What did it bite on?

been doing a bit of fishing as of late and have had good luck on some nice browns in the 18″-24″ range! we were talking and still think we are not fishing right to get the big fish to bite! you know the 25″ + browns that DO live in our SE MN rivers! I know not many have caught fish like this I personally have only landed 1 over 25″ had one on last week i would safely say went 30″ or more! she spit the hook at the bank!

any way my question is if you have ever caught one of these truly trophy fish what did it bite on?

myself i would rather fish baits aimed for bigger fish knowing i may not catch a fish but when one hits shes going to be a good one! Ive learned over the years fishing many different types of fish something hold true for all species of fish. Some baits work great for numbers and a select few do trigger bigger fish consistently! many pool 4 guys fishing walleyes have learned this over the last few years as you see the styles of fishing kinda leaning towards a new direction not used so much by the majority in the past.

I believe larger fish of any species should be thought of as a hole different animal! lurking in slightly different locations just a little more fitted for there diet and or to accommodate there size!

this is why I feel I could improve my efforts towards larger trout with the help of you! and maybe I could help you at the same time!

So what did it bite on? well the one over 25″ I landed took a #15 panther martin yellow with red dots! blade and body!

the 30″ plus last week I lost was on #7 shad rap silver/black

I toss these larger baits allot with little #s to show for it but have caught allot of fish over 18″

I know several large fish(over 25″) have seen my baits go by with not so much as a follow! ( I know they live in the rivers I fish)

so what is it we need to differently to get them to bite?

As soon as i can break the 30″ mark for stream trout i will get a nice repo done!

My brother and I fished the SE MN streams hard back in our high school and early college days and found a #13 floating rapala in orange to be a very good producer on big browns. We often targeted a single big fish after dark that showed itself during the day. The other key to our success, besides the larger baits and the time of day when we would focus in on these bigger browns, was the retrieval speed of our stickbaits which could be best described as blistering fast.

Hope this helps. We landed a lot of big trout using this method.

I like #9 and #11 Brown Trout and Rainbow Trout Raps…I agree with James on a fast retrieve but have also done well with the largest suspending raps you can find, I think they are #9’s, fish them fast as well but with a fast sweep and pause. Great SE MN producers.

if your fishing bigger pools, a black jitter bug after dark

Medium to large Husky Jerks.

I have caught 13 spring creek stream trout 20″ or larger the past three years. I gave up fly fishing and focused more on bait, big spinners, and raps. Panther Martin #6 the smallest I will go. I catch a lot on #9. Will buy more #9 and #15 on my next order. Big trout cannot resist a big juicy nightcrawlers. Big fat ones the size of sausage links. I have also had good success using 2-3″ chub tails on a #2 hook in low light. I caught a husky 22″ on a chub tail at 9:30 at night last summer. The other key ingredient is finding the fish. I catch many in non-designated marginal water.

great info guys! Its cool to see how others aproach things in different ways!

i have found that i cant get the action i desire out of the #13 rap so i stick to the #11 and have caught multiple fish over 20″ with it. nothing over that 25″ mark though. my biggest to date is a 24.5″ off a rap. there are a fair amount of trout out there between 20-22″ but once you get over that 22″ mark they are few and far between. now that doesnt mean that they arent out there, there is just not that many of them.

Lost a biggie on the V last night. First he smashed my bobber. Talking about it with buddy Jon late last night he says they probably though the bobber was a baby duck. Then 15 min later it hits my crawler. I set the hook but missed him. I pound the ground in devastation. Mistake. Fish circled back and hit again. This time he was on. I scream “I got him” out to buddy Nate. Rod bent in half. Line peeling like crazy. Then the line went limp again. Hook set again no good I guess. Took me by surprise to double swipe like that. Fish felt greater than 20.” Big old hog trout for sure.

X-Raps. 2-4″ Range not up on the stock #s but know the lengths. Gold and Silver. Have caught several over 20″s on these including a 28″er that I had made into a replica. Crawlers are also a favorite. Bigger the better leave lots of tail. Hope this helps

Crawler Fish

X-Rap Fish