If you spend much time fishing for trout, you're probably always looking for ways to increase your catch. If you don't continually try to improve as an angler, what's the point? Other than if you're like I used to be, and use fishing as an excuse to drink beer, in which case you don't care much about improving as an angler anyway. For those of us who like the idea of catching more trout, I've got a few tips that will help you do just that. Never forget what Steven Wright said of us anglers,
"There's a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore looking like an idiot". This quote is very true, and with any luck, these tips will help you avoid the latter part of that quote.
- Pay Attention To Your Hands - Your hands are an often overlooked aspect to fishing that when paid attention to, will help you catch more trout (and fish in general). Trout, as well as most fish, have sensitive senses of smell and can detect foreign scents on your bait. For example if you smoke or just filled your car up with gas, your hands stink. This scent will transfer to whatever bait you're using and will cost you bites. A practice that I use is to grab a handful of dirt or grass and rub it in my hands before fishing. I also do this anytime during fishing that I think a foreign smell might be on muy hands. This simple tip will help you catch more trout.
- Use Gang Hooks For Live Worms - If you fish with live worms (and if you're fishing for trout you should), gang hooks should be used. Gang hooks allow you to present live worms in a completely natural manner, which leads to more bites. Most angler use a single hook when fishing with worms and they have to try to "thread" said worm onto that single hook. How natural does this look? How much does this "threaded" worm look like it would in nature? Not very much. The answer to this problem is a set of gang hooks. With gang hooks live worms are presented in a completely natural manner which will result in more bites and hook ups. The bottom line is that if you fish with live worms for trout you need to be using gang hooks.
- Use light Line - I've been along many rivers and streams throughout the country and seen leftover fishing line that was heavy enough to land a small Hammerhead shark! And this was on trout river/streams! This is something that I've never understood. I personally use four pound test monofilament for all of my trout fishing. Six pound test is tolerable, but anything larger is complete overkill. And if you think that four pound test is too light consider the fact that I've landed numerous trout up to 23 inches and smallmouth bass up to five pounds, all while using four pound test monofilament fishing line.
- Be Efficient - A great tip for catching more trout is to be as efficient as possible. Remember, the more time that you can spend with your line in the water, the better. This means you need to have those things that you use a lot within easy access, so you're not wasting valuable fishing time searching for these things. Retractors and a bait bag are both great ways to make you a more efficient angler. Once you give both of these items a try, you'll wonder how you ever fished without them. A bait bag is great for those of you who fish with worms and retractors are great no matter what type of fishing you prefer.
These simple tips will help you catch more trout than you did previously, there's no doubt about it. As anglers we should always be trying to improve are skills and become better at our craft. These simple and easy to implement tips will help anyone do just that. Remember, at the end of the day, all we want to avoid is 'standing on the shore looking like an idiot', right?
