Couldn't Figure It Out

[jifigz]

I went to Kish yesterday evening in the pouring rain. I immediately picked up a few fish on a sulphur soft hackle and a pheasant tail. The fishing was hot, and then it wasn't. I looked up stream at a pool and saw rising trout. Lots of them. I made my way up to the pool. Trout rose consistently. Two trout rose right in front of me within 5 feet. I could see the wild browns make there way up and deliberately do a "classic take" from the water surface, indicating they were taking adult bugs floating down..sulphurs were everywhere. I tried every imaginable imitation of a sulphur I had. All my styles of dries, the emergers, then swinging soft hackle. NOTHING. Then, as I watch the water beneath me, puzzled, I see some very small baeitis going by. I say, " AHA! The trout are eating the olives, not the sulphurs!" Same result. Every form of a BWO I had, I tried, nothing. At this point I was soaked, cold, and went back to my car.

I moved downstream a few miles, warming myself in my car for a few minutes. I head to a riffle that generally produces. Nothing. Then, a crippled mayfly struggles through the rain and lands on me. Looks like a march brown, at least to my not so great of entomology eyes. This further complicates what all of those trout may have been rising to..UGH. I proceed to do the traditional downstream, quartering swing of two wet flies and pick up a wild brown about 6". Then I call it. Fish were clearly feeding, and feeding heavily, but I sure couldn't figure em out.

Times like this are what keep me motivated at my vise and wanting back on the water. Actually, everything makes me want to get back on the water. Good days, bad days, sunny weather, cloudy weather, hot, cold, I just can never get enough.

 

[Swattie87]

I’ve had the same thing happen to me on Kish before. I mean, it happens to me a lot of places, but I always get extra puzzled on a stream like Kish which doesn’t have the bug diversity of say Penns.

Had plenty of nights when they’d take a super sloppy sulphur with no reservations though too. Water is a little low for this time of year. Wonder if that exacerbated any micro drag and their ability to pick it up?

 

[Dave_W]

Yep - back to the vise. . . and a bit more humble. 🙂

 

[troutbert]

jifigz wrote:

The fishing was hot, and then it wasn't.

I've seen that pattern many times. At first the trout are hitting well, then they keep hitting the naturals, but not my fly.

After decades of this, I've finally arrived at the explanation. The trout are communicating under the water. The trout that get caught and released are telling the other trout, "Be careful, watch out for the fake flies."

That's my theory and I'm sticking to it.

 

[just_jon]

I discovered by accident that pulling the dry under the surface a foot or so in front of the fish can trigger a take.

 

[afishinado]

Moving your fly may be the key.

I fished a stretch with trout rising everywhere with March Browns hatching. I dead drifted my MB fly up through the 100 yard long pool with nary a take. After defeat at the head of the pool, I accidently allowed my fly to swing in the current and had a take. I worked my way downstream with the same fly giving it some action by skittering it and ended up landing a dozen trout fishing the same pool. I learned it's not always the fly pattern that makes a difference.

 

[TYoung]

You need to make sure that the fish are actually eating duns. Just because you see rising trout and duns on the surface at the same time, doesn't mean that they are eating the duns. I always try to see if the duns floating on the surface are getting eaten. If many duns are floating on the surface for long distances with out getting eaten, it could mean that the fish aren't eating duns. They could be taking insects just under the surface. Or, they could be eating smaller mayflies that are harder to see. My experience is that trout aren't as picky as what people might think. If the fly that you are using is a reasonable representation of the insects that the fish are eating, you should be able to at a minimum catch a few of the dumber fish in the stream.

 

[jifigz]

I'm going to go with the fish were eating duns. The rising behavior of the fish tell me that, or at least that's what I interpreted.

If the fish were taking subsurface insects then my soft hackles should have been getting eaten right at the end of the drift as they were rising to just under the surface.

Or, as Afishinado suggests, I should have skittered. The mayflies were pinned the the surface and struggling for a long time due to the heavy rain.

I usually do not have a problem catching rising fish. The only thing I can think of is that there were also a bunch of midges in the mix and the fish might have been eating those..

 

[redietz]

afishinado wrote:
Moving your fly may be the key.

... I learned it's not always the fly pattern that makes a difference.

I agree with that 100%. Too often, we're led to believe that "good presentation" means a drag free drift. That's often not the case.

You can try skittering the fly. Or use Leonard Wright's "sudden inch" technique.

There's something else you can try that I have to resort to about once a year: set up dry/dropper rig with the second fly at least two feet below the dry. (I actually use two wets for this most of the time, but a dry on top works just as well.) Make short, downstream casts and lift the top fly off the water. The bottom fly just acts as an anchor allowing you to do this. Then let the top fly settle back on the water. Repeat as necessary. The fish will often take the fly when it's completely out of the water, so it can be hard to set the hook.

I usually end up having to do this during a sulfur hatch when the fish have seen so many artificials that they won't touch anything that isn't moving. It also worked well for me one day during a caddis hatch on Big Spring -- the only time I ever took more than 20 fish in an afternoon on that stream.

 

[Tigereye]

Only thing worse than not figuring it out, is when the guy across the river did! ;>)