super agressive trout feeding?

[DJBerg]

So yesterday I went out after work, finally got the pa liscence so I've been on a trout mission. Went to a trib of the conowango anf headed down stream toward the river. Didnt see anything in the trib at all but by the time I hit the river it was sunset. While standing in a huge caddis hatch I saw aa few fish jump across the water on the other side and figured it was bass or something hitting top water that hard.

Anyways I had my sz16 goose bot green body white wing (the only color I had for wing like material) and cast to anything and everything I could see that looked like a feeding lane with no luck. So my mission is now to get to the other side of the river and cast into that riffle I couldnt get to, though I think the switch rod will be in order via lots of trees and no idea how deep it gets how fast.

Though on the upside I did see a bald eagle, and a black bear, and also were I dropped in on the trib was a guys house that I did some side work for years back and he asked me if I wanted to do some more later this month, so thats a win at least.

But my question is, since my buddy whos a guide said it was probably trout coming out of the water, why would they waste so much energy when there were bugs everywhere? From what I have learned trout are super conservative about energy usage. So why in the middle of a bug cloud would the hit something that hard?

 

[mbaker]

My guess is that the fish were chasing emerging caddis. They follow them off the bottom and right out of the water. I always assume they see them rising off the river bedand focus in on one fly and just cant stop till they catch it.... boom right out of the water they go. Skate a dry on the top or try a lafontaine emerger pattern good fishing

 

[DGC]

People say trout are dumb and I guess they are, but they sure seem smart when you try to catch them on C & R stretches with good hatches.

I have observed any number of times fish that would not take an easy meal of a natural dun floating peacefully by in easy reach, but jump up for a dun that has just flapped it's wings a few times. Not a high jump but a few inches above the surface.

SOMETHING, call it pressure if you must I don't know, gets into their head that this is better than eating the easy low energy meal riding the surface that the energy saving model would suggest.

That does not negate the energy saving theory, which is not unique to trout or even fish. But for any animal you look at, it's an all other things being equal idea, and rarely are all other things equal when you fish.

 

[pcray1231]

Yeah, caddis move fast. Fish chase emergers right out out of the water. And the egg-laying adults skitter fast across the surface. If a fish doesn't get there quick, it misses. Caddis hatches are famous for splashy rises and occasional "jumps". It's also a heck of a time to "skitter" a high floatin imitation around, and some of the takes can be spectacular, water clearing and flipping over in mid-air type, leaps.

I think you're very much overplaying the energy efficiency thing. I mean, it's true, to a point. But trout can be VERY aggressive at times. It's only when the meal is large enough to be worth it, and when it's necessary to catch said prey.

 

[DJBerg]

Nice, well I know where im goin asap! Just hope I can wade close to that island, if so I can skitter them if not it will have to be dry drift.

 

[henrydavid]

You can try "lifting" an emerger pattern or swinging a fly in the wet fly style, they will hit a rising emerger pattern hard.

 

[Chaz]

The caddis rise on the wing and burst free of the water, so the trout chase them to the surface and sometimes out of the water.

 

[osprey]

I read somewhere that caddis do hatch very quickly , but that they take a second or less to cast off the shuck , and the trout know that for that milli-second they are vulnerable , so they take advantage , or try to take advantage of that. It was in the book "Fishing the Dry Fly as a Living Insect" by Frank Leonard Wright. This book is a great read and tries to explain allmost exactly the situation you were in.

 

[Paulson]

Last night I had a CDC get stuck under the film and it got nailed but I couldn't land it. Ran out of light to put on a soft hackle. Guess I learned my lesson on how to read the water column!

 

[osprey]

This is a GREAT subject and if you delve into this a little deeper , no pun intended , and learn to match your presentation to the riseform it will improve your success and open up a whole new can of worms , pun intended , a particular instance comes to mind every time this subject comes up. I was fishing on Clarks Creek in Dauphin county in the special regulations stretch and had pretty good luck all day on small Griffiths Gnat , 20's , 22's , the way i tie them is just peacock underbody with grizzley hackle and i think what the trout take them for is the black fly larvae that come off there in the spring , in clouds , andbody that fishes up there knows those little biters and if they don't eat you alive or drive you nuts the gnat seems to do the trick. Anyhow , i fished all day , parked at the rifle range lot and worked my way down and around , probably had caught a dozen by then and i was feeling pretty good about the way things had worked out and then it happened............i always walked aways down when i park in that lot and then fish my way back up to the car and the way it works out is that most of the day you are fishing the "usual" water on there which is not real deep , there are pools but most of it is not what i would call deep until right before the parking lot there is one of the few actual pools........probably 10 to 12 feet deep......as i work my way up i notice there are BIG trout and lots of em rising in the deep water........i float the gnat down through there an hour until it dawns on me , i'm gettin skunked here , so i sit , take a few deep breaths and watch , those big fish were holding almost completely on the bottom and they were most definately seeing something emerge off the bottom and they were following them up the whole way to the surface and then the rise would come , my gnat was gettin a little soggy in fact it was sinking and so was the leader and i was gonna use the break to "fix" everything up while watching what was going on. Well , instead of changin i cast the sinking gnat way up stream so it would be deep by the time it got close , it was the ticket , i would wait till it was almost in front of me maybe 8 feet down , stop following with the rod tip and just lift and pow!!!!!

 

[DJBerg]

i'm gonna go off topic here for a second but, i gotta do it.

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS FORUM! it's a non bias forum(pretty hard to find a forum with out a**holes) for the most part, the info is top notch, and the people are awesome! thanks to everyone again! pretty much any thread has some very useful aspect, to most everyone here. just super cool, that's all.

 

[JackM]

The best thing to do is find out who can be trusted to be sincere in their beliefs and recognize further, that they are all beliefs-- some very helpful and accurate; others not so much, but sincerely held.

The greatest asset to a fly angler is options: options on where to fish, options on how to fish.

Add a dose of experience and experimentation, and you will become a better fly angler for sure.

 

[Paulson]

osprey wrote:
This is a GREAT subject and if you delve into this a little deeper , no pun intended , and learn to match your presentation to the riseform it will improve your success and open up a whole new can of worms , pun intended , a particular instance comes to mind every time this subject comes up. I was fishing on Clarks Creek in Dauphin county in the special regulations stretch and had pretty good luck all day on small Griffiths Gnat , 20's , 22's , the way i tie them is just peacock underbody with grizzley hackle and i think what the trout take them for is the black fly larvae that come off there in the spring , in clouds , andbody that fishes up there knows those little biters and if they don't eat you alive or drive you nuts the gnat seems to do the trick. Anyhow , i fished all day , parked at the rifle range lot and worked my way down and around , probably had caught a dozen by then and i was feeling pretty good about the way things had worked out and then it happened............i always walked aways down when i park in that lot and then fish my way back up to the car and the way it works out is that most of the day you are fishing the "usual" water on there which is not real deep , there are pools but most of it is not what i would call deep until right before the parking lot there is one of the few actual pools........probably 10 to 12 feet deep......as i work my way up i notice there are BIG trout and lots of em rising in the deep water........i float the gnat down through there an hour until it dawns on me , i'm gettin skunked here , so i sit , take a few deep breaths and watch , those big fish were holding almost completely on the bottom and they were most definately seeing something emerge off the bottom and they were following them up the whole way to the surface and then the rise would come , my gnat was gettin a little soggy in fact it was sinking and so was the leader and i was gonna use the break to "fix" everything up while watching what was going on. Well , instead of changin i cast the sinking gnat way up stream so it would be deep by the time it got close , it was the ticket , i would wait till it was almost in front of me maybe 8 feet down , stop following with the rod tip and just lift and pow!!!!!

Good story, looks like you are describing the induced take method at the end. I've used that method plenty of times at different points in a pool or feeding lane to do just that, induce the strike. Simulating an emerging insect with a dry, as you have done and what I just learned the other day is a new trick of mine personally. For flies I can do this with, I wont use flotant so the fly does get wet or I will 'pre wet' the fly. A CDC especially, they don't react well the floatant anyhow.

Induced take with nymphs and midges is a blast to. Really triggers their reactions, and most notably on big bows. I have had my leader completely out of the water with the midge probably just below the surface, looking at where my next cast is going to be then bam, fish on!

 

[djs12354]

Saw behavior similar to this yesterday, while fishing with my brother. (See the Another Good Day post)

When I retreived my wooly bugger to check the hook after hanging up, I would have it skimming the surface while lifting the rod to bring it within reach. There were a number of times when a fish would swirl at it. (No, I didn't hook any of them) This was in very murky water, so I'm not sure of how far they may have followed the fly.

Just one more aspect of a good day on the water.

 

[osprey]

That's it Paulson......induced take is what Leonard called it in his book. Clarks creek is so clear i could see this behavior first hand and i think it happens alot more than we see. The behavior i mean is the trout were holding not on but close to the bottom , in Clarks i could see this 'cause of the clarity while in most streams we would not be able to see it.

 

[Paulson]

I will have to read that book you mention, it has been recommended to me in the past. I don't believe it was you who mentioned induced take to me the first time (I think it was a thread regarding midges I started). None the less, its a great technique and it is how I always fish a midge or nymph....it costs nothing. if a dead drift is not triggering a strike or the water column is not read properly....I do it all the time

 

[osprey]

Paulson.......in that book he states that it's the movement of the fly contrary to everything else that is floating by at the same speed , that allows the fish to spot the fly and pick it out of everything else. He advocates for a method he calls the sudden inch , it goes like this . he suggests that you make the fly move slightly when you mend your line and then go back to dead drift and each time you mend make the fly move slightly.

 

[Paulson]

Good point, I have always been taught to wiggle the rod tip to give the nymph some lively hood.

I never thought to look till you brought that up, but I found this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UjlT7fqJ1s

And by paying attention to what is floating around the nymphs during the whole emergence stage, you're right. I had never though of that beyond the "wiggle." Watching those movements is going to have my trying out how to mimic them in the water. I was particularly interested in the emergence stage and the spinner stage, notice the ripples on top of the water that would make it stand out against its surroundings.

Good stuff, thanks osprey

 

[osprey]

Paulson........WOW!!!! What a cool video , Thank YOU!!!

 

[DJBerg]

So the mayfly life cycle swim patterns and so forth are simailar to the cycle of the caddis as well? Or are caddis mayflies as well? Sorry totally new to the whole bug thing.