I was recently thumbing through Milt Rosko'sFishing the Big Four , and in it there is a picture of a guy holding up a 30+ lb striper. In the caption, it states that the bass was caught using a ranbow trout for bait... this seems sort of ridiculous to me... has anyone ever heard of this? :confused:

In many of the big freshwater impoundments, the forage of choice for big largies and stripers are stocked rainbows. This created the boom in popularity of the large hybrid hard body/soft tail plugs, which often come in rainbow trout pattern.

why not? I use rainbow trout patterns to mimick baby weakfish when targeting bass in certain areas.

also, where you have a freshwater river emptying out into the ocean or sound (the housatonic here in ct is a good example), the bass actually do have an opportunity to feed on rainbow trout.

Out here in Western MA I finds all sorts of somethins in these fish. From salamanders to Large Mouth. (especially right now when the herring are sparse)

I'm aware that bass feed on rainbow trout, but anglers using live trout for bait is something I had never heard of, considering rainbow trout is popular gamefish... one would think it would be pretty taboo to use them for live bait, the same as if someone was using a live baby striper for bait (albeit illegal)

down here in pa people on lake wallenpalpack use live browns

Using trout for bait in MA is illegal to my knowledge:

If you know about steel heads, you know they are nothing but rainbow trout who spawn from the saltwater up the fresh water river, so I can using them for bait. I never caught a weakfish however seen pics and they do look like trout.

In some freshwater rivers that have trout, they are used for bait. It is legal in some states.

Jigman

I think in PA you probebly need to have a reciept to prove that you bought them and did not catch them as live bait.It is like that for minnows.

In Pa. its illegal to use trout as bait. in Nj. you can use trout as bait if you buy them from a dealer(pequest hatchery). A lot of bait dunkers along the Delaware buy trout and use them at the mouths of trout streams(muskenetcong river ). good chance of hooking a 30# or better this way. fly fisherman have caught on to this idea and use 6 to 12 in. rainbow patterns, I like kenny abrames bunker flat wing it looks like a rainbow trout. :D