Trout Fishing - Floating A Worm

[VTX1800Shanty]

For father's day (yes, early I know) I set my father up with a "trout rod" for only trout fishing on a designated trout lake near him. The lake has rainbows in it and it is fished from shore. I put 4 lb test on it with a sliding weight and a hook appropriate enough for the night crawler blown up. I wasn't with him but he told me that he was there 2 hours and had his line peel off the reel 3 times and the crawler was gone. Three times in 2 hours, I was impressed. My father isn't a story teller either. That said, is the hook size too small/too big? Or what other "tricks" are there that he could use to land a fish? Thanks!

[JP Z]

VTX, They could just be smaller fish that are just being bait stealers. Do you happen to remember the size of the hook he is using? Although unless it is really odd I'm not sure if that would be a problem at all.

[Deet]

I'm assuming he's just leaving his rod in a Y-stick with the bail open. It's strange that 3 fish in a row pulled a lot of line off his spool without getting the hook. Like the other guy said, maybe they're all small ones.

That being said, here's what I think. Maybe he's doing all this already...

Use just the head-half of a crawler. Use a #4 or #6 hook. I'd start with the #4, but downsize to the #6 if you think the 4 is too big. Hook the half-crawler in the middle along its length, not on either end. I think if he sticks the blower needle right in the wide ring of the crawler, pointed towards the "head", he won't lose air out the cut-end of the crawler.