Park Rapids area Fishing Reports

[IceHawk]

First Welcome to FM, They definitely can be caught during the day but the water is really clear usally on that lake and I have found over the years of fishing it that the evening into the dark bite can be way better. Don't rule out trying to target those fish you saw.  Some options are fishing  on a cloudy day, or try down sizeing your presentation as you may surprise yourself and put a few topside.  

[Chill62]

January 23rd was last time someone replied.  Granted I don't fish the PR area often I have been going up lately and fishing for trout.  Trout action has been great especially if you can get a cloudy day with 5-10 mph winds.  We've been getting nice mixture of "eater" fish and nice "smoker" fish the last few trips.  Best luck has been right away in the morning and usually slows by mid morning.  I've caught 2-22"s so far and one had to have been close to 5 pounds.  When I lifted her out of the net she dropped a quart of eggs in my boat.  

[Ref]

Chill62,

Any baits working better than others for the trout?

[Chill62]

I am lazy and using slip bobbers.  Guys are pulling downriggers and plugs all around me and I'm not seeing many people catching stuff so instead of burning up gas and getting a headache I use the slip bobbers.  Key is to watch your graph and this time of the year the water column will be broken into thirds.  I'm having luck on the top third of the water column.  For those who don't know what I mean is when you drive around at an idle you'll notice that fish that aren't feeding will all be at one water depth and for me I was in 40-47 feet of water but all the fish were 18-24 feet down.  Yes there were random fish below and above but 90% were in that range.  

How I'm doing it is slip bobbers with a leader of 4# fluorocarbon line tipped with a #2 size hook with a half a night crawler and one nugget of Berkley Gulp Trout Nuggets.  Depending on the day depends on which color they like better.  I only hook part of the night crawler so it dangles down and then I put the nugget on to give color and scent.  I also don't use split shots. I use sliding sinkers like bass fisherman use with a slip bobber stopper holding it on my leader.  Buddy was on another lake up in the area and they fished for 4 days before fishing with me on the lake I fish.  He said they had days where trout wouldn't hit if a trout nugget was on the hook.  Also had days where they only wanted the trout nugget.  Sadly just got to keep trying things but I have found that some days they want green/yellow or they want pink/orange.  Joys of having multiple people in the boat is trying different things right away till you figure out something and that's why I like slip bobbers.  I have a 17.5' boat so trolling with 3 people gets tough but I can have 3-4 people slip bobber and we will all be same depth with 2-3 different techniques.

Attached are some pics from one of our trips.

[Ref]

Great pics!

 

Thanks for the advice!

 

Ref

[Chill62]

We started out by watching other guys and learning as we tried things but the trick to trout is clear line and as light as possible.  I have noticed a difference between 4 and 6 pound test.  I switched to 4 pound about 4 years ago and I'll never switch back.

[Chill62]

Got out Saturday morning with buddies for trout, got to the lake and it's flat calm all I could have thought was dang I should have stayed home.  We had 3 guys 2 boats and we landed 9 total.  3 of our trout bit during wave action from a boat driving by, dang I wished there would have been ANY kind of wind action to move lures around.  Biggest one was 20.5" followed by a 19.5" with one being soo small we through it back and wish we could have on another one but it had swallowed the hook.