Fishing Tips & Tactics
Tips for Catching Selective, Rising Trout
Mike Lawson
Many consider casting to selective trout rising to hatching insects the essence of fly fishing, but it can be frustratingly difficult. Time spent studying a trout’s feeding rhythm is often more productive than repeatedly casting over the same trout. Your best chance is your first cast.
If you don’t know what fly to use, study the water with binoculars or use a small insect net to seine the water close by. Select a fly that is the approximate size and color of the natural.
Although you may know what insect a trout is eating, you must determine whether it is feeding on, in, or just under the surface film. You can determine if the fish is feeding on or in the surface by watching individual insects with binoculars as they drift over the feeding fish.
When you approach a rising trout, wade as quietly and carefully as possible so you don’t make too much disturbance in the water and to minimize the sound of your wading boots grinding against the bottom.
Get as close as you can. Getting close reduces the need to false-cast, and the closer you are, the more accurate your casts.
After you get into position, wait for the trout to rise a couple of times before you make your first cast.
If you put a trout down and it stops feeding, stay in position and wait five minutes or so. It will often start feeding again. Don’t forget to look around. Sometimes a spooked fish will change locations and start rising again.
Draw the trout’s attention to your fly--if the surface is covered with aquatic insects--by giving it a subtle twitch just as it starts to enter the trout’s window of vision.
When you need to use a small fly or emerger to match the hatch, you can attach the small hatch-matching pattern as a dropper 8 to 12 inches from a larger fly.
Unmatch the hatch if the surface is covered with aquatic insects. Sometimes you need to use something different like a Royal Wulff, Parachute Adams, or beetle to draw the trout’s attention. It should be about the same size as the naturals.
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