I have the gift of cooking and my buddies are clamoring for my smoked trout dip. Typically I catch and release but I always harvest a couple fatties for Thanksgiving appetizer.
My go-to rig in the fall is the bubble-fly set up with 6# fluorocarbon. I just use the 6# flouro from the reel as a 7-8 ft leader behind a swivel jammed into the large end of the bubble. It casts a country mile when half full of water but instead of my usual bugger or leech pattern I dangle a large snell hook with live grasshopper. I put the hook through the head and run it all the way through the tail--carefully pulling the head about a tenth of an inch beyond the eye of the hook. It keeps the hopper stretched out and natural looking for many casts. Works better when you submerge the hopper and squeeze the air out of the body. It just hangs down in the depths. Go where you know monsters live and be ready with a lightly set drag.
