Having anchored just upstream of a hole that had been holding trout, Rick O’Neil opened a jar or Orange Glitter YUM TroutKrilla Pellets. "Be ready," he said, smiling, as he strung one of the bright pellets onto my No. 12 hook. "This won’t take long."
We were field testing TroutKrilla, which will be available from YUM this fall, but O’Neil had tried enough of the new bait already to know what was about to happen. "If you are anywhere near trout, they are going to find and eat this stuff – and it won’t take long," said O’Neil, a guide on Arkansas’ legendary White River.
LPT & Krill
TroutKrilla, which comes in Paste and Pellet form and in eight colors, offers a potent double
dose of trout-attracting punch. First, it is fortified YUM’s exclusive Live Prey Technology, which replicates enzymes emitted by distressed baitfish. In addition, TroutKrilla contains Krill, tiny shrimp-like crustaceans that trout cannot resist.
Any angler who has ever fished with shrimp – for any species of fish – knows their fish-attracting potency, and Krill offer the same appeal. Among the first species in the food chain to convert plankton into a useful form for predator fish, Krill are actually part of a sea-run trout’s natural diet.
Fishing TroutKrilla
As O’Neil expected, my rig barely found bottom when my rod tip slammed down, and before I could land my trout, he had hooked into a rainbow of his own. We sat in one spot for the next hour and brought in trout after trout, grinning and cheering like a couple of children who had never caught a fish of any kind before.
TroutKrilla Paste offer anglers flexibility. They can rig up with any size wad of bait and can even shape the TroutKrilla into a small cylinder to imitate an aquatic insect nymph or stuff it inside a hollow soft-plastic lure to add scent and flavor. Pellets, on the other hand, are extremely fisherman friendly. String one on a hook, and you’re ready to fish.
Both the paste and the pellets are extremely buoyant, which is important for putting the bait in front of the trout. Most trout spend the bulk of their time just off the bottom, so a split shot rig or Carolina rig causes the bait to suspend in the strike zone, and the current carries the scent of the LPT and the Krill downstream.
Although scent is the primary attractant, color commonly makes a significant difference, O’Neil has found. When the fish have been hitting Orange Glitter TroutKrilla Pellets and the bite slows, he’ll commonly switch to Natural Glitter or Green Glitter and the fast action will resume as if he just moved to a new trout-filled spot.
Want to Go?
To learn the appeal of TroutKrilla first-hand on the White River, visit Cranor’s Guide Service or give them a call at (866) 789-6271.