Trout

[Nsghunter]

I was kayaking yesterday and the river was LOW and I hard to carry my boat over most of the rapids.

I didn't see any trout directly below the rapids but as we made it down the river I started seeing TONS of rainbow in 18 to 24 inches of slow moving water with a real flat sandy bottom. The water was crystal clear and they were loaded. I encountered the same thing three different times on three separate sandy bottoms of the same features, water clarity and depth. One trout seemed HUGE, maybe 20-30 inches. Well, huge to me, it was the biggest fish we seen all day.

I have never tried to fish an area like this for rainbow, I always just fished to the outside of the swift water after the rapids.

The guy that was with me suggested that maybe they were there because the water was low and they couldn't get near enough to the rapids and possibly had to stay in these areas.

Any thoughts on this? Maybe I am wrong and this was a normal thing. How would you fish it?

 

[MickThompson]

Very light line, approach from below, and make long, soft casts

 

[Setterman]

Not sure where you were but I'd be willing to bet they weren't trout.

 

[Nsghunter]

Not sure where you were but I'd be willing to bet they weren't trout.

Hehe, maybe not, but why would you think that?

I am not a very experienced angler, they looked like trout but I've been wrong frequently in the past.

 

[choupique]

Unless you were in a tailwater, my money is on redhorse. They look vaguely trout-ish from above. Golden and black redhorse will often hang in that type of habitat, in loose schools. A couple years back I watched an angler on the lower Tellico cast repeatedly to a big silver redhorse (which get much larger than golden/black redhorse and could be the larger fish you saw), muttering "why won't that trout strike"!

 

[Setterman]

Not sure where you were but I'd be willing to bet they weren't trout.

Hehe, maybe not, but why would you think that?

I am not a very experienced angler, they looked like trout but I've been wrong frequently in the past.

See the post above this, I'd bet they were red horse. On the size alone and also where you saw them. I've made the mistake myself as well

 

[Nsghunter]

Thanks guys!!

I looked up redhorse and ,unfortunately, I bet they were redhorse based on the pictures. Kinda glad I didn't go to great length to rush back and fish.

 

[Jugfish]

Another thing you should learn and remember from this is to NEVER tell anyone about a fish find like this. That kind of info should be treated as top secret. If it had actually been trout, some dude on here would have figured out where you were talking about and ruined it!!

 

[Nsghunter]

Hehe, that's ALWAYS a risk, but we all pay for the same license and fish the same waters. I get to fish about 10 days a year and rely a lot on other anglers to help me optimize my fishing. I don't mind people knowing the general whereabouts of my fishing area.