The technique of "waking" a fly is quite commonly used for Atlantic salmon and steelhead and, under most conditions, is more effective than a conventionally dead-drifted dry fly. Sometimes waked flies can be very effective for trout but a fly skating across the surface can frequently alarm the fish and put them down. I often use a waking technique for trout when fishing imitations of large, active insects like Skwala stoneflies in the spring or Giant October Caddis in the late summer and fall; allowing them to dead drift but stopping the drift occasionally to force them to wake for a short distance, imitating the commotion generated by an egg-laying female or, in the case of the October Caddis, an adult returning to the water to drink.