Match Insects for Trout – With Spinning Tackle

Trout eat bugs. Lots of bugs. Most anglers know this, and it is central to many fly-fishing trout strategies. Most spin-fishermen ignore the significance of aquatic insects, viewing insect matching as a fly fisherman’s game. To do so, however, forsakes a highly effective way to catch trout from creeks and rivers.

Several lures provide outstanding imitations of aquatic insects in their nymph stage, which is when insects provide the most important forage source for trout. Small soft plastic lures and micro jigs fill this role when presented near the bottom, often propelled by the current. As spring progresses, terrestrial insects that find themselves errantly afloat become significant forage for stream trout, and stream fishermen arguably have better means than fly angers to match these insects.

Recent years’ innovations have delivered various small soft-plastic lures that imitate aquatic insect nymphs very effectively. 

Two standouts are the Bobby Garland Mayfly and Itty Bit Mayfly, which are 2.25 and 1.25 inches long, respectively, and both suggest a Mayfly nymph or emerger. These were designed primarily for crappie fishing, but the trout don’t have to know that!

The Great Lakes Finesse Juicy Hellgrammite, as the name says, imitates a hellgrammite, which is a dobsonfly nymph. Again, creek trout were far from the primary target when this bait was designed, as GLF baits are primarily created for targeting big-water smallmouth bass. However, a 2.25-inch ultra-buggy bait in natural colors looks like candy to a trout.

The new Rebel LIVEflex bait series includes the Creek Creature, which comes in just shy of 2 inches and has a slender profile that is a hybrid shape of various common aquatic insect nymphs. Packages of Creek Creatures include two baits that are pre-rigged on KEG Jig Heads, which match perfectly with the bait and make it easy to work along the bottom.

Micro jigs, sometimes dubbed mini jigs, also suggest aquatic insects when dead drifted beneath a float or otherwise presented near the bottom with minimal added action. A Lindy B-Max Little Nipper, which has a slim profile and subtle feather movement, mimics a nymph very effectively. Black, Orange/Hot Yellow and Lime/Hot Yellow are well suited for this application.

The most common way to rig an insect-imitating soft plastic is on a small jighead with an open hook. For extra light jigheads, a split shot might need to be added to facilitate reasonable casting and to get the bait down in the current. A great alternative to a split shot for waters that aren’t too snaggy from wood cover or craggy rocks is to tandem rig two small jigs. An original Bobby Garland Mayfly on a 1/16- or 1/24-ounce jighead fished together with an Itty Bit Mayfly on a 1/48- or 1/64-ounce head provides enough weight for casting and good control.

For mimicking insects, jigs are best cast upstream or across the stream and allowed to sink to near the bottom and then kept just off the bottom by keeping the line semi-tight and controlling the bait with the rod tip. Lifts are sometime needed to keep a bait from dragging and snagging, but rod action should remain gentle to best imitate aquatic insect nymphs, which don’t dart and hop.

For shallower runs and slack areas, where it is harder to keep the bait off the bottom, adding a small float allows you to drift a bait just off the bottom at the speed of the current. This presentation is the same as fly fishermen use with a nymph pattern and a strike indicator.

Other rigs that can be effective for presenting baits near the bottom but not on it and for lessening snag risks are a split shot rig and a drop shot rig, usually with the bait nose-hooked. Split shotting allows you to drift a bait in the current or drag the rig along the bottom but with freer motion than jighead rigging. Drop shotting allows for even slower presentations that really keep the bait in the zone.

When aquatic insects of a certain variety become extra plentiful in a stream section, trout can become highly selective about size and profile. This is when fly fishermen talk about “matching the hatch,” which doesn’t only refer to matching freshly hatched insects that are drifting on top, but matching whatever insects are making the fish selective.

For matching specific insects, keeping a modest supply of flies on hand can be helpful, and while some limitations exist with depths that can be fished effectively and with mending line to prevent unnatural drag, the truth is that you often can drift a fly very effectively beneath a small float with spinning tackle. Small weighted pear-shaped Thill Fantastic Floats are very well suited for casting fly rigs and drifting.

Setting the right depth to keep the fly near the bottom but not quite dragging and managing your line so faster or slower currents don’t grab your line and unnaturally slow down or speed up your drift are the biggest challenges. Holding your rod tip high so most of your line stays out of the water and working directly upstream or downstream of your position can help you minimize line drag from current.

As days warm and creek banks get more active with grasshoppers, crickets and other terrestrial insects, the “hopper” bite heats up on many trout streams. This gets going in late spring on many streams, gets better through summer, and often extends well into autumn. Spin-fishermen have the tools to take advantage of this occurrence with Rebel Crickhoppers and Bighoppers, but many angers confine their Crickhopper fishing to ponds and let the fly-fishermen have the hopper trout to themselves.

A Crickhopper not only matches the profile and markings of a grasshopper or cricket but it can be made behave like a displaced hopper. Cast close to the stream bank, ideally into an eddy or to the upstream end of a current line. For eddy casts, let the bait rest initially and then work it with quick snaps of the rod tip so it dances on the surface, pausing occasionally. For casts into current, reel only enough to keep slack out of your line, letting the current carry the bait, but add little snaps to suggest an insect struggling on top.

Stay ready. Strikes will seem to come from nowhere and may be vicious. Make sure the bait disappears before setting the hook. Sometimes the fish miss, even with hard strikes, but when that happens, they’ll often come back with an efficient and targeted “sip” if you haven’t pulled the bait away.

If you see grasshopper activity but fish won’t quite commit to a Crickhopper on top, the new Rebel LIVEflex Hopper, fished on the KEG Jig Head, as pre-rigged, aptly imitates a grasshopper or cricket struggling beneath the surface.