Home Forums Fishing Freshwater Trout on Rapalas

Yep, big lures for big fish....

Wonderful memories for now and always, and some fine looking fish ! Good job and congratulations to all !

I have fished with and caught lots of trout with Rapala Minnows and Smithwick Rougues. I use the F-11 in gold if the water flow is slow. If the water is rolling I usually use a Smithwick Rougue in Gold or silver. Or a big Rapala Husky Jerk in Rainbow trout. I usually fish them the last couple of hours in the afternoon or the first 2 hours in the morning. You throw them long casts and rip and reel back to the boat fast as you can and still keep them running true. Sounds like a crazy way to trout fish but it makes the bigger trout strike viciously. I never caught any 4 pound + trout until I started fishing jerk baits. I do this in tailrace rivers in Arkansas.

As crazy as it may seem...jerk baits are deadly on trout, especially browns. The tailwaters of south Holston in east Tennessee is some awesome fishing. Saw my cousin have some awesome days fishing rapalas down there, although I can never make myself put down the ol faithful TD MINNOW. best jerkbaits ever made IMHO

we have a group of 8 of us that head down to the white river in late feb every year and fish for large browns. we catch a boat load of rainbows all day but we try to target the trophy browns
the one day that we use boats. those browns are every bit of a predator that bass are.large stick baits get thrown a lot and when one hits it there is no doubt. we stay at Gastons and have a great time with it.

I have a friend that just bought a place close to there. I'm looking forward to imposing on his hospitality when he gets moved into his rebuilt house. The good thing is we usually work together, so if I have time off he does too. We are going to tear them trout up!

Hey if he needs help fixing that place up i would be up for trading my services for accommodations

As a kid we used Rapalas when trolling for trout and on the bigger rivers. It wasn't until a couple years ago my brother and I fished an average sized creek that he showed me how good they could be there too. We had pretty much always used spinners (mostly Panther Martins) and small spoons. In the morning he out fished me 7-1, but as the day warmed up the spinners took over as the favored bait.

My other brother had the same experience while fishing with the first one. So it looks like from out experience to fish the Rapalas in the morning (4"-6" size) and then switch to spinners.