3 Rainbows on Thanksgiving day

[NearKensico]

KenH, thank you for reminding us of the regulations.  I only go to this pond with my wife because she has no patience to fish at Kensico.  Last October, to our surprise we started to catch a few rainbows on a worm and bobber. The few times we went out this year in the summer we caught lots of sunfish and a few LMB. Maybe its best if we stay away from this pond after October 15th. Unlike the other trout, the rainbows do take worms.

[lionpshark]

Maybe its best if we stay away from this pond after October 15th. Unlike the other trout, the rainbows do take worms.

I have caught plenty of browns and Brook trout on "worms " in streams and ponds. So it's not just rainbows

[KenH]

I'm with Manny on the worms. I've caught rainbows, brooks and browns
on worms in streams. I'm certain the larger reservoir lakers and browns can
be caught with nightcrawlers but very few people use them as baitfish are far
more popular.

[Montrose]

I have hung a fat crawler on the hook of a tip up while ice fishing and been rewarded with browns.  Decided to try something different once thinking maybe they would rather grub than chase and it worked out.

[JosephA]

Corn worked for trout too. But I stopped using corn because they said trout wouldn't able to digest it and eventually die. Is this true?

[Montrose]

Joseph, I cold never find a definitive answer about it, but I suspect not.  Fish often swallow all kinds of things when they eat that they just pass.  I have cut open steam trout and found sticks and pebbles in the gut, old hooks, soda can tabs, vegetation, etc.  I find it suspect that they couldn't pass corn niblets. 

Maybe some stocked fish on opening weekend eating virtually nothing but corn and then having it start to ferment and bloat them started this thig rolling, but most hatcheries use some form of grain and meat mix in the pellets they feed to fish daily, so again, my opinion is not an issue w/ corn.

[lionpshark]

I could understand corn and fish and other stuff for chumming but I dont get how egg shells work? do you put them in tiny little bits or whole? what attracts the fish to egg shells? Is it really productive? is it directed towards a specific type of fish? I thought chumming was to put out a sent that gets fish closer to your location

[Montrose]

Manny, I have always boiled eggs, remove shells, let dry, crush up to tiny pieces, and then drop them in.  Only done this ice fishing and generally for lake or other trout, but have caugh gills and perch in the holes when I tried it too.   I recall hearing the small pieces look like plankton bloom or the scalles of a fish that has been eaten and brings fish in out of curisity more than say a "slick" effect as in salt water chumming.

[lionpshark]

Thanks Montrose I understand now

[KenH]

Actually I had heard of eggs shell chumming specifically for Yellow Perch
through the ice. Perch are known to be attracted to visual stiumulation
and there is a practice of putting little colored "flags" on an anchor line when
boat fishng for perch. That the eggshells attractother species, well I suppose sure why not.

[Montrose]

Interesting about the perch Ken.  Could be.  I heard it was a fish scale mimic, but I know perch are definitely visual and muddying the bottom can bring them in since they think other perch are grubbing for larvae and blood worms.

I know in other areas use of perch roe is a tactic, but technically illegal in NYS. 

Where spearing of pike is legal, egg shells, potatoes and wheat germ are all used to make the lake floor beneath the spearing hole lighter to better see the "target".

Disclaimer...No pike were harmed in this post and no offense to any pike anglers intended...good thing spearing is illegal in NY.