Selective feeding?

[afishinado]

Interesting info I recently read on Troutnut. Below is a pic of the stomach contents of a trout. It looked as if it was gorging at a buffet. Many types of insects found in the stomach contents, including a hook!

The lesson is...the vast majority of the time, trout feed on whatever is available (swims or drifts by naturally).

When a heavy hatch occurs, trout may turn selective and just feed on the insect that is most available and is recognized as food, but most times a good presentation with a fly that looks like something good to eat will bring home the bacon.

Here is a link to the thread: http://www.troutnut.com/topic/6630/Stomach-Contents-Eclectic-Feeding-and-Selectivity

with a pic below:

 

[gulfgreyhound]

Trout are opportunistic feeders. Like deer they will eat what's available even though they have preferred food and when that's gone they take their next best option. I believe that that's true for most species. Dry and dropper where the dry imitates the hatch,but the dropper gets the strikes.GG

 

[Dave_W]

Interesting.

Anyone who keeps a few stocked trout to eat in the springtime knows it's pretty common to find hooks in their stomachs. Oftentimes, the hooks have lengths of "snelled" mono attached.

Also of note: in this particular photo the prey species are definitely in the lighter color tones. This may be related to digestion, however, I think it may speak to the color tones of aquatic insects and something to consider when tying impressionistic nymphs. Note also the dark heads on the heptagenids and midge nymphs.
The stoneflies also appear to be of the "little brown" or "little black" versions. It's useful to remember that the nymphs of these bugs are not dark colored.

Good stuff.

 

[McSneek]

I always harken back to one of Ozzie Ozefovich's (sp) videos that showed trout "eating" all sorts of things that drifted by. Stones, twigs and all sorts of debris in addition to nymphs. They would quickly spit out a lot of the non-food items. Remember that what may look like gin clear water to us still has an amount of murkiness to it below the surface. I agree, at least when it comes to sub-surface feeding that's it's more about opportunity and presentation, than anything.

 

[MKern]

Dave Rothrock once said to me, "When you go to the grocery store, do you buy everything you pick up off the shelves? Well, trout don't have hands and have to use their mouths to test things out."

However, about once a year, I find that the trout are being extremely picky. Usually, there are a few fish that can be fooled by a good presentation.

More often than not, I think weather conditions and water conditions lead to harder fishing then available forage.

 

[JeffK]

I think trout only selectively feed on a few "super hatches" like sulphurs, BWO's, and tricos that they see in numbers over a long time period, particularly in a fertile stream where there numbers are significant.

One of the things I like to do in angler interviews is to ask what flies they were taking. Most often I find the fish turn on and everyone catches fish, regardless of the fly. However, every angler feels they finally hit on the "secret fly". For example, the first angler will say I threw everything but the kitchen sink, but at 11AM I switched to a green caddis and murdered them. The next guy will say the same, but with the caveat that a large parachute Cahill was the ticket to success. I rarely find the hot flies to be remotely similar, but the anglers always feel they have dialed into the one and only fly they are hitting.

 

[jifigz]

JeffK wrote:
I think trout only selectively feed on a few "super hatches" like sulphurs, BWO's, and tricos that they see in numbers over a long time period, particularly in a fertile stream where there numbers are significant.

One of the things I like to do in angler interviews is to ask what flies they were taking. Most often I find the fish turn on and everyone catches fish, regardless of the fly. However, every angler feels they finally hit on the "secret fly". For example, the first angler will say I threw everything but the kitchen sink, but at 11AM I switched to a green caddis and murdered them. The next guy will say the same, but with the caveat that a large parachute Cahill was the ticket to success. I rarely find the hot flies to be remotely similar, but the anglers always feel they have dialed into the one and only fly they are hitting.

I couldn't agree more. Trout, and all fish for that matter, just have periods of extreme feeding activity. When you're lucky enough to be on the water during those times I don't think the fly matters much. Of course it still matters, but not nearly as much. Often times when those times strike I feel that many nymphs will produce just about the same rate of success. Notice I said many, not all, but still they aren't that selective.

 

[pcray1231]

I've always thought that a major hatch, for instance, will turn the fish into super feeding mode. But during it, they'll only be semi selective. Meaning presentation factors like where in the water column, on the surface or in the film, drag free or impart movement, etc. These seem to matter. But things like color and shape don't mean much and size only has to be broadly approximate. Fly selection has more to do with presentation. Like a high floatin dry makes imparting movement easier. Or a parachute or comparadun gets that body in the surface film. Or bead vs. no bead for proper depth and drift characteristics.

In non hatch situations they may not feed at all, or they may be in opportunistic mode, and sort of lazily eat if something drifts by but they're not gonna go out and vie for prime feeding lies or even give up the safety of cover. In those opportunistic situations they aren't selective at all. Just gotta put it in front of their face.

 

[evw659]

In my experience, specific patterns don't matter as much most of the time unless your confronted with a hatch that occurs over an extended period (there are exceptions though). I can't speak for all streams in pa, but during the 2nd to 3rd week of the sulphur hatch on the little j, the fish can get extremely picky, it's actually a pretty interesting experience.

 

[GenCon]

I think they can sometimes be selective. But certainly not always. Even during a hatch. I once fished a heavy trico hatch and caught about 25 wild browns on a size 12 bead head green weenie. Swung like a wet fly to risers.

GenCon

 

[foxtrapper1972]

Opportunistic? Yes. But they can be selective especially during hatch. When they are feeding on tricos you probably won't get a response with a big hopper. An Adams of the right size to match naturals will take fish regardless of color of naturals. I think size might matter more than everything else during a hatch. Size and presentation.

 

[RLeep2]

I think the OP summed it up about as well as could be done:

"When a heavy hatch occurs, trout may turn selective and just feed on the insect that is most available and is recognized as food, but most times a good presentation with a fly that looks like something good to eat will bring home the bacon."

I tend to separate selectivity into two categories. There is selectivity that is the result of a flush or extended emergence of insects that dials the fish in on the specific behavior or appearance of the bug at hand. Then there is selectivity that is more about being pressured than the actual number of insects present. I think the former is more difficult to overcome and the latter is usually pretty simple to beat.

Either type of selectivity can be overcome through the introduction of novelty into your presentation or choice of fly, so long as the novelty you are introducing is within the range of things that appear to the trout to be food. This latter is important in the sense that while you probably cannot use a #8 Montreal wet to fool fish rising to a flush sulfur hatch, you can usually do it with a #12 beetle, so long as you concentrate on the risers in those parts of the stream where a beetle might be found like along the bank or under a hanging limb, etc.

The way I tend to see it, if the fish are going to be that much of a PITA, I would much rather just switch to a beetle or ant than to go sit on the bank and remove 2 hairs from either side of my Comparadun wing and then bend the entire wing back so that it rides at a 7.5 degree angle of deviation from dead upright just to match what the bugs are doing.

Time is limited. I want to catch fish, not re-engineer flies when I could be fishing...

 

[JeffK]

GenCon,

Funny thing about the green weenie. Years ago I was stumped on the trico hatch at the Bushkill and tied on a green inchworm and murdered them. At the LL there was a size 14 spinner that fell at night and some would be around in the AM. If the tricos got tough I would do well with a 14 rusty spinner.

One of the most frustrating hatches I fished was the emerging tricos at sunrise on the Saucon. Should have been easy, but I always had trouble.

I have also found the trout to be selective for sulphurs on the Delaware system

 

[Hook_Jaw]

I caught trout on streamers and giant stone fly nymphs in the middle of full blown green drake just to see what happend they will eat anything pretty much anytime. That being said can go 2 days same conditions one day hammer them next day catch none just the way it goes.

 

[tomitrout]

And then there is the next level of selectivity where you see 'em tip up, inspect and then refuse even the naturals that are floating overhead....

 

[krayfish2]

Someone mentioned fish becoming very selective during the trico hatch. The best fish catching exhibition I've ever seen was a guy taking fish on every other cast. Was he using #28 on 8x tippet? Nope, a #14 snowshoe Hendrickson emerger on 5x !! I'll also add that the stream fished doesn't even have a Hendrickson hatch. LMAO

I think fish CAN be selective but it's almost an fish by fish determination. I do believe that they may be keyed in on a specific size....a general shape and most importantly.....location in the water column. If you can get the right drift when the fish is looking, you could use just about anything. With that said, I've seen fish that were very particular. I watched a fish with binos on the Delaware for about an hour. The fish passed on every sulphur with upright wings. From what we could see, the fish was only eating the cripples that had fallen over. We tried normal patterns without any success. Took a sulphur spinner, cut one wing off and the fish took it on the first cast. Selective? Maybe. It could have also been the angle of the sun or an eye injury that made the cripples easier to see. I will not agree that a fish is "that" particular.

 

[foxtrapper1972]

Yeah.It can get weird. And in desperation I've tried everything in certain situations but MOSTLY if I see they are eating sulfurs and I tie on a catskill style sulfur with a slender body in a 16 or 18 I do okay or if I see them eating caddis then the common deer hair caddis in 16 or 18 works. More about drift and presentation. I carry a lot of emerger styles and stuff but a well presented fly of same approx. size and color of real bug seems to generally work. The hardest hatch and most selective trout I have come across are the tiny pseudos in late summer fall.

 

[Chaz]

JeffK wrote:
I think trout only selectively feed on a few "super hatches" like sulphurs, BWO's, and tricos that they see in numbers over a long time period, particularly in a fertile stream where there numbers are significant.

One of the things I like to do in angler interviews is to ask what flies they were taking. Most often I find the fish turn on and everyone catches fish, regardless of the fly. However, every angler feels they finally hit on the "secret fly". For example, the first angler will say I threw everything but the kitchen sink, but at 11AM I switched to a green caddis and murdered them. The next guy will say the same, but with the caveat that a large parachute Cahill was the ticket to success. I rarely find the hot flies to be remotely similar, but the anglers always feel they have dialed into the one and only fly they are hitting.

Some flies are dimorphic, males and females are colored differently. Tricos are one of those flies, males (all dark) hatch during the evening, females (dark fore body and light abdomen) hatch in the early AM.
Sulphurs vary slightly from male to female and stream to stream so it's important to know what they look like when you are on a particular stream.
hendricksons have a dark male and a light female, they may also hatch at different hours of the day.
Spinnerfalls can be the most selective feeding times for trout, until the sun is down, then the frenzy truly begins.
Many of the stomach contents I've seen from trout have an assortment of food items not related to each other. However if a streams has an abundance of stoneflies they seem to chow down on that family in excess.

 

[pcray1231]

And then there is the next level of selectivity where you see 'em tip up, inspect and then refuse even the naturals that are floating overhead....

In almost all such situations, they are refusing it based on drag, not appearance.

Changing the tippet length, or slightly adjusting angle will take those fish. Just changing pattern or fly, not so much.

 

[Swattie87]

pcray1231 wrote:
Changing the tippet length, or slightly adjusting angle will take those fish. Just changing pattern or fly, not so much.

Or better yet in my case (and I suspect others), change the angler.