Stream Rig for Trout

When my parents bought a weekend cabin in Malone NY I was blessed with a wonderful place to fish with a 15 minute walk through the woods. This wonderful place was the Salmon River. The Salmon River was the best trout stream I have ever fished to this day. The section of river I mostly fished was about 30 feet wide and 75 feet or so of river bank. In the early days of fishing this section of stream we fished with mostly night crawlers and a lot of frustration. The river was Im guessing 5 feet deep in the center with a very swift current that was littered with boulders and rocks. This scenario created a challenge in getting the worm to the trout.

Fishing with no weight the worm would just stay at the surface for it’s 15 second trip through the fishing zone. Adding enough weight to get the worm to the depth of the fish resulted in constantly getting snagged and broken line. As I stated above frustrating.

As luck would have it my dad was talking to an old timer at work who happened to be a life long fisherman. This gentlemen explained the problem and described a great solution. That solution is often referred to as a STREAM RIG. This stream rig is simple and brilliant. You only need to add one or two items to your tackle box. These items are split shot sinkers and three way swivels.

The cause of the line getting caught was weights getting hung up in the rocks. The stream rig eliminates this by locating the split shot sinkers on a separate line called a dropper leader where the weights can become sacrificial. When done correctly the split shot will just pull off the dropper leader leaving everything else in tact. Worse case you will break the dropper leader with the snap shot but that rare. As added protection I use a line weight for the dropper leader that much less than that of the main line the hook is attached too. I typically use 6 pound test line with two to four pound test for the dropper leader.
There is an additional benefit to getting the split shot off of your primary line. By placing the split shot on your line you are slightly damaging the lines integrity.

Look at the image below for an example of the Stream Rig For Trout

Weight selection: You will need to let conditions and lure type and size dictate how much weight to use. Don’t be afraid to experiment.

Finally this rig is not just for trout fishing with worms. You can use it for any bait or lure that’s having difficulty reaching it’s desired depth. I will often use this stream rig with a floating Rapala. I prefer the action of the floating Rapala to that of a weighted or sinking Rapala.