Hi Guys.

Please bear with me. I posted this on 'Swimbait Nation' forum and did not get much response. I need your help.

I'm new here. I'll start with some background about what I want to do and finish with some questions I would appreciate the answers to, regarding 'stocker trout'.

Oregon is starting the yearly trout plants. The dates and locations are posted. When the stocking trucks dump, MacArthur's returning army is out there throwing cheese, marshmallows and Power-Bait. I see no serious Bass fishermen taking advantage of this ritual. I plan to.

I've fished Bass for forty+ years but have had a problem getting my head straight, throwing 'Swim-baits'. This year I'm going to fish with nothing that will not appeal to a 10+ Bass. I plan to concentrate on trout plants and big swim-baits. The OR. State record is twelve lbs. two oz. But I know two fishermen (here) who have caught Bass considerably bigger. Most fishermen that I've seen here are shallow cover, flippers and pitchers who aren't geared for anything bigger than a club-tournament catch....Good fishermen but not neccessarily thinking 'HAWG'.

Having said that, here are my questions about 'following the trout'.

Do you/should I;

1. throw swim-baits to the edge of a planted 'school' of trout, as soon as possible after the plant?

2. fish surface, mid-depth or bottom and would a subtle or frenzied retrieve be appropriate around the grouped trout?

3. wait until the trout are dispersed into smaller groups (stocking count sometimes exceeds 2,000 trout per dump) and follow these with my sonar and under-water camera until they establish themselves in a specific area or structure?

What is your experience with;

1. time frame after stocking that a 'full' Bass would feed again...assuming she is following the trout school?

2. impact of 'Solunar Tables' on days following a trout plant or will the Bass be opportunistic and ignore the 'Moon-phases'?

3. A Bass' use of cover and structure when stocked Trout are in the water? Will the Bass relate more to cover or feeding, when large amounts of Trout are present?

I am sure I have missed important points. What I'm really asking here is; how do YOU respond to Trout stocking in your water and what is the 'time-frame' and 'method' for your response???

Thanks for all info.

Bud

hi Bud,
Welcome to the site. I'm going to move this thread in a sec to the trophy board since I think it will help you get a little more response.

It sounds like you are very interested in the trout plant aspect of big bait fishing. When I first got into it, I was also very keen on trying to be at the lake when the trout plants happened. At that time I was in college and I got to know the guy who ran the marina at the lake I was fishing so I was able to be there many times on the day of the plant.

What I learned is that trout plants really didn't make much of a difference at that lake. Really, they seemed to make no difference at all in the fishing. At the time, I didn't know why the bass didn't respond to the plants but over time as I've gotten more experience on a wide range of lakes, I've learned that it just has different effects on different lakes. There are some lakes, usually clear water lakes, where the trout go in and the bass start going nuts. This seems to happen more in Southern California where the water is warmer, the bass are more surface oriented and prone to chasing trout in open water. In Northern California I have seen it happen but it's much less of a factor than I hear talk about in So-Cal.

For your lakes in Oregon, you'll just have to fish and get a feel for what the effect is. If the water is clear at your lakes and the fish are prone to schooling and/or chasing bait and trout in open water areas, fishing the plants could be very effective. If the water is off color and the bass are not surface oriented, it may not make that much of a difference.

You asked a lot of specific questions about how to fish trout schools, and I have to say honestly I've never analyzed it to that level of detail... Other people may be able to help more with that topic. If you're fishing for the biggest bass in the lake, I don't think you're going to be fishing for chasing fish anyway. If a big bass has it her way, she'll sit at likely ambush spots and wait for the trout to come by. It'll be the best spot on the lake, and the fish won't be an easy fish to catch, but she'll be there. A trout plant might activate that fish but then again it might not. It's something you'll have to just experiment on and find out over time.

-Rob

Well, you asked a bunch of very detailed questions. The only thing I can tell you is that on any day you have to experiment. If I know a stocking has just taken place, yeah Ill start shallow. If that doesnt work, I look elsewhere, if you know what I mean. I have never seen bass sitting right up in shallow water where the trout were stocked (ok, once I did but it was at night and I saw them using a spotlight, coolest thing Ive ever seen).

I used to live in Humboldt Co., and fished an Oregon lake with trophy potential. If it helps you with confidence, the big baits work in Oregon (sorry Chris).