A Trout Fishing Technique That You May Have Never Heard Of

It's no secret, at least not to us, that crayfish are as effective a trout bait as there is when it comes to fishing for trout.   We always  have a small crayfish crank bait or two in our fishing vest, but  we end up utilizing them much less often than we probably should.  And we have and do use live crayfish as bait for trout from time to time, but not as often as we would like due to how much of a pain in the butt it is. 

But recently we were introduced to a trout fishing technique involving this extremely effective trout bait that we weren't previously aware of.  In hind site this isn't quite true as we like to utilize a small jig head and a Powerbait mini craw as bait for whitefish on the Flathead river, but for some strange reason never put two and two together?  The technique involves something called the Trout Slayer and is as effective a trout fishing bait and technique as we have come across in quite a while.  What is the Trout Slayer you ask?  Well, it's simply a mini jig head (1/64 oz.) and a tiny soft plastic crayfish that you thread onto the shank of your hook.   This jig is then drift fished with the current of the river or stream in which you are fishing or bounced along the bottom if you are fishing in a lake or pond for trout.

At this point you are probably saying to yourself something to the effect if, "how in the heck am I going to cast a jig that small and there is no way that little thing is going to stay anywhere near the bottom", and you would be exactly right! Without using a really long ultralight fishing rod (which some trout fishermen do choose to employ) casting and retrieving a jig head that is this small can be very difficult. However, this problem in remedied by simply placing a 12-18 inch leader to your line by using a small barrel swivel and attaching your jig head to the end of the leader.  This way split shot sinkers can be added to your line (above the swivel) for weight, which makes the entire rig much easier to cast and retrieve, while keeping the bait on or very near the bottom.

In order to implement this particular trout fishing technique, the rig is cast into the water, either in a lake or across the current of a river, and allowed to sink to the bottom.  The trout slayer is then worked along the bottom, varying the speed of your retrieve, to imitate a crayfish working it's way along the bottom.  Keep the tip of your rod close to the water so that your slayer stays close to the bottom.  As I said you are imitating a small crayfish, and they stay as close to the bottom as much as possible.

Hungry trout will readily gobble up a little crayfish whenever they can, so be ready.  We have found that low light conditions, like morning, evening, or cloudy days seem to be the most effective when it comes to fishing the trout slayer.  But, truth be told, most trout will snatch up a crayfish anytime they get the opportunity, but during low light conditions we seem to catch larger trout that we do at other times.