rise forms or the way a trout moves water when it feeds on the surface
can tell you something about what a trout is eating often trout eat emerging insects just
under the surface which looks like a rise but often just the back of the fish breaks the surface
and not the mouth this is often called a bulging fish and is usually not accompanied by any bubbles
a rise followed by distinct bubbles is a sure sign a trout took something off the surface
generally the bigger the rise the bigger the insect the fish has taken very splashy rise
forms are often made by smaller more enthusiastic trout and often the smaller the fish the more
commotion it makes the rises that go unnoticed by many anglers are often the most important ones
even a large trout can take an insect from the surface with very little commotion just poking
at snout above the surface and inhaling a fly by cavitation look for dark heads poking the
surface film or little winks in the water these trout will often surprise you by their size you
can usually tell a big fish by the deeper sound it makes when it rises plus a larger fish moves more
bubbles and foam aside when it rises so it pays to spend some time observing fish feeding before
you even make a cast or even pick a fly a little observation can pay off in a most satisfying day
the next thing you've got to figure out is well what fly to use
what fly are those fish eating and it's often important fish sometimes gets selective so you
look on the water don't worry about what's flying in the air there's caddisflies flying in the air
here but i don't know if the fish are eating those caddisflies they might be eating something totally
different you have to think about what's on the water you might not be able to see much sometimes
a pair of binoculars might help you but often you won't be able to see what they're taking
you may never figure out what they're taking you may have to change flies a dozen times i've had
days when i never figured out what the fish were taking so it's a lot of trial and error
you never know what fly they're gonna take you make some educated guesses
you go out there and you give them a try quite often when you have rising fish there will be
bugs over in the current lane where the fish are feeding and no insects where you're standing and
sometimes you actually have to try to wade over to the other side or where the fish is to get in
the same current lane to see what kind of bugs they're seeing so that's i'm going to do here
we've got a fish feeding up there in the riffle i'm going to carefully slide down here in the
tail pick up an insect see what they're probably eating and then come over and try to match it
so what i got here is a little pmd mayfly he got a little bugged up when i caught him
he had just emerged and he's still a little soft but that's okay because i could see the size
and the color of the fly so all i have to do is hopefully poke around on my fly box until i find
a mayfly invitation that's about the same size and color most anglers worry too much about what fly
pattern to choose in any given situation dozens of fly patterns will catch trout in the same pool
presentation of the fly is just as important if not more important than the correct fly pattern
me
you