Hope OldBaldGuy doesn't mind me dragging his thread over here.

On another board it was posted about the Stocked trout and how they were only taking certain flys even though they were only in the body of water for a short period of time. (About a week if I am remembering right.) Then one of the Game and Parks guys posted this:

Exactly! No offense to *******, put the brain of those trout is smaller than the end of your little finger, so rocket surgeons they ain't. And that is exactly why they can be so hard to catch--they "zone-in" on what they know is a food item and they hardly even recognize any other food item that might be just as juicy, just as good for them, and right in front of their nose! If you can figure out what the "cue" is, what they are looking for, what triggers them to eat it, well then you are in fat city. But, if you miss that by just this much (see my fingers held just a half inch apart) you might as well miss by a mile. And I believe they can be most selective when food is abundant; when a "hatch" is occurring they are completely zoned in on feeding on that one very specific food item.

There ain't a fish we fish for that has much for brains, and you know trout that have been raised in a hatchery their whole life are probably in the lowest percentiles of fish intelligence. I know I will offend somebody, but there have been those that refer to those 10-inch catchable rainbows as the "blondes of the fish world". So keep in mind where they have come from and everything they have learned in their pathetic little lives--they literally have done nothing but swim in a raceway waiting for somebody to come and throw artificial feed on the surface for them. That does not mean the only thing they will eat is artificial feed, because they will try new food items (I have seen them slurping cigarette butts off of the surface as soon as they came off the hatchery truck), and they will learn that other things are food too, but something that looks and smells like what they recognize as food will probably go in their mouths. Something that appeals to their curiosity might get tried out as a new food item and that is just as good because that gets them on your hook.

Keep in mind that few if any of the artificials, flies especially, that we present to trout offer any smell or taste cues. And keep in mind that salmonids (i.e. trout and salmon) have a very well-developed sense of smell. Those fish may see those presentations and suspect they are food, they may swim over and check 'em out, but at the last second they turn away because there is not that last cue, that smell, that closes the deal. In that case you better give them something that really matches what they think food looks like and even then you might not get them to eat it if they are not actively, aggressively feeding.

Oftentimes little details make a HUGE difference.

***** ********
Lakes and Reservoirs Program Manager
Nebraska Game & Parks Commission
****.*******@ngpc.ne.gov

P.S. Feel free to share this message with others if you wish.
I was just wondering about your thoughts on the matter.

Could it really be that they only have room for one thing to be thought of as food at a time? Is this why they sometimes seem so selective? They are really just THAT dumb?!?!?!?