Stick With It

Here’s the one lure you need to catch big, bad autumn trout.

- Joe Cermele

THE WHITE RIVER in Arkansas is big water, and as far as I’m concerned, there are only two ways to fish it. Either you go for numbers, or you swing big in hopes of pulling out one of the massive browns that make the White famous. Veteran guide Pete Cobb agrees, and the last time we fished the White together, he couldn’t have been happier to have an angler willing to rip 4 1 ⁄2-inch Rattlin’ Rogue stick-baits all day. The other boats in our group bounced small jigs and little hard baits just like Cobb’s usual clients. We got outfished by a long shot, no doubt, but of the eight browns we hooked, the smallest measured 18 inches and the biggest, 23. Still peanuts by White standards, but only one other boat broke the 20-inch mark that day.

When it comes to brown trout, I always want the biggest and baddest in the river, and I’ve carried the same 4- to 6-inch stick-baits that are practically standard issue on the White everywhere since my first visit years ago. What I’ve learned is that you don’t need big water to throw big baits successfully. If you can condition yourself to forgo small fish and rethink your strategy, beefy stick-baits can produce fat browns on streams and rivers of any size, especially in fall, when these fish go on a feeding binge.

OVERGUNNED