When is the egg bite, and why does it work so well?

Twice a year, keyed to whoever is spawning upstream. Fall (roughly October–November at mid-latitudes): brook trout, lake trout, and — on Great Lakes tributaries — salmon spawn, and rainbows in particular stack behind them to intercept drifting eggs. Spring (April–May): rainbows spawn, and everything else returns the favor. It works because a salmonid egg is an outrageous food deal — a dense ball of fat and protein, 5–8 mm (about a quarter inch), requiring zero chase, and the fish see thousands of the real thing, so an egg pattern matches the most abundant food item in the river at that moment. Fish it dead-drifted near bottom, downstream of spawning gravel — and stay off the redds themselves while you do.

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