Obvious Rejections

[hooker-of-men]

No, I'm not talking about how your immediate family won't talk to you anymore because you're a self-trained economist with an expertise in oil prices. I'm talking about fish that clearly say "hell no" to what you're offering.

In the past two years, I've been noting rejections prominently on big foam bugs. A fish will fly out of its lie enthusiastic as hell but come to a dead stop and double back with its mouth having been just millimeters from the hopper/ant/etc. I lay awake at night replaying the scene.

Anyone else experience a pattern like this?? Or maybe I just notice it more for some reason when I'm watching a large fly? I imagine my drifts are just as bad as with any other dry, so my instinct is that's not it.

 

[troutbert]

Try a smaller terrestrial pattern.

 

[troutbert]

I use a no name deer hair bug pattern some guy showed me for native brook trout. The originator ties them in size 12 and 14, and they are highly effective.

I decided to try tying big fat ones on a size 10 hook. I was surprised that the strikes and catches went way down. I don't really know why. But size 12 and 14 seems to be optimal for that fly. Size 16 might be good too, but spinning deer hair on a size 16 hook is challenging.

Another example is hoppers and crickets. The real big ones haven't produced as well for me as the modest sized ones.

I think I've seen a similar thing when fishing poppers for smallmouth. There is a medium size range that seems optimal. I tried bigger ones, but they didn't produce as well.

 

[redietz]

Fish a smaller fly below the big foam one. The big one will get the fish's interest enough to move it, and when he rejects the obvious fake, he may just take the smaller fly rather than waste a trip to the top. A size 18 or 20 ant is a good choice for the 2nd fly.

 

[hooker-of-men]

Fish a smaller fly below the big foam one. The big one will get the fish's interest enough to move it, and when he rejects the obvious fake, he may just take the smaller fly rather than waste a trip to the top. A size 18 or 20 ant is a good choice for the 2nd fly.

Ah, interesting. This is often my logic when nymphing, but I never do it with dries. Thanks!

 

[Prospector]

The fish on Kettle 12 days ago were really checking out caterpillar patterns the same way as your beetle and eventually sinking back down 95% of the time. The caterpillars are very lively while beetles don’t seem to fuss much.

I think the trout are looking for a secondary movement that the pattern can’t duplicate.

 

[Dave_W]

Fish a smaller fly below the big foam one. The big one will get the fish's interest enough to move it, and when he rejects the obvious fake, he may just take the smaller fly rather than waste a trip to the top. A size 18 or 20 ant is a good choice for the 2nd fly.

^ Good advice from redietz (as usual).

 

[jifigz]

I think I've seen a similar thing when fishing poppers for smallmouth. There is a medium size range that seems optimal. I tried bigger ones, but they didn't produce as well.

Bingo. And less movement is far better than aggressive pops and whatnot. Just slight twitches will coax smallies BIG TIME.

 

[jifigz]

And I definitely witness some refusals here and there. I had a good one on Kettle Creek in June to a rusty spinner. I watched that fish swim up, take a peek, and say "nope."

 

[dryflyguy]

The lower and clearer the water is, smaller patterns seem to work better.
Pretty much with whatever you're using IMO

I tie terrestrials from size #12 put to #20
Usually a #14 works well.
But I'll go with a #12 when the water is higher
And a #16 in low clear water.
And occasionally, an #18 or #20 is required to do the trick

 

[Swattie87]

I had two Brookies come up and reject my smallish hopper pattern a couple weekends ago.

I felt like the guys hanging out along the “nerd wall” in the high school dance scene in pretty much every 80’s movie. The cool guys are driving up in IROC’s and I’m getting dropped off by my parents in a Caprice Brougham.

To get rejected by Browns is one thing, but Brookies…I’m not very good at this whole FFing thing.

 

[pcray1231]

Haha. Sorry that was funny. My first thought was being rejected by a brookie is kinda like being in the bar at 2 a.m. and having the big ugly girl say, "nahhh, I'm good". But nerd wall fits too. Hey, it's happened to all of us.

Rejections happen for any number of reasons. Wrong size, movement, pattern. I've seen fish refuse naturals so don't feel bad. A few rules of thumb that totally DON'T fit the dating analogies.

1. Smaller is better. If they reject something big, go smaller.

2. Don't hold out for the hard fish, lower your standards and go after the easy ones. You know, these fish in this slow water, everyone sees them from a mile away, everyone wants them, they've seen every pick up line there is, they can eat any fly they choose, they look it up and down for a while before deciding. Stuck up fish. Those fish up in that faster water are less picky. Don't give em time to think about it, find faster water, put it right on their face, make em react out of instinct, and seal the deal before they know what hit em.

3. Make your fly dance a bit. So often, they like it to be flopping around some and really key on that movement. They're less likely to worry about it being the perfect size and form too if it's skittering about above them.

4. Watch em take others first. What is this fish going for?

My apologies if this post was offensive. I was talking about fishing, I swear.