Robert Johnson – This week thought I would show you that we also have big other big fish around here besides just stripers. Local angler Ginger Fink caught this trout without a guide, just a friend with a boat, a worm and 4-pound line. Nice 7-pound rainbow for the wall, especially on 4-pound line.
The way I rig a worm for trout is making a leader with a sliding worm weight above the leader. This way you can cast farther and the fish won’t feel the weight when he picks up the bait. You can just let it sit on the bottom or drift this if they’re generating. You can do this with a swivel, which takes 3 knots or do like I do with a sliding sinker and a rubber band.
- Slide on the sinker 2. Tie on your hook. 3. Wrap a #32 rubber band around line under the sinker, then through the gap and cinch tight. Cut off the two tag ends leaving about 1/8 in. to grab and cinch tighter if you need to. If you break off, just slide the sinker up with the rubber band to whatever length you want, leader, and tie on another hook.
Always get rubber band wet before sliding. Light line does seem to cut rubber band more than on my 20-pound striper rods, but it’s a thick fix getting two rods rigged with 1 rubber band at a cost of 78 cents per 100 at Walmart.
Now for the worm, he really needs to flat off the bottom. You can do this on a night crawler by shooting air into his collar or adding Powerbait or a piece of miniature marshmallow to the tip of the hook. I like the marshmallows because I eat most and they taste better than Powerbait.
Now for the report. All our warm water fish are being caught from the shoreline to 18 ft. deep. Stripers on Beaver Lake are still being caught with no weights in water from 6 – 40 feet off the main flats with the water temps getting close to 72°.
Best places to look now is the dam area, the mouth of Indian creek to the Starkey Marina area and from the Point 5 area across the mouths of both Big and Little Clifty Creek arms to the Rocky Branch area.
Well good luck and enjoy these cool mornings with the fish.
Robert Johnson, fishofexcellence.com (479) 253-2258