Homemade Trout Fishing Bait

To catch a trout, the most important aspect is to have bait that attracts the fish to your line. Most people do not know this, but trout are particularly fond of cheese, garlic and anise oil (licorice). To make your own bait that will have the trout snapping on your line, you will need these ingredients.

The Ingredients

Begin the base of your trout bait with 1 lb. generic American cheese. Most commonly, people use Kraft Velveeta cheese blocks. This type of cheese is pliable and will stay on the hook even if the trout nibble it at first. You will also want to obtain 1 1/2 cups water, about 1 cup flour, 3/4 cup corn meal, 1 tbsp. garlic salt and 1 tbsp. anise oil, which can be obtained at your local grocery store.

Putting it All Together

Melt the cheese in a microwave safe bowl for about 1 minute. Cooking times vary for each microwave, so you may want to check the mixture to ensure that the cheese has fully melted. Combine the water, flour and cornmeal together, stirring until there are no longer clumps in the batter. Add the garlic salt (make sure to use garlic salt because powder will alter the consistency) and anise oil to the mixture. Once combined, add the melted cheese into the mixture until the liquid does not have any clumps. At this point, some people like to add food coloring to the mixture to make it more attractive to the trout. The most common colors are pinks and light reds, making the bait look more like a wayward fish egg.

Cooking and Assembling

Fill a medium-sized pot with water and bring to a rolling boil. Scoop the bait mixture out with a spoon and roll it into a ball in your fingers. The ideal size for trout bait is about the size of a salmon egg or the size of a green pea. The cooking time for an individual piece of bait is about 2 minutes, but this will increase as you add more bait pieces to the boiling water. Once completed, drain the bait fully and let it dry before using. It should be dry in about 30 minutes. Store your bait in a Mason jar in the refrigerator and use it whenever you get the itch to go fishing.

References

• Trout Bait Recipes

Resources

• How to Make Trout Bait
• Trout Unlimited