Hopefully some of these ideas will help you to land the Trout of a lifetime.
Trout have very good eyesight. Clothing that blends in with the surroundings is the best choose. Don't forget about your shadow. This also means that your presentation will have to be as natural looking as possible.
If they're biting everything around but not yours, try downsizing the fly.
Their sense of smell is also good. Always wash off your hands before you handle any bait.
If you're trolling, use an "S" turn pattern. When the lure it on the inside of the turn, the lure will slow-down and fall, when it's on the outside, it will speed-up and rise.
When you're worm fishing in a trout stream, use a panfish ice-fishing jig to hook the worm. This allows for a more attractive presentation and eliminates the need for small shots the get the bait down to the fish.
Try lighter line and/or smaller hooks if they're really finicky.
When trolling, try making sharp turns to the right or left to trigger a strike or speeding up or stopping for a minute or so.
With big nightcrawlers, try using a worm-harness and hook both ends. This lets the worm stretchout naturally.
Fly-fishermen should try a strip-set method to hook the fish instead of a jerk set. With a jerk set, the pole has to load-up enough to overcome water-resistance and any slack before the fly is moved. That allows precious moments for the fish to reject and spit out the hook. With the rod tip pointed at the bait, use your stripping hand to set the hook. This method immediately moves the lure towards you without loading the pole and taking up minimal slack, setting the hook.
If you're using dead smelt or ciscoes for bait, try using Styrofoam packing peanuts to float the bait 1 or 2 feet above the bottom instead of a slip-sinker rig. Put 1 in the mouth and hook it there to keep it shut. If necessary, make a small belly slit and push in another one. Tie it shut with a small piece of mono. Fish it 2 feet or so behind a sinker. Who knows, you might even catch a nice northern down there.
When some trout are hooked, they can strip off hundreds of feet of line very quickly. To try and stop this, release the line so the fish feels no resistance, which is why they run. 90% of the time they will stop and turn towards you allowing you to recover line.
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