmer months, but very much within the trout’s comfort zone in the fall and winter months. For the 2015/16 season there are about 17 stockings planned. Most of them have already taken place in October and November. In a typical year, this means that there is a good chance that at least part of the stocking will take place through the ice, and if you can take part in a through-the-ice stocking, I highly recommend it! During such a stocking, it’s only a matter of time before the trout travel from the stocking location to the waiting anglers, and the anticipation is very exciting. You can actually visually follow the progress of the trout from their stocking location by watching the approaching hooksets of the anglers between you and the stocking location and be primed and ready for when they reach your spot.

Because of this atmosphere, the anticipation and the freshly stocked trout’s willingness to bite, it is also a great event to get kids involved in. Every kid I’ve ever watched at one of these stockings appeared to be having the time of their life! Even if Mother Nature makes the ice stocking impossible, like she did this year, most of these fisheries are stocked within a window that ensures there will be fish to be caught through the ice once it forms. Trust me, once you catch a trout through the ice, you will be completely addicted. As an added bonus, since it is the end of trout rearing season, they will often stock at least a couple of spent brood stock at each urban stocking. This means that there’s a good chance that someone will catch a trophy-sized specimen at each of these events! For a complete list of the lakes stocked and when they were stocked, visit the Iowa DNR Urban Trout Fisheries website at http://www.iowadnr.gov/Fishing/Trout-Fishing.

Fishing for Trout Through the Ice
When I mention catching trout through the ice to many people, I can see the panic creep across their faces. Most have never even considered catching trout through the ice, so they have no idea where to begin for tackle, rods, and techniques to catch them. There’s no need to panic though, because a lot of the same tackle I use for panfish will work great for stocked trout. I tend to go more towards medium or medium-light rods, just because trout are so strong and such powerful fighters, so leave those ultra-finesse bluegill combos at home and bring your crappie or perch rigs.

As far as actual lures go, again, I like to use panfish-sized jigs and spoons. Much like other fish, you should match your offering to the mood of the fish. Smaller jigs for the days when the trout are being a little more selective, and larger perch or crappie-sized jigging spoons when they are aggressively feeding. For hardwater trout, however, I like to go with much brighter and flashier colors than I do for panfish. Trout have a very strong predator instinct, so they respond very well to flashy presentations that puts a lot of vibration in the water and mimics injured prey that they can capitalize on. I have very good luck tipping my lures for trout with artificial plastics, but many prefer live bait like wax worms, euro-larvae, minnows, minnow heads, or some of the many dough baits designed specifically for trout.

Keep the strong predator instinct of trout in mind when fishing for them. I’ve watched countless anglers go into finesse mode, much like they would for finicky bluegills or crappie, when they can’t immediately trigger a trout to bite. This is often the exact opposite of the adjustment you want to make to your presentation. Trout are such prolific predators that they often want to chase their prey. Instead of finessing the fish, try taking the bait away from them and forcing them to chase. Sometimes you can get them so fired up that you can actually reel the jig or lure away from them at a moderate speed before they make a final burst and attack it. Sometimes it’s an aggressive lift-and-fall jigging that will trigger that bite. When you do finally get a trout to bite by being super-aggressive with it, hang on because that trout is now very agitated.

Finding Trout Through the Ice
If you can be on the ice during stocking day, finding the trout isn’t usually an issue. As I described earlier the trout will radiate out from their stocking location at a fairly rapid clip and those first few minutes after release can be completely insane. It’s almost like watching a tidal wave heading straight for you and waiting for it to hit. Many will have their full limit of five trout in a very short time, if they choose to keep some for the table. As the trout become more acclimated to their new surroundings things will settle down and their intense desire to feed will begin to slow. From this point forward, to many weeks later when the water begins to warm and/or most of the trout have been caught, locating them becomes a little bit more work.

Keeping in mind how these fish lived before being stocked can give you some clues as to how to find them. If you’ve ever visited any of Iowa’s three trout rearing stations, you’ve seen the concrete runs these fish are raised in. You’ve also seen how they spend the first several weeks of their life milling around in these runs, waiting for their meal of floating pellets. That’s all they’ve ever known for their entire lives, so much of behavior sticks with them once they are stocked. They will constantly roam their new, larger “run” in somewhat of a circuit. If you can find one of these routes, there’s a good chance you can set up on it and catch trout as they circulate through. Finding them is no easy task though because these fish are constantly on the move in search of their next meal. Because of this, I often go in search of stocked trout much like I would perch on the mid-lake mud flats or mid-winter crappies suspended in the main basin of a lake. Until you contact some roaming trout, you should constantly be on the move; drilling five or six holes at a time, checking each one with your electronics and moving on until you see red lines on your electronics. If I’m still not having much luck, I will drop a medium sized jigging spoon down about every other hole for a few aggressive jigging strokes to see if I can attract nearby fish into range. If you’re on a pretty hot hole that suddenly goes cold, the trout are on to you and have adjusted their route to avoid you. When that happens, it’s time to fire up your auger and get moving again.

Indescribable
I wish my words could fully convey how much fun stocked trout are to catch through the ice. They hardly do it justice, though. Their sheer strength, aggressiveness, and willingness to bite are hard to find in any other species. Until you actually experience it, it’s hard to fully appreciate. Iowa’s urban trout fisheries, with its family-friendly stocking days, also make it a great way to get kids interested in fishing, fishing for trout, ice fishing, or all three in one fell swoop! We should count our blessing that Iowa has such a program in place to bring trout fishing to many that may never get to experience it otherwise. Now we just need Mother Nature to cooperate……