Hey Rob have you fished the stocker trout much and what do you think about it? Also if you add a trailer hook do you seem to still get bit as well as without it?

Brian,
I have a love hate relationship with the stocker trout. Both the 9 and 7 inch are a really good lure. I would even go so far as to say that the stocker trout is the best trout imitating lure on the market. It swims like a trout, it looks like a trout, and the fish think so too. The first time I threw the stocker trout at Santa Margarita the fish wen't bonkers over it. I was throwing the 7" and caught several 3 to 4lb fish and a 5 and a half. Good fish at Margarita. I also missed several fish. In trips after that I started to find that I was missing half (or more) of the fish that hit my bait. I had some big bites on the 9" including several fish over 5lbs that I watched bite it. I never landed a single one. I did catch a couple more fish on the 7" but wound up really frustrated after losing sooo many fish. I tried trailer hooks in different places. The guy who makes them recommends you cut a slit from the eye where you tie the line on down towards the belly. Then rig a wire from the eye through the bait to a treble so the hook comes out about where the hook on a castaic softbait trout would be. Then take silicon and seal up the slit in the bait. Guys I know who tried this basically went through a bait per fish. I was using the trailer in the tail of the bait and it did no good. Bass rarely hit a big trout in the tail. They tend to grab it crosswise from underneath like they are eating a piece of corn. Which kind of explains some more why you miss so many fish on the stocker trout. The little plastic fins block the hookset.
So it's a tough call with the stocker trout. My 7" trouts are wrecked and swim crooked from the few fish I caught on them and I just can't bring myself to buy more. They do catch fish, and they do draw big bites, but they aren't a percentage lure for me. I figure even if I get a few less bites on the slammer, at least I'm going to land almost every fish that hits me.

Thanks Rob for your reply