The best trout lures for spring are the ones that stand out in cold, high, often stained water and still trigger bites from hungry trout.
Spring is prime time for throwing hardware on the trout stream, especially as fish begin feeding more aggressively after winter and settle into dependable feeding lanes.
For anglers using spinning tackle, these three lures need to be in the box.
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Best Trout Lures for Spring: Spoons
If I could carry only one lure this time of year, it would be a spoon. The flash and action they create are just too intoxicating for spring trout to resist.
I think trout sometimes hit them simply as a predatory reaction, rather than in the interest of scoring dinner.
The size and color of the spoon you use will depend on the water and the trout you’re fishing. The faster the water, the bigger the spoon needs to be.
A 1/8-ounce spoon is my favorite size. For native trout in mostly clear water, I like realistic colors, silver and gold.
For stocked trout or native trout in stained water, I’ll opt for something more colorful like chartreuse, red or orange.
The key to fishing a spoon is figuring out where the fish are in the water column, then adjusting the pace of your lure to keep it there.
The lower they are, the slower your retrieve. The higher they are, the faster you’ll have to crank.
I like to work spoons by casting them across and slightly upstream from my position. As the lure drifts downstream in the current, I wind the reel handle enough to keep it in the strike zone.
When it starts swinging back to my side of the flow, I’ll slow down to keep it from simply popping to the surface.
Then, once it ends up directly downstream, I’ll retrieve it in a jerking fashion to work through any trouty holes that might exist between me and the lure.
Usually, trout will hit a spoon as it’s being carried downstream, or once it starts swinging back to my side of the current. And spoon takes typically aren’t soft. When a trout hits, you’ll feel it.
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Spinners Are Great for Small Streams
You can use spinners anywhere, but my favorite places to use them are on small creeks. By that, I mean any stream that’s less than 10 yards from bank to bank.
Tight quarters with short runs are perfect conditions for a spinner. Basically, I want to pitch it to an area and let it flutter. Logjams, undercut banks and boulder piles are perfect trout hiding places, and perfect places to let a spinner work its magic.
Depending on the size of the spinner, it doesn’t take much current to hold one up and make the blade spin. Most of my spinners are under 1/4 ounce, with 1/8 and 1/6 being my favorites. I can control these in basically any flow.
A key trick with spinners is to get the lure spinning right in front of your target area, then ease your rod tip forward to let it drift back into the troutiest-looking spot while that blade is spinning the whole time. A hiding trout can’t resist it.
Because these lures are so light, I’ve usually got them rigged on ultralight tackle, a 4- or 5-foot rod and a reel spooled with no more than 4-pound line.
When your rod, reel and line are bigger, it’s harder to control these lures and get the action you need.
Never Underestimate the Power of Plugs
Plugs just might be the most underutilized spring trout lures. Everyone is so eager to throw spinners or spoons that they leave the plugs in the box.
A plug is a small minnow imitation. Usually, it has a bill on the front end to help the lure dive. They’re basically tiny crankbaits for trout, except they aren’t meant to bounce along the bottom like a crankbait.
Plugs are lures I’m throwing in very specific situations. First, I like using plugs in high, muddy water to work stream banks.
I’m going to toss a plug downstream and use my rod tip to keep it as tight to the bank as I can while slowly retrieving it. Trout love holding tight to the bank when the water is muddy and ripping, as it often is in springtime.
The other situation when I’ll pull out a plug is if I suspect there are big native brown trout in a stream.
Where I fish, these trout don’t see many plugs, and a plug is big enough to make a big trout think, “Well that sure looks like a meal worth spending the energy to attack!”
Even when such trout are around, I still like the water to be a bit high and have a little color. In other words, if the water is low and clear, I’m not throwing a plug.
There are trout plugs that run from 1.5 inches to 3 inches long. I like 2.5-inch plugs that are either very natural colors or very bright. The more the water looks like chocolate milk, the brighter the colors I want.
Cold water and hungry trout make for a great combo in the spring. Try these three proven trout lures this year and see if you don’t find yourself reaching for the net more often.