Dough Bait Tips for Trout Fishing

Most trout anglers are familiar with dough baits such as Berkley's PowerBait.  These baits are specially formulated to attract trout and the nicest thing about them is that they float ... which helps to keep your bait off the bottom of a lake bed.

Dough baits are especially effective when fishing lakes stocked with rainbow trout.  That's because these baits are similar to the food fed to hatchery trout.  While Berkley has it's competitors in the dough bait business, I've had the best luck with Berkley products.  So I personally tend to stick with them.  Rainbow glitter powerbait is one of my favorites! 

Fishing with dough bait is really easy.  I typically use 6-lb test line with a 4 or 2-lb leader.  Between the two, I attached an slip sinker on the 6-lb test line and then tie on a snap-swivel.  I attach my leader (typically 18-24 inches) to the swivel.  At the end of the leader is a treble hook (usually size 12).  This rig is typically a bottom fishing rig. Using powerbait on this rig gets the baited hook off the bottom of the lake (making it more visible to trout swimming by). However, I have had success using the same rig (minus the sinker) when fish are feeding off the surface.

When baiting the hook, most anglers just make a ball around the hook to cover it up.  And while that does work, the video below offers a few more tips.

Another thing I like to do sometimes (especially when fishing is slow) is grease my leader and dough bait with trout attractant. The advantage of this trick is that the trout attractant can help disguise human smells transferred to my line and bait while handling them.

For roe bait tips for steelhead trout, click here.

Have any more dough bait secrets?  Feel free share them here!