Best lures for rainbow trout

You do not need a stuffed lure box to take rainbow trout. A couple of searching baits that cover water quickly, plus something slow for the sluggish days, go a long way. It is the switch between bait and pace that decides, not how many lures you carry, and the same set works in more or less every put-and-take water.

A small box that covers everything

Bait	Size / weight	When it comes out
Spinner	size 1–3 (3–10 g)	Searching bait on hunting fish
Spoon (Toby)	7–10 g	Long casts, different depths
Small jig / softbait	small	Slow, passive fish
Tasmanian Devil / through-runner	–	Fish a set depth

Read the fish

Start with a searching bait, a spinner or spoon fished with pace changes. It shows where the fish stand. From there you adapt:

• Is the fish passive? Drop the pace with a small jig fished slowly.
• Standing at a certain depth? Count the bait down or use a through-runner to hold the depth.
• Freshly stocked and willing? Switch to a signal colour and pick up the pace.

Colour and pace

Silver and copper are first choice in clear water, while coloured water and freshly stocked fish often want red, chartreuse or pink. On pace it is the variation itself that does the work: reel unevenly, put in stops and let the bait sink, because the take often comes in that second. Rainbow likes to follow a bait a good way, and a sudden stop or speed-up just before it loses interest often triggers the grab.

Jig for sluggish fish

When the searching baits give no bites, it is often because the fish is passive and will not hunt. Then a small jig or softbait is the rescue. Fish it slowly, with small twitches and long pauses where it gets to sink, preferably near the bottom. The calm, sinking movement tempts fish that refuse everything fast. Count it down to the right depth the same way as a spoon.

If you want to start with a single bait, take a small spinner in size 2. The whole method with casting and playing the fish is under spin fishing, and more bait types in the bait overview.