The key to trout nirvana is to figure out if the fish have indeed moved into the rivers, or if they are still out on the nearby flats. When dealing with smaller tidal creeks, that doesn’t take much time. Most of these waters will have a deeper hole relatively close to, or at, the mouth. A good search pattern is to check the first hole near the mouth, and then move up to check the next one upstream. If you don’t find any trout, they are not likely to be in that creek at that time. If the weather has been exceptionally frigid—and if you know there are deeper holes farther inland—it may be worth the time to continue idling upstream. Some tidal creeks have warm springs feeding them—find that situation in a no-name tidal creek and you may find a wad of trout.
These anglers are drift-fishing with bait-sweetened jigheads--a deadly way to locate concertrations of bottom-hugging tout.
In bigger rivers, the procedure is the same. But, given the larger volume of water the search can take more time. When trout move into a larger river they want to be in the deepest water available. They will normally get into a 15-foot hole before they hold up in an 8-foot hole. Another important factor is that the hole have a hard bottom. Trout want to be on rock or shell bottom, and in the bigger rivers they don’t usually get on mud or sand. Once I find deep water and rock or shell bottom, I look for baitfish. You won’t see them on the surface, but a good depthfinder will show them. If you have the first two factors present and then find baitfish, there are very likely to be some trout in that area.
That combination of factors—depth, hard bottom and baitfish—may very easily put almost every trout within a half-mile section of river into one compact 200-yard area. They do tend to concentrate tightly in colder weather when they find the conditions they need. That also means that if you’re not paying attention, you can miss them. One of the easiest ways to find winter trout concentrations in a river is to slowly troll a bottom-bouncing lure. A sinking MirrOlure or similar mirror-sided plug is a popular choice, as is a leadhead jig with a 4-inch plastic tail with enough weight on the jighead ( 1⁄ 4- to 3⁄ 8-ounce) to bang along the bottom. If your lure runs through a bunch of trout, one of them is going to take a swipe at it, and that tells you that you’ve found fish. After that, it’s just a matter of concentrating on that area. I fish a Strike King 3X “Glass Minnow” (a 4-inch swimming tail grub) with good results. When rigged on a jighead, the extreme buoyancy of the plastic used in this tail causes it to float up just off the bottom, and I believe it is more visible to the fish than a conventional soft-plastic jig tail that slides flat. With a 1⁄ 4- or 3⁄ 8-ounce jighead, I cast quartering upstream and let the current just bounce it back to me. If the water is relatively clear, a combo of a red jighead and a pink-and-chartreuse tail is deadly. In darker water, a chartreuse head and a pumpkin-and-chartreuse tail is often a better bet.
Another effective choice, and possibly a better bet for bigger trout, is a sinking hard plug. Fish these the same way as you would a jig, except with occasional short twitches.
Regardless of the lure chosen, a soft touch helps. Coldwater trout don’t want a lure with erratic action. They want something moving gently that is easy to catch. A simple straight and slow retrieve—with the bait right on the bottom—normally produces best. I like to cast it up and across the current and work either the jig or a hard plug back to the boat on the bottom, moving as slow as I can without hanging up. You will lose a few lures, but if you don’t you aren’t putting them where the trout are.
In smaller creeks, there’s another option. These little creeks are usually a bit warmer and if I only have six or eight feet of water I can work a jig under a Cajun Thunder float, or use a mid-depth jerkbait, like the Storm Lures Thunder Stick, the Bomber Long A or the Strike King Wild Shiner. These baits can be worked down to three or four feet, and if the water is clear, and a bit warmer, trout will come up a couple of feet to hit them. This is especially true of bigger trout, because they are geared to attack from below.
