If I was to make a handout that told people how to fish for different types of fish, what tricks of the trade would you guys offer for the following fish:

rainbow
brown trout
cutthroat
kokanee
tiger trout
eastern brook
largemouth bass
panfish (crappie, bluegill etc)
channel catfish
smallmouth bass
tiger musky

appreciate any ideas!!

Flies, Flies and Flies. Oh did I mention to try
Flies.

I'll bite! When fishing for panfish, use a short dropper leader to add a second mini-jig 18" to 24" above the bottom jig. You can cast further, fish two different depths, and try two different lure colors by doing this. Also, if trout are feeding nearby, try casting your mini-jig to their rises. I've limited on planted rainbows numerous times, and caught a 5# cutthroat while fishing a mini-jig this way.

TM. What type of fishing did you do before you got into fly fishing or have you done nothing but fly fishing. Jim. :p

Stace - i suggest starting a differnt thread for each species. That way, people who actually have experience with the specific species can provide some good info. What do you think?

For rainbows, I've had the best success when the water is well below 55 degrees and fishing the shallows (<15ft). Waiting for things to get warmer just puts the trout in deeper water where it's harder to get to them. I took my advice from a Brian Chan lecture, and he knows practically everything about lake fishing.

For rainbows:
I am a bait fisher so here are a few ideas.

The almighty POWERBAIT, usually about 18" off the bottom (sometimes as much as 36"), cast it out and let it sit, if nothing happens within a moderate amount of time, reel in a little bit.

Another is to use a slip bobber and a worm, (this allows you to set the depth of your bait).

Try dipping powerbait in shrimp oil bait attractant it's deadly on trout in any lake that has crawfish

For Smallmouth and Largemouth Bass, Panfish,and Channel Cats, move back to Georga,Texas
or Oklahoma.Nothing personal, just my sentiments on non native fish that have ruined
many,many good trout waters.
I may move back down South myself and start planting some non native fish in their waters to see
if I can ruin their fishing. That would be SWEET revenge.

Actually, there are some areas for trout fishing here in Oklahoma. Some areas, such as SE Oklahoma, are natural. But there is a reason it doesn't work. It's called 'Thermal Kill'. It's basically what happens when the water is simply too warm for the fish to live, and they die off.
There is a small lake in Oklahoma City that plants rainbows every November I believe. These trout survive until about June of the following year. A consistent warm temperature slowly kills these fish. So, plant all ya want! THEY'LL DIE. I don't agree with planting them to live or be caught for a season, but it is what they do.

Hey spineyray, I waz thinking more about planting something really a lot more destructive than trout.
Something that eats Bass, catfish, and spiney ray fry of every sort and has little redeeming quaitites.
Tiger Muskies crossed my mind, but with a little research I think I can find something
similar that proliferates naturally,tastes horrible, and fights like a waterlogged shoe.Sweet revenge
will soon be mine!

FishnfellaS, I don't think that the members on this board are interested in ruining another states' fishing opportunity. And i know that there are a lot of people on this board that enjoy fishing for species other than trout, myself included. I think we would all be better off if we can work together to maximize all fishing opportunities for trout, bass, catfish, or whatever other species we enjoy fishing for.

Stifler:
Maximizing Bass,Walleye,Perch,and Spiney Ray opportunities is what too many
self appointed Okie biologists have always had in mind. That's how our
lake fishing got in the sorry state it's in now.
Your goal of mazimizing opportunity for all types sounds nice, but it's simply not possible.Trout
fishing and Spiney Ray are pretty much mutually exclusive. That's why lakes are Rehabed in order
to reestablish a trout fishery without the horrendous cost of planting "Catchables" a brand of
trout that no one loves anyhow.
If you take a serious look/ study of the ecology of most of our lakes you will see that the
food chain and temperature regeme is not suitable to sustain viable populations of the
large preditor fish necessary to keep smaller spiney rays in balance. If it were we'd have the
same quality of spiney ray fishing as Georga or Texas for example.
So a pattern emerges that you can find repeated in many lakes that used to support fine
fishable popluations of trout.
The pattern is this: a few large Bass or Walleyes, NOT constituting a resource worth wasting the
lake for abd not capable of keeping the lake balanced,a huge stunted population of 2-5" bluegill,sunfish,etc.,and if any, a stunted population of trout that cannot compete with the spiney ray population or a put and take planter population that is sustained only at huge expense of liscense money.
If you read the F&G recent survey of spiney ray" infested"waters you will see this pattern repeated over and over except for a few waters where an adequate foodchain for a mixed species water exists,such as Silver, Banks,Sprague,'Sullivan Dam (Mar Don) that ones trout sustained by planting pen reared at great expense, and a few others.
In most trout fishermens opinion the lake is ruined. In most spiney ray fishermens opinion the lake
is ruined.The bass fisherman is a breed akin to Steelheaders and think it's great to spend all day fishing for one large Bass.
My comments about ruining the fishing down South were in jest. But I'll make ya a deal. I'll stop
badmouthing spiney ray fishing and gladly give ya the places where it works well if you start educating your own that it's not feasable to make every water in the state a spiney ray lake and
make it socially unacceptable for assholes to plant Smallmouth Bass in the greatest remaining
trout flyfishing lake in the state....Chopaka, and every other small lake they feel they would like
to have hold bass and bluegills.

I think if you check out the Illegal Planting thread you'll find that Stacie addressed this problem in detail. Check it out. Take Care.

I enjoyed reading both of your messages. You both made some fine points. Now, I do prefer the spiney ray over the trout, but that doesn't mean that I don't fish for trout. I just prefer the fight of a the bass, and the taste of the crappie, perch and bluegill. But for me, if there is anything that compares to trying to outsmart a largemouth bass, it's the beautiful tailwalk of a trout that has found itself on the wrong end of my 6lb stren.

I agree that what has happened to most of the trout waters in washington state is a disgrace, and that more attention should have been paid to the impact the local fisheries would experience with the influx of spiney ray introductions.

A few weeks back I posted a report for Ohop lake. After failing miserably at trying to land any of my favorites in the cold, NW rain...I changed my set-up and starting catching trout hand over fist. None of them were large in any sense, but fighting a fish that will do nearly anything to toss your Eagle Claw is a true experience.

Acrobatic flips and 8'tailwalks aside, Spinyray will always be my first choice. But certainly not my only one. "If a fish was a wish, i'd be wishing for crappie"
BTW, I have some friends here in OKC that own a home on a private 50 acre lake. On 7/4/01 I caught a 16" 3lb. white crappie...just last weekend I caught one at 14" and 2lbs. A feast!