Fishing for Stocked Rainbows

Some folks don't get too wound up about fishing for trout that get stocked into lakes in the winter.  I get that.  The weather can be lousy, most of the fish are just stocker rainbows, and they can be hard to find on big bodies of water.  I get it, I really do.  However, I would retort with the fact that when you live where I live (over 100 miles from a trout stream), you gotta take what you can get.

Over the weekend, I was able to hit one of these lakes that was recently stocked with rainbows by the Missouri Department of Conservation.  This particular lake fishes a little different than most because it is catch and release only until Feb. 1.  This means that all the fish stocked there a few weeks ago are, in theory, still in there.  Now at this point, I would love to tell you the name of the lake but I'm pretty sure that a good buddy of mine would arrange for me to have an untimely accident if I were to put its name on the internet.  He's the one that introduced it to me and I feel obliged to not ruin his spot.  I'm sorry, but to keep this place still someone of a hidden treasure means I can't reveal its name.  However, if you really want to figure out where it is, I've given you enough info that you could probably figure it out.

Anyway, I was able to fish "Pond X" on Saturday and had a pretty nice day.  I caught 15-16 rainbows and had great weather all day long.  I caught a couple of fish that went 15-16 inches and fought like champions.  One of them even tested out the drag system on my reel.  They were pretty, they were feisty, and they were just plain fun to catch.  So if you're looking to get on the water and catch some fish, I highly suggest you give a rainbow-stocked lake/pond a try.  It's a little challenging, and most of the fish look the same, but hey, beggars can't be choosers.