I’ve asked this question before but we have lots of new people at FAOL and I’m hoping that I might get a definitive answer. I love to fish for brim on the surface during those warm spring days which will be coming soon. Most of the time, I catch fish after fish on Griffith Gnats, EHCs, and Gurgle Pops. But, there are those occasional days where the fish are very active but refuse to actually “bite” the fly. They vigorous swat the fly with their tail or roll their whole body over the fly, often with a major splash. I set the hook on these “false strikes” again and again without a hook up. I should add that this often occurs to the total amusement of various onlookers who already think that fly fishing very strange and highly deviant. “That wouldn’t happen with worms, ya know!”
Two questions.
Why do brim show this aggressive behavior toward a poor little fly if hunger isn’t the motive? Even if they are bedding, surface flies present little threat to the nest. Just meanness? Just for fun? Just for laughs?
What do you do when this situation occurs? I’ve tried going to wets but often more often than not, the brim continue to toy with these as well. Any ideas?
Thanks in advance for you thoughts on this dilemma. 8T
trying to kill it or get it to sink where it can be consumed at leisure. The surface is dangerous place for a small fish to linger near. Those are my thoughts.
Quite ofen, when the female brem are bedding, the male will sort of stand guard and raise a ruckus at an intruder. Well, at least that’s what the sophisticated brem do in these parts!
But keep on presenting the fly or popper until he gets aggravated enough to bite it!
I think they know people are laughing at you and they do it as revenge for sticking hooks in their cousins.
The “kill the fly so it sinks and can be eaten sub surface” sounds like a good story and may be believable for those “scientific types” who seek answers through logic and repeatable experiements.
The rest of us know it’s the fish’s way of humiliating us and exacting their own form or punishment upon our egos.
ive had that happen too, and what i think it is is that they are trying to kill it so they can eat it when they want. they may want to eat it but feel their is danger near the surface, and if they wait they might lose it, so they kill it so they can eat it when they feel it is safe. just my 2 cents
I think it is just missing the fly or changing it’s mind at the last second.
Blue gill rise to the surface FAST to get food and turn around faster and descend back even faster. It may be that it is just the APPEARANCE that they are “swatting” when in actuality they are just hitting the surface and getting back down as fast as they can.
I have not been fly fishing for bluegill yet, but you might also want to try a pale size 16 or smaller dry trout fly. I got that from my instructional video when the guy couldn’t make them strike a black knat or popper.
I always assumed that it meant that the presentation was close but not right for the bite. Possibly the fly is almost the right shape, size, or color. Maybe they want more or less action. Of course there is the theory that they just plain like to tease the heck out of us anglers and make us look the fool.
Just a quick reply to the post about the bluegill turning away at the last second… I highly recommend the tv programs “Air Jaws 1/2”. You should be able to find the on Netflix. 20 foot long Great White Sharks catapulting themselves out of the water to attack seals. They put an underwater camera down below a fake one they were trolling and these things would approach speeds of 60 mile per hour, I think, and then turn on a dime at the last second and descend back into deeper water.
I have had this happen with gurglers or poppers. It really looks like they want to take them out (ie., swat it into the next county) but obviously not eat them. When this happens I am usually successful at going to a size 10 foam spider. Smaller figure with no hair and they hit it differently. This difference is allows me to set the hook. If that doesn’t work I have some new stuff to throw at them this year that is subsurface… and a couple of dries… and…
Think of the bluegill as an extremely hungry customer in a fancy restaurant, and think of the surface fly you offered as a meal the customer did not order but got served anyway, by accident.
The bluegill that “slapped” your surface fly might be exhibiting hostility at not being served the more substantial meal it wanted and was expecting…a nymph.
I purposely didn’t state my views on the tail swatting because I didn’t what to influence the responses from other anglers. I have some definite opinions but they are just that, my opinion. I also realize that it’s very “iffy” to try and explain animal behavior in terms of human motives and emotions.
First of all, I don’t believe that fear of the surface causes the swatting behavior. A surface take in the mouth and a quick return depths is actually faster than the noisy splash or swat. The fish retains total possession of the fly and can eat it in the safety of the depths. A tail swat or rollovers catch the attention of every predator within half a mile and generally leaves the bug for other fish to eat.
My feeling is that the swatting is a territorial thing. The fly is in the fish’s feeding territory but the fish doesn’t really want to eat the fly. Actually, WarrenP hit the nail on the head; it’s annoying and the fish swat it underwater where its eaten by other, usually smaller fish. Joe Hyde has also offered a good explanation. The fly is annoying because it isn’t what the fish wants or expects and the fly gets swatted under the water to get it out of the way. By the way, Joe, what would that pattern be? I don’t think the swatting behavior has just one cause but territory and aggression/frustration look like a pretty good explanations to me.
I figure it’s because they were thinking too much about getting back down after they hit it. The same thing happens with bass topwaters to me. Sometimes, the bass will knock the bait a couple feet to the side because he didn’t get hooked or get the bait in his mouth.
I’ve observed Bream behaviour for only 3 yrs and they are puzzling. It is very frustrating fishing for this species either with flies or live bait. When presented with live crickets on a thin hook they are smart enough to take the cricket with minimal hook tension such that you end up with a bare hook often( just ask my son). I feel that when they smack at your fly, they have missed the hook, as I succeed in hooking them one out of 4 tries. I don’t know if weather is different but today has been my best day of fishing for bream ever. With the temps in the 40s-50s I took in about 40 bream of 6-10" in about 3 hrs of fishing. I only quit because I could no longer see and because I was shivering from the lack of sunlight, wind and dropping mercury. A local fishing partner thinks it’s too early but I was dialed in today sometimes hooking with every cast. They were rising but I rarely saw any hatches save for fluttering moths or insects on the water twice. I was frozen when I went indoors but worth one of the best days of “warm water” fishing.
