Note from Ryan: This post from Steve was originally published on April 11, 2016. I figured now would be a good time to re-publish this post, because many of the Cape's ponds were recently stocked with trout.
by Stephen Madden
Trout stocking in Massachusetts began on March 7th this year. As of today, the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife has stocked most of the popular trout ponds in Southeastern Mass.
These stocking locations and updates will give you a listing of the ponds stocked, and when they were stocked. This schedule is updated every Friday at noon. All this info can help you target freshly stocked trout!
The best part is that most of these freshly stocked trout will eagerly bite with aggression. Casting lures from the banks of these ponds can be very effective.
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Casting for Trout
Aggressive trout are attracted to bright and flashy lures that thump, vibrate or are jigged.
All this movement excites their lateral line, making for some incredible strikes!
Some of my favorite metals are:
- Gold colored Acme Castmaster
- Rainbow colored Thomas Buoyant Spoon
- Nickle and silver colored Little Cleo's
- Gold colored Swedish Pimple
I also like casting a suspending jerk bait that can be reeled in quickly, then abruptly stopped. This suspends the bait in the water column, and for aggressive trout this retrieve is virtually irresistible.
Sometimes during the early stockings, the trout bite can suddenly fall off. Some of the factors causing this could be that the trout are heavily fed at the hatcheries and are not that hungry.
Another factor could be that the temperature may not be warm enough, causing them to move and find an area more suitable to there likings.
Power Bait Etc.
When the lure bite dies, what I like to do is change tactics and switch to fishing off the bank of a pond, with a rod and reel rigged up to fish bait just off the bottom.
To do this, pound a stick or stake into the sand. Lean your rod against the stick or stake after you cast your offering into a fishy spot. Now all you have to do is wait for a trout to cruise the shoreline and grab your offering.
My favorite method is to thread a sliding non-lead egg sinker onto my main line. I then slide a small plastic bead onto the same main line. Next I tie a barrel swivel to the end of that line.
Hi Stephen, thanks for the info! I went out yesterday and used Power Bait. I didnt know about the bead that you tie on between the sinker and the swivel. What does the bead do?
Hi Leslie,
I use the plastic bead for two reasons. One it protects the knot and two, stops the swivel getting stuck inside the egg sinker. This way the line slips through when there is a bite and the fish feels no resistance.
KG I recently went to Peters with a group from MSBA. We covered a lot of water casting lures. The Trout were lock jaw after some pretty bad weather. We switched to bank fishing with power bait and worms and with no time at all were catching fish ?
Thanks Ron I love sharing one of my favorite ways of clearng out some the cobwebs first of the season. Spring Truck bowing is the first thing I do ! As the water warms to mid April I will switch to Wading and fly fishing. I have tied most of what I needed over the winter ! I’ll pass on some more of fly fishing techniques as the season progresses ?
Stephen, this is a well done primer on catching trout in our local ponds. Thanks for sharing…
Nice, article. I’m looking to go out later this week.