"Did it take long for the fish to start biting?" asked my 10-year-old daughter, Sarah, who always expects a full report after I get home from fishing.
"Three casts," I answered, grinning a bit as I remembered the 12-inch wild brown trout that pummeled my Rebel Tracdown Minnow before my buddy, Mark, even stepped into the stream. I was twitching my rod tip quickly to work the bait over a shallow gravel bar, and the trout came partly out of the water to attack it.
One of the virtues of a Tracdown Minnow is that you can fish it effectively in inches of water by beginning the retrieve right away and keeping the bait moving or you can work a deep dark pool by letting the lure fall through the water column before beginning your retrieve.
That first fast-striking trout was no oddball. Mark and I spent the next six hours catching wild browns and rainbows as we worked our way though an Appalachian river gorge on an unusually mild mid-November day. Mark spent some time wobbling a Rebel Teeny Deep Wee Craw, but I never strayed from a Tracdown Minnow, which I wanted to put to the test.
I actually changed lures only once, and that wasn't by choice. A fat rainbow broke my line and took off with my original lure.
I began the day with the brown trout color pattern and then switched to the cutthroat color. With gray skies and water that was clear but stained dark from thousands of slowly decaying leaves and pine needles, the golden backdrops of those two colors patterns seemed best for the job.
A Rebel Tracdown Minnow is ideally suited targeting trout. Its baitfish profile suggests a meal that's worth going after, but a relatively small size makes it a reasonable target for trout of all sizes. Cranked steadily, a Tracdown Minnow has a quick tight wiggle. Jerked, it darts erratically.
Most importantly, a Tracdown Minnow sinks when it's not in motion. You can get it down among 'em by counting it down after you cast or simply working it slowly. That's especially important during the cool months when the trout spend the bulk of their time near the bottom.
The tight wiggle also can be valuable during the winter. While trout feed well all winter in the South and in many tailwaters through much of the country, the cold water does slow their motion and the motion of most of their forage. A tight-wiggling bait cruising close to the rocks matches what the trout are accustomed to seeing this time of the year and is tough for them to resist.
Experiment with retrieves. Plenty of jerks drew more strikes than a slow, steady crank on my last outing. But then again, the air temperatures reached the 70s that day, and the fish might have thought it was early fall.
However you work your Tracdown Minnow, don't miss the chance to put one to work catching trout this winter.
See you in the creek!
Jeff Samsel