How does your strategy change when trout are recently stocked (under 7 days)?

[CravenMorehead]

Hey,

Going to be getting out for first time this year and the water I'm targeting just got restocked this week. How does your strategy change when trout are freshly stocked? I'm seeing things that there are native/wild trout in there as well.

Thanks!

 

[Tabasco-Joe]

I've found woolly buggers in nearby deep holes to work best.

 

[goose54cdd]

They might be sluggish on the day they are stocked. It has been my experience that If they're Rainbows you're definitely fine the next day and many times the day they are stocked. If they don't bite right off just wait a few hours.

 

[wildtrout2]

They might be sluggish on the day they are stocked. It has been my experience that If they're Rainbows you're definitely fine the next day and many times the day they are stocked. If they don't bite right off just wait a few hours.

Back when I did actually fish for stocked trout (70's-80's), I found Mepps/C.P. Swing spinners worked well on freshly stocked fish.

 

[jifigz]

Freshly stocked bows like pink San Juans and egg flies. I don't like fishing for freshly stocked trout. They need at least a week to start getting normal in my opinion.

 

[CravenMorehead]

Freshly stocked bows like pink San Juans and egg flies. I don't like fishing for freshly stocked trout. They need at least a week to start getting normal in my opinion.

Thank you. I don't really like the thought of fishing for fresh stockies either. I just looked today and saw it. Hoping I can get into some wilds.

 

[falcon]

I watched a couple hundred fish being stocked in one area. People started fishing for them right afterwards. It took at least a hour before someone could catch one. Gradually the fish became competetive and were readily taking flies. This was on a fly fishing stretch of the Big Bushkill in Pike County.

 

[Swattie87]

Unless they’re rising, if I’m intentionally fishing for stockies it’s always an egg. Early season paired with a mop. As the season goes on, the mop gets switched for a middle of the road BH nymph.

The only practical change is I won’t kill and eat them when they’ve only been in the creek for a week. They’ll still taste like mush. Need a good month or 6 weeks to lean them out and firm them up.

 

[Mike]

I’ve had the opportunities to conduct creel surveys on the days of inseason stockings. The trout generally don’t hit very well and require a lot of coaxing, although in one unusual circumstance they turned on for about the last two hours before dark. The morning after the stocking date was always quite good.

 

[wildtrout2]

The morning after the stocking date was always quite good.

That's when I always did the best with stockies.

 

[dudemanspecial]

There is a huge 4ft deep hole in a stocker crick down the road from our camp. Years ago, a day or 2 after an in season stocking, the trout were stacked up in that hole like cordwood. We were all drifting everything we had past these dumbass fish and they had zero interest. For some reason one of the older guys in our crew decided to start throwing a parachute adams over them....and the results were unreal. Those fish came up at that thing like the carp at the Pymatuming causeway do for bread. We all stood there and watched while this guy was smiling like a butchers dog catching fish after fish after fish. I wasn't sure if I was impressed or depressed.

One of the best fishing memories I have.

 

[The Rodfather]

The stockies i happen to catch are usually filled with corn 🤷‍♂️

Best of luck!

I'll be out this weekend too doing my part to clean up some stockers.

 

[tomgamber]

I basically dumb it down.

 

[Bayviewrr]

A few years back I was fishing a stretch of the Beaverkill when the bucket brigade showed up and dumped what looked like 1000 fish forty yards below where I was fishing. I fished down into the newly stocked fish and couldn't buy a hit. I went back the next day and drifted a blowtorch and a frenchie into the same stretch. It was constant fish, even a few double hook ups. After 30 maybe 40 fish, it got boring and I went on to other parts of the river. As I was leaving, a guy who was watching from upstream came up and asked what I was using as he hadn't had any success. I think he thought I was the best fisherman ever. I was honest and told him it had nothing to do with me. I wonder if he had the same success I did after I left.

 

[troutbert]

White streamers, such as Wooly Buggers or Zonkers, work well for stocked trout.

 

[jifigz]

White streamers, such as Wooly Buggers or Zonkers, work well for stocked trout.

I agree with this!

 

[barrybarry]

For some reason one of the older guys in our crew decided to start throwing a parachute adams over them....and the results were unreal.

After we stock a particularly large pool, the trout constantly break the surface looking for food. I believe they are used to people throwing pellets in the water.

 

[bdfish]

Same thing happened to me last weekend on my annual Kettle Creek camping trip. They stocked Friday. I went out Saturday late morning and did very well on the rainbows with a Lively Legz pink walts worm. Sunday did very well with the chartreuse mini mop fly and a very large Golden on a Lively Legz standard olive colored jig. Euro nymphing.

 

[Trapshooter]

Trout pellet fly?

 

[DomR]

Size 12 pheasant tail.....its brown like the food they are used to.