Catching truck trout isn't like wild trout fishing at all. In fact, the most successful method replicates the "Oregon Wet" chow "hatch" truck trout get at the hatchery. At feeding time someone in coveralls comes out and tosses dippers full of trout food onto the water as the incarcerated fish boil up.
In the wild you can do this too. Start with the right bait - I like Moist N' Dry cat food stolen from Buttons our lazy cat. I take a creek part full of gravel along too. Then it's walk down to the water, chuck in a cup of gravel and sail the bait over to the action. This is a wildly successful method for the kids of incarcerated trout you find at outdoor shows too.
Wild trout deserve rather more attention to details. Reasonably light leaders and line in the four-pound test and hook sizes for lures, baits or flies between #8 and #14 do the job.
Given the choice for lures I'll use a 1/6th to 1/8th ounce Kastmaster, Hopkins or other spoon that does not twist line, and offers a bit more casting range than spinners.
Baits can be stump grubs, redworms, Powerbait, salmon eggs and even mini marshmallows on appropriate-sized hooks.
Light spinning gear or fly outfits in the #4 to #5 weight range do the job. Think affordable and basic.
Most important may be the time of day. Fish are cold blooded and their metabolic rate depends on water temperature. If the water's colder than the 50 to 60 F rainbows prefer they are sluggish so you want to think bait and fish in the late afternoon and early evening when solar heat as warmed the water.
Later in the year when the water is above the preferred range the best action is from legal starting time until about eight o'clock in the morning.
As an alternative you can either go deep to the colder water fish prefer or look for cool springs or feeder creeks easily spotted by the change in shore vegetation along their course.
Two basic venues for trout. In stillwater lakes and ponds trout either cruise the edges of weedbeds or the shore, or deeper water, in search of dinner, or hold facing the current of inlet streams or rivers. In the first case, fishing off points works. In the second, live inlets are worth the search even if you have to survive crowds.
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