Best Trout Fishing Lure Tips

While lures have a long track record of catching trout, there are some tricks you can use to make your lure of choice more attractive to trout.  I've used all these tricks myself with success.

Lure Tip #1 - Tipping The Lure

Adding a small piece of nightcrawler, minnow, powerbait, etc. to the hook of your lure is called, "tipping the lure". The idea is to add scented bait of some sort to the lure to make it more attractive.  So not only is the lure attracting trout by vibration and flash, but also by scent.   Nightcrawlers are popular tips for lures, but you could use anything that trout like to eat.


Lure Tip #2 - Greasing the Lure

Since trout are attracted to potential food by scent, you can also rub some trout attractant on your lure (called greasing the lure).  I personally like to grease my leader and lures when fishing with lures.  If you don't have any trout attractant, and you've already caught at least one fish, you could also rub your lure against the fish's side.  This transfers smelly fish slime to the lure, again, making it smell more natural and attractive.


Lure Tip #3 - Tricking Up Your Lures

This technique is a simple matter of using colored marking pins and tape to spice up a plain silver, nickel, or gold colored lure.  The nice thing about this trick is that it can save you money in buy the same lure in multiple color combination.   Although the video was created for bass fisherman, the technique works with trout lures as well.

Lure Tip #4 - Vary Your Retrieve Speed


After casting a lure into the water, many anglers tend to retrieve the lure at a constant speed.  While this will catch some fish, varying the speed can catch even more.  Many lures are designed to imitate bait fish and they don't swim at a constant rate (nor do they swim in a straight line).  So varying your retrieval speed will do two things.  First, it changes the depth of your lure.  Reel fast, and your lure will rise to the surface. Reel slow (and even stop reeling once in a while) and it will sink. This can give the appearance of an injured bait fish (which trout often find irresistible).


The second thing varying the retrieval speed does, is it makes the lure presentation look more natural.  In other words, if you're lure isn't swimming in a straight line at a constant speed, it tends to look less like an artificial lure and more like a natural bait fish swimming around.


Lure Tip #5 - Color Selection

It's no secret that lures look differently underwater then they do out of water. They also look different in direct sunlight, under cloudy haze, etc.  Lures not only look different to us in different water and weather conditions, but they also look different to trout under the same conditions.   Not only this, but lures will different underwater too at various depths, in clear water, murky water, blue water, green water, etc.  Understanding this will help you choose better lure colors before you cast your line.

There is a lot more detail in my Trout Fishing Tips eBook about how weather conditions and water conditions affect lure color and effectiveness, but in a nutshell, here are some tips you can try when selecting your next lure.


On dark cloudy days and in murky water, try dark colored lures. On bright sunny days, try light colored lures (including lures with gold and nickel finishes).


Lure Tip # 6 - Add Some Noise

In conditions when your lure might be hard to see (such as dark and murky water), using a lure that makes noise can help attract fish.   Some lures make a rattling sound as they move through the water. Rapala makes some great lures that make noise.


Lure Tip #7 - Add Some Glow

In underwater conditions where your lure might be very hard to see (such as at night), using a glowing lure can help make it more visible to trout.  Berkely even makes a Glowing PowerBait Wiggler that was designed to be added to lures. Using these wigglers not only employs Lure Tip #1 but also this lure tip. The Mangler - fishing lures has some interesting glowing lures.

Have any more lure tips? We'd love to hear them.  Feel free to share your own favorite lure tips here.

Modifying Trout Spoons For Better Success

Here's a great tip on modifying your Salmon Spoons. Of course, even though this video talks about spoons used for salmon fishing, the concept can be applied to other trout lures as well

What Lure Works Best for Trout Fishing?

One of the questions I get asked a lot is, "What lure works best for trout fishing?" Of course there are different variations of this question, such as "What lure works best in lakes?", etc.

While the question is simple enough, the answer is not. There are too many different variables involved in fishing to say that one lure works best. In fact, one of the biggest frustrations in trout fishing is that one lure may work great one day and not all the next. Why? There are a lot of possible reasons for this.

Several variables affect trout fishing including:

• Water temperature
• Water clarity
• Water color
• Weather conditions (sunny, cloudy, windy, rain, ice, snow, etc.)
• Season (spring, fall, winter, summer)
• Available food sources
• Pressure from other anglers

These are only a few of the variables which affect trout fishing. And of course, each of the variables mentioned above not only affect trout, but also your lure selection. The reason why is too complicated to explain in a blog post, but are addressed in the Trout Fishing Tips eBook.
But in short, the variables mentioned above affect how your lure looks underwater to trout. These variables also influence trout activity and feeding habits.

Trout are sluggish in very cold water and therefore might need a bit more flash to entice them into striking. And yet too much flash, might scare them off.

Water color and clarity can affect a trout's ability to see your lure. A bright red lure in your tackle box will appear black in blue water. That's because red is filtered out in blue water. The deeper the lure is fished, the blacker it will appear under water. This is just one example of how water color and clarity can affect how trout see your lure under water.

Advanced anglers have observed that dark colored lures tend to work well on overcast days, murky water and when fishing at night. Likewise, nickel and silver lures tend to work better on bright sunny days.

These are some of the reasons that a lure may work well one day and not the next. There's just too many variables involved in fishing.

The real key to successful trout fishing is to understand trout: their physical needs as well as how their environment affects them. This understanding will help you in turn better understand how different lures, baits, and fishing tactics affect your ability to catch trout.

Advanced anglers will pay attention to all of these factors and take note of what lure, bait or fishing tactic worked given a certain set of conditions. Often times, they will keep track of these details in a fishing log or fishing software program. After a while, they'll start to notice trends which will help them make better lure selections, etc.

So while there's no real answer to the question, "What lure works best for trout fishing?", hopefully the information above will help you understand some of the variables affecting your lure selection.

How to Make Fishing Lures

It doesn't take long for avid anglers to get hooked on making their own lures. We're creative people and like to experiment. After all, all lures share a similar history ... an angler noticed how fish prey on other living creatures and came up with a way to imitate it.

But in addition to the desire to create something new, there are other advantages to making your own lures - or at least knowing how.

Some trout fisheries have restrictions on artificial lures. In most cases, these restrictions limit the number of hooks on lure or the use of barbed hooks. When you buy a lure, it may not be "legal" out of the box. But the problem can be easily solved by removing or replacing hooks. In some cases, you can get away filing or pinching down barbs.

Lures can also get pretty expensive - especially if you lose a lot due to snags. Yet some of the best trout holding places are full of rocks, logs and weeds which are famous for snagging your lures. Anglers tend to adopt a "spare the lure" attitude and will avoid fishing in those areas. The downside to this attitude is that you may be losing out on catching that trophy trout!

Making your own lures costs a lot less money than buying them. Not only that, but the savings will help eliminate the "save the lure" attitude. So you'll become less concerned about snagging your lures when fishing in difficult trout holding lies.

My great-grandpa used to hand carve his own lures. While I'm not that skilled, I do enjoy buying and kits to make my own lures from scratch. And now, I'm enjoying teaching my nephew to do the same. We share a sense of accomplishment by making our own lures.

If you'd like to start making your own fishing lures, here's some resources you might helpful.

Wooden Lure Making - This eBook will show you step by step how to make your own wooden topwater lures. This eBook will also show you how to paint your wooden lures as well as paint a scale pattern on them. You'll learn how to make poppers, prop baits, and other topwater plugs. If you're a woodworker, you'll enjoy this book.

How to Make Fishing Lures - This 103-page eBook shows you how to make spoons, spinners, jigs, plugs, and more. It does a nice job of outlining the tools you'll need and some nice illustrations showing exact dimensions of the various lures you'll be making. This book is very clear and easy to understand.

If you like to know how to silver-plate your own lures, you'll definitely want to pick up a copy of the book, Spinner Fishing for Steelhead, Salmon and Trout by Jed Davis. Even if you have no interest in steelhead fishing, you won't find a better book with detailed instructions for silver plating your own lures. Few anglers realize the difference between silver and nickel plated lures. Yet it's a proven fact that silver is much more visible underwater than nickel is - and silver-plated lures are hard to find. This book shows you step by step how to make your own silver-plated lures.

With these resources, you'll be able to make your own fishing lures for all types of fishing.

Live Bait Versus Artificials

Some anglers look (especially fly fishers) down on those that use live bait to catch trout. They consider the practice sort of like cheating. The use of live bait, to some, requires less finesse. These same anglers will argue that it takes more skill to fool a trout into taking an artificial fly or lure than it does to dangle live bait in front of trout.

While I can agree that it sometimes does take more skill and finesse to get trout to strike an artificial bait, I also believe that the use of live bait takes a bit of skill.

For one thing, it doesn't matter if you're using live natural baits or artificial, you still need to have the skills to figure out where trout are holding. It also takes a bit of know-how to properly hook your live bait and present it in a way that looks natural to trout (or they won't strike).

However, one of the downsides to using live bait is that trout will often swallow it making it difficult or impossible to remove the hook. This doesn't normally happen with lures.

If you plan to practice 'catch and release', you should avoid fishing with live bait. However, even when fishing for dinner there are times when you may need to release your catch (like when it's too small to keep). Fishing with live bait in this situation is perfectly acceptable, but you still may face the problem of having the fish swallow the hook.

One way to combat this problem is to use single barbless hooks (which are easier to remove). You can also pinch down or file the barb off your hooks to make them easier to remove from fish.
In situations where you can't remove the hook without causing internal damage to the fish, it's best to clip the line as close as you can to the hook without trying to remove it. Trout do have digestive enzymes that can dissolve the hook over time (unless it's stainless steel).

Whether you choose to use live bait (worms, minnows, etc.) or artificial lures, understanding the common problems associated with each as well as how to overcome them will make you a better angler while preserving trout fisheries for future generations.