I went to a new trout stream yesterday. Well, new to me. Anyway they trout were really hitting somehting in the water. It was in KY and I don’t have my out of state license,so I just watched and didn’t get to fish. But there were tons of Swirls showing up in the water and occassionally a splat where they took something either off the top of the water or just under the surface. My question is, is there any good way to tell the difference or is that something only time and experience will tell. Or do you just guess and go on?
thanks in advance,
hNt
PS soon as I get the $ I’m going to be getting some out of state license. I can’t wait.
Without seeing the action, it sounds like the trouts are taking emergers. I usually try a soft hackle fly tied on a dry fly hook. It will hang in the surface film or just under it and is often taken in situations that you describe.
I would agree with REE. If you think about it, trout feed subsurface about 90% of the time. If you really want to catch more fish, then you’ll have to fish with some sort of nymph or wet fly. As much as I LOVE dry fly fishing, I don’t do it much if they aren’t taking insects off the surface. I fished the MO here in MT for the first time this past February. I can’t tell you how dissapointed I was when the guy at the fly shop said that where we were, the MO just isn’t a good dry fly river. Most of the fish are caught with a scud or large streamer! I still tried the dries, but as far as I know, never even had a look.
There are ton of good emerger patterns out there. You should, if you haven’t already, read LF’s articles on fishing the caddis. Very informative, and I’m sure it applies to just about every form of hatching insect in the river…maybe with the exception of the stonefly, which crawls out of the water to “hatch.”
I’ve always found it helpful to have a look at what insects are popular in the area you’ll be fishing…a hatch chart is a great tool, and then carry some nymphs, emergers, and dries of each, in a few different sizes of each.
Works great and will narrow down what you have to carry. If you see what you think are rises, but don’t really see any bugs coming off the water, then tie on an emerger.
I don’t know how everyone else ‘tells’ the difference between fish taking bugs off of the surface or just under it.
What I do first is just look. If I can see the bugs on top of the water with my naked eye, it’s a no brainer. But my eyes aren’t all that good, so I keep a small set of cheap binoculars in my vest pocket. I look at the water near where I’m seeing fish rise. If there are floating insects, I can usually see them. If they aren’t too small, that’s when I’ll concentrate on using a dry.
If I can’t actually see what the fish are eating, I’ll first try a dry/dropper with a small emerger or floating nymph. Then the fish can tell me which they prefer.
If all of the fish are coming on the dropper fly, then I’ll switch to a leading emerger with a regular nymph behind it. That will let me refine further and find out if the majority of fish prefer the fly in the film or under the water.
If I’m gettting any fish at all on the dry part of the set up, even if it’s only a couple, I’ll keep the dry on. Too much fun to see them hit the dry.
Of course, the best days are when they are readily taking the dry and you don’t feel the need to use a trailing fly at all.
This time of year it could be anything from Midges to an early Caddis…but most likely an emerger either way. here are my 2 favorite early season emergers. I fish them, unless I start to see mayflies coming off, then I switch to an LTD.
The WT (Wild Turkey) Emerger was originally tied to fish the Central PA trico hatches. However, the coppery flank feather fibers of the Eastern Wild Turkey has proven effective for countless mayfly emergers. Tied light to fish in the film.
Hook: Standard Scud #16-18
Thread: Rusty Dun 8/0 Uni-thread
Tail: Wild Turkey Flank fibers
Abdomen: Rusty Dun 8/0 Uni-thread
Thorax: Adams Grey Beaver/antron dubbing
Wing Case: Wild Turkey Flank fibers
I originally tied this pattern to fish the Little Olive Caddis hatch on the Tulpehocken. It fishes excellent either drifted beneath an indicator, or short-sticked with a leisenring lift at the tail end. A very productive fly anywhere there is an olive caddis hatch.
You and I are most often in agreement but on this point I wonder. I may have mis-interpreted your post because we are most often in sync.
My view is that just because there are insects hatching and you can see them on the surface, that does NOT mean the fish are taking dries. The only way to tell if a fish is taking a dry is to actually see the fish take a dry off of the surface, not the presence of bugs.
There are many different rise forms. The dry fly sipping rise, the dry fly slashing rise, the dry fly leaping rise just to name 3 different dry fly rises. Then there are the underwater feeding patterns that cause rings just like a rise does. The “rise ring” from a tailing fish for example, or the ring from a head and shoulders rise that are underwater feeding behaviors that cause rise rings. There are also underwater feeding behaviors in which the fish actually breaks the surface because it is chasing a rapidly rising caddis and it’s momentum carries into the surface film. So a fish breaking the surface does not even guarantee that the fish is feeding on surface insects.
There are others but the point is that the combination of rise rings and naturals on the water often occur when the fish are feeding under the surface and not on top. The key is reading the rise forms to deduce what and where the fish are feeding. That is why I recommended Fishing The Film as one source of info on dissecting rise forms.
I find it really hard to tell as well, unless I can see the trout stick his nose out (as apposed to seeing the back after its turned to go down) I assume it’s subsurface of some sort. So I usually start with a soft hackle and some winged wets. If that doesn’t work, then switch to dries. For soft hackles, I would suggest a partridge and orange, a water cricket (see FOTW archives), Baillie’s black spider (again, I think it’s in the archives), and a hare’s ear and partridge as a good collection of patterns to start with. Size 12 and 14 are probably my most productive sizes, but that depends upon the area so size to suit. Tie some on dry fly hooks, and some on heavier hooks. Fish them upstream like you would a dry (so above where you saw the rise) and let it dead drift. Try and keep as much line out of the water as you can, so a short cast is better than a long cast. You can also, if you want, fish them down stream and swing them, but typically then you are targetting deeper fish, and trying to induce a take when the fly rises on the swing. Winged wets can also be fished through the rises just below the surface and can be very effective at times too.
Anyway, if the fish are rising and you’re still not getting any hits, then switch to a dry. Or, start with the dry and if nothing happens, switch to the soft hackles or wets. When the fish are on the rise, it’s time to try something. They’ll let you know if you’re off base.
Perhaps I should of said ‘see the trout taking bugs off the surface’. I agree that just because bugs are there, that doesn’t mean the trout are eating them.
I will always try to favor the dry though…but if I’m not sure they are taking dries, then I’ll always use two flies to try to figure it out.
Only in certain moving waters will I ever start without a dry. It’s just usually a dry with something hanging off the back of it.
Anyway they trout were really hitting somehting in the water. It was in KY and I don’t have my out of state license,so I just watched and didn’t get to fish. But there were tons of Swirls showing up in the water and occassionally a splat where they took something either off the top of the water or just under the surface. My question is, is there any good way to tell the difference or is that something only time and experience will tell. Or do you just guess and go on?
