>>588279If it's anything like the stocked lakes/ponds around here people will fish the trout out pretty quickly. In the shallower stocked ponds I don't think they make it through the summer and in the deeper lakes only the smartest/luckiest trout don't get caught right away and survive on. Off-the-bottom rigs with bait seem to be the most popular way to catch trout around here. Sort of like a carolina rig but you can just put a bit of split-shot a short ways up the line above the hook and put some trout bait on the hook. Let it set 'til something takes it. If you can obtain a syringe like those diabetics use for insulin an old trick is to inject a bit of air into an earthworm/nightcrawler to add buoyancy. That'll keep the weight of the hook from making the worm sink to the bottom. Using multiple rods with the weights at different positions would be wise too. Whichever rod ends up getting the most hits will give you an indication of the depth at which the trout are staying. Once you figure that out you can set the weights to the same position on the other rods. The same concept applies to using slip-floats and adjusting the bobber-stop position when fishing for crappie.
All that aside if he wants to keep casting versus the sit-and-wait approach of bait fishing it sounds like he'd have more fun fishing for smallmouth bass or freshwater sunfish (largemouth bass, bluegill, pumpkinseed, etc). Cast-and-retrieve fishing is a lot more active and usually more entertaining to children. Even if they're not catching it isn't a lot of sitting still which tends to be boring to kids. You can catch almost everything predatory on little jig spinners. Johnson Beetle Spin brand lures are quite popular and even trout will hit them. Every now and then kits go on sale at Wal-Mart for dirt cheap which is good if you're expecting a lot of snags and lost lures. Top-Water would be a good bet too. Nothing quite like catching fish on surface baits.