at my wits end....

Been fishing a local lake n fishing has been sporadic at best..the last few evenings and mornings really have me bewildered..as there are fish of many sizes all working surface or near surface..I believe it's mainly a tail slap..as I see no..ni mean no bugs..this activity is say from ten feet off the shore to 30-40 ft off shore..nearer shore I can see the side flashes as fish feed just below the surface, With a surface disturbance...So this leads me to believe they are taking something ascending..but I've tried everything from rs2's in varied colors clear to size 28s..to renegade dries in the flim..peacock n herls in all sizes..I mean what the hell can they be taking right now??? I've tried about everything in my midge box.. n nothing is working with any consistency...HELP...FIRE..LOL any suggestions???
This has me stumped..my next outing I'll be trying a small Adams with a thread midge dropper.. anyone else fly fishing Onondaga lake by chance..? Like that's a chance lol

What species are you fishing for? I've been seeing similar behavior from the bluegills around here lately. I've been tossing very slow-sinking patterns like unwieghted hackle-less buggers in size 10, or a boa yarn leech in size 8 or 10. I've felt that a small foam topwater would also catch them, but haven't bothered to test that theory.

Eating backswimmers or water boatman maybe. That's my first thought. You can find patterns for both online. In a pinch a size 12 Prince is a good choice. This is on the small size for a backswimmer and large size for a water boatman. Both bugs usually have a air bubble about them. the white biots on the back of the prince sort of gives a bright spot fish may interpret as a bubble. You can fish through the water column. Floating, intermediate, or sinking lines. Erratic 2-4 inch strips with pauses. Grabs with the fly just under the surface can be pretty exciting.

The last time I went fishing, four days ago, I was using a popper-dropper rig with a size 8 Gurgle-Pop on top and a size 14 GRHE about a foot below it. The first fish I caught actually hit the Gurgle-Pop, everything else hit the GRHE.

I've seen this type of behavior many times in lakes and haven't solved it. Like you, I empty my midge box when I see all this activity and no bugs hatching.

Did you scan the surface intently and close up? I know the activity is away from shore, but sometimes the bugs wash and accumulate near shore. Could you throw a bug net out there and pull it back?

Pure speculation, but I'll assume you've used all the normal emerger type patterns.

Could it be egg layers? Could be any size. The fish could key on them diving or returning to the surface, so a sinking or rising fly could be the trigger.

Could motion be the trigger? This affects both retrieve and pattern. Since most fly fishers focus on a dead drift, we aren't that good at covering all the little twitches and retrieves that imitate nymphs swimming to the surface. Many times I've hooked fish just after an inadvertent jerk or bad mend.

Could it be aquatic insects, tiny fish, shrimp, scuds, etc..., that are gathering near the surface for some reason? At certain times, plankton and microscopic bugs can rise to the upper water column, and the food chain follows them up. I once saw bunches of snails feeding just under the surface for some reason, and trout were on them. Of course, I had no snail fly on me.

Good luck, sounds very frustrating.

I wade a lake where I find this quite often. What appears to be damselfly nymphs which look to be feeding in the film. Not sure if they are feeding on Mosquito larva or what? but the Bluegills pick them off by sucking them from below and causing a decent boil.

Probably feeding on midges. I tie a midge about 4 to 5 inches under a floating fly and just let it set.
Either black or golden pheasant color.

Rick

That sound like the second trip I made with a friend to a mountain lake in AZ. A gentleman who was familiar with the lake gave my friend a chronmid pattern and advised to cast to the splashes. It worked. We caught several nice Apache trout.