Fly-Fishing Alternative for Special-Regs Trout

For starters I should say that I do enjoy fly-fishing, and sometime when I go trout fishing or fish for other species, I tote a long rod. I do not, however, consider a fly-fishing a better, more sporting or purer way to fish for trout. It's simply a different style of fishing and one that can be exceptionally effective when the trout are keying on some kind of hatch or eating a specific type of tiny invertebrate farther down in the water column.

I believe when people see "single hook artificial lures only"in a stream's regulations they tend to read that as "fly-fishing only," and that idea is re-enforced by the fact that fly anglers generally make up the bulk of the crowd on these waters. In truth, various lures you can throw with a spinning rod sometimes do extremely well in these waters. The fish see a tremendous number of Hare's Ears, Pheasant Tails and Woolly Buggers, but they don't really see many lures of other kinds.

When spin-fishermen do visit these types of waters, most of them clip two of three points from the treble of a small in-line spinner, which can work really well. My preferred baits, though, are small jigs such as Lindy Watsit Grubs and Fuzz-E Grubs, Road Runner Marabous and small plugs. The video above talks about the Road Runner Marabou. A very recent blog told of the whopper brown trout that took a liking to Nathaniel's Tracdown Minnow.

Few anglers use minnow- or crawfish-imitating hard baits because the lures come equipped with twin treble hooks and the hooks are too small to trim to a single point as is done with in-line spinners. I remove both trebles and replace the back one with a little larger single hook. For Rebel Teeny-Wee Crawfish or Tracdown Minnows, which are about 2 inches long, I like a No. 4 or 6 Daiichi Bleeding Bait Octopus Hook.

Try these offerings next time you see "single hook artificial lures" in the regs and see how they work for you!