Every spring my brothers Jack and Ken head north to fish the trout streams that flow into Lake Superior near Duluth, Minnesota. On this trip they were fishing the Knife River. There were plenty of anglers, but nobody seemed to be catching anything.

They tried everything they could think of—salmon eggs, worms, different colored plastic eggs, and even a piece of lunch meat—but nothing worked.

Then Ken found a white plastic worm that looked a little like a wax worm. On his very first drift he hooked and landed a beautiful five-pound trout. Unfortunately, he lost the fake bait.

Jack remembered he had some real wax worms back in his winter coat at the truck. After making the walk back, they both began drifting the real wax worms through the current.

Sometimes the simplest bait makes all the difference.

The results were immediate. Within two hours Ken had landed five beautiful trout, including one that weighed an impressive thirteen pounds. The giant trout put up an unforgettable battle on a fly rod and earned a permanent place on his wall.

Jack caught four trout and lost nearly eight more. Other fishermen kept asking what bait they were using, but from that day on Jack and Ken never went trout fishing without bringing plenty of wax worms.