Trout bait for lakes

I use dog food....serious.

There are so many baits out there that will catch fish after fish one day, and not a bite the next.  Or, fished by one guy and fish every cast, fished by another and nothing.  Best bet is variety.  If you enjoy catching on lures, get a bunch of different spinners and small spoons and crank baits and switch up until you find the right one.  Find that balance between patience and wasting time with an offering they don't want.  Take some fake baits like the mentioned minnows, Berkley also makes some great worms, butter worms and others, so do other manufacturers.  Fish both under a bobber or drifted without.  Try as many techniques as you can.  Reel in slow.  Fast.  Twitch a few times.  Dead drift and mend your line.  Read up on each of how to propperly present.  Take an assortment of live if you really want to add to your odds.  Chances are, unless they are completely turned off (some weather patterns will do this), you'll find one or two things that are getting hit, whether you are successful at getting them in or even detecting the hit is up to the individual fisherman.  Get crafty if you are getting light hits and not able to hook up.  There are MANY people through out the past 50+ years that limit out almost every year using corn (or the fly equivelant - glow bug), while others next to them can't buy a bite on anything (with exception to blue powerbait - trout can't resist it).  It almost always comes down to presentation. 
 
Oh yeah, if fishing a lake, you don't need to just sit there with bait out on bottom and wait...  Although that does work at times.  Unless the odds are there for catching something big (catfishing or fishing the ocean), I'm not the biggest fan.  If you do this, keep your rod in hand, so you can set the hook.  Many times, trout will spit out instantly, and not enough time for you to get off of lawn chair and go to rod spike, yet set the hook.  If you do, make sure you set as hard as you can.  Nothing better to watch the lawn chair crew over set.

Porktown

There are so many baits out there that will catch fish after fish one day, and not a bite the next. 
Or, fished by one guy and fish every cast, fished by another and nothing.

 
An'ats a fac, jack
Donno nothing about those   stocked trout they dump inland  over there, (only fished for 'em once in my life) but know enough about fish and fishing in general to know no truer words are spoken
 
Good stuff in  the rest of your  post too
 
 
BTW, that one time i fished for 'em????...They were easy to catch ..like catching Bluegills in a  pond .
must of been "one of those days" when they're easy to make bite  on pret'near anything
But I must give credit where credit is due...as I  had an expert "local guide"  in Terry "Da Crip" (may the Lord rest his soul) .
Everywhere he took me there were lots and lots of dumb fish.
i caught and released a bunch of bitty Browns (I "think" they were Browns)
Even though they were "on the bite"  that day, I'm SURE i wouldn't of had such success without Mr Terry
 
 
..L.T.A.
 

Similar to trout magnets, last year I couldn't buy a bite on just about anything (I saw 4 trout caught in the first hour on the first day last year that included about 35 guys on the bank of Oil Creek).  I had some "Mighty Mites" in my pocket from crappie fishing at Wilhelm so I thought "what the heck".  Had my limit in 8 casts.  Gave my Mighty Mite to the guy next to me and went home to put my trout in my pond.

My cousin and I both caught limits on keystone lake on saturday. We were trolling joes flies from my canoe. I didn't see any of the trophy trout caught so I'll be going back this weekend to try for one. Everyone in boats seemed to be doing well, the shore fishermen not so much. It was pretty much elbow to elbow along the WHOLE shoreline.

Keystone State Park is doing their late season stocking october 5th. I think im gonna take my 6 year old son out on the boat and try for some. Is anyone else going? If so do you change up your stratagies for late season trout in the lake? And does anyone have any tips to target the large trophy trout the comish stocked? They really put alot of trophy trout in before the season opener. I wonder if the late season stocking compares to the pre season stocking. Any info would be great, thanks

If you're after big browns id go with some jerk baits in the 4" range or live minnows.

If you're going for stocked browns like said prior tend to want more meaty go with wax worms, butter worms or even the micro powerbait minnows... Also, as mentioned try jerkbaits on a slow retrieve or even with the typical retrieve.  Trout Magnet makes minnow baits for trout and even small floating rapalas and xraps work along with the newer UL series.  I myself have the most luck with some Joe's Flies in the larger white for Steelhead up in Erie and the standard brown, olive color patterns fished on 4-6# line with a split shot 16"-2' from the knot I do well that way in both seasons.  And if you can get your hands on any try mouse flies too fish them the same as the Joe's flies not sure if they'll be super productive in the lake as they may be a better stream/river bait but it's always worth a shot.  And if all else fails...  1oz Cleos always get the job done. (J/K!)

Thanks for the info everyone. These trout lakes are a great opportunity to spend some time with the kids outdoors and get them hooked. We managed to catch fish each time we went last winter all winter long. I bet the fishin is real good shortly after the fall stocking. Blue fox spinners, joes flies, power minnows, live bait. Got a 16 foot sea king with a fresh trolling motor on her, time to make new memories with my boy

Mags00
[Edited for relative content]
  .... And if you can get your hands on any try mouse flies too fish them the same as the Joe's flies not sure if they'll be super productive in the lake as they may be a better stream/river bait but it's always worth a shot.  And if all else fails...  1oz Cleos always get the job done. (J/K!)

Thanks Mags! I never thought of the deer hair mouse flies as a Steelhead bait or for anything other than a Bass really. I'll definitely give 'em a shot at Walnut and Elk.This should be interesting!

Mags00

fish5000

Thanks Mags! I never thought of the deer hair mouse flies as a Steelhead bait or for anything other than a Bass really. I'll definitely give 'em a shot at Walnut and Elk.This should be interesting!

Well after reading the write up about the trout with a belly full of shrews anything is possible...  I'm not sure how it would work for Steelhead but I'm sure that for bigger trout in streams and small rivers you may have luck with them.  Like I said not sure how they would work on a lake but who knows...   Lemme know how they work if you try them for Steelhead. lol

I saw that post, but didn't read it. I'll definitely let you know if it's successful! I have one or two that I haven't used... yet!

I don't know what the deal is with the pfbc stocking info the last few years. They seem to always say rainbows only in the fall, but I catch mostly browns. I fished mammoth a few days ago and caught one nice bow, but I wouldn't be surprised at all if it was mostly browns again though. Its a little frustrating because I usually use different tactics for browns than I do for stocker bows. Good job getting the kid on some fishes!

Maybe the law was unaware that the limit is 3 Trout per day now.  sam

I used to live five minutes from there. Nice lake to fish. Also that was DCNR or state park employees, not the PFBC. DCNR wont bust you for fishing regs.

Put a hurtin on em at KSP on saturday. Was catching them all over the lake even before they stocked. minnows out of the boat did the most damage. once they tubed in the swarms of trout it became an unholy slaughter of browns n bows. the smoker was packed full after that trip. always a good time.