Perfect Fly May 2022 Fly Fishing Journal
Articles:
- How Trout See Flies
- Hiding From Trout
- Fishing the Hatches
Featured Products: Bottom of page
How Trout See Flies
By James Marsh
To understand why trout will take a particular fly at certain times and
places and not take it at other times and places, you first must understand the
basics of how the trout sees a fly and what triggers the trout into taking the fly or
ignoring it. The same basic knowledge is necessary to understand why
generic, attractor and impressionistic imitations work at certain times and places
and don’t work at other times and places. The same is true of when, where and
why specific imitations are more productive than generic or attractor flies. You
cannot possibly understand it without knowing at least some of the basics of the
trout’s senses and behavior. Keep in mind that this is about specific imitations
(flies that imitate a specific insect at a specific stage of life) versus generic
imitations (attractor or impressionistic flies that imitate a variety of insects or
other trout food). It is not about any one fly pattern versus another fly pattern.
Trout learn from birth to accept and reject various objects in the streams as
food. They never eat something they don’t take for food. Even though they have
very tiny brains and even by the stretch of one’s imagination are not smart, they
can still learn by experience. They do not depend on intelligence as much as
they rely on senses and instincts to eat.
Feeding Zones:
Trout can hold in slow to moderate current without swimming or
expending a great amount of energy. They manage to do this a lot like birds do
when they are gliding in the wind without moving their wings. When they are
feeding, trout find the areas where the current concentrates the insects. Anglers
call these places drift lines. Trout will position themselves somewhere along
these drift lines. There they will hold their position and stay focused on what is
referred to as their “window of vision”. They must seek an area of the stream to
hold in where the current is not strong. If they didn’t, they would expend more
energy than they could take in. Most often, they accomplish this by seeking a
depth where the current is slowed down by obstructions upstream, usually rocks
and boulders. Sometimes they can position themselves on the slow side
of the drift line. The current in the drift line above or to the immediate side of the
trout may be moving along rather fast, but the trout is usually positioned in slow
to moderately moving water where they can view objects that come into their
window of vision. If that food is in the form of nymphs, larvae or pupae drifting
underwater, then the distance at which the trout can view it depends on several
factors. The underwater background, amount of available light, clarity, and speed
of the water are just a few of them. Normally, in very clear water with good light,
they can detect the movement of objects that are within several feet of them. Objects on the surface are viewed entirely different.
Window of Vision:
You may hear anglers say, “the trout were not looking up today”. I assume they
mean that as a figure of speech because trout are always looking up. Unlike
humans, they see almost all the way around themselves. Also, unlike humans,
trout can focus at extremely close ranges. They can focus on a fly that is only an
inch or less from their eyes. However, at long ranges they cannot focus well
enough to discern the details of objects in the water.
Without going into unnecessary detail regarding the physics of light, let’s look at some facts that affect the trout’s vision of your fly. The “window of vision” as it is called, is the area of water on the surface above a trout where they can clearly
see objects. Trout can see objects on the surface that are directly above them. If
the surface of the water is smooth or not rough, they can see objects directly
above them that are above the water. However, there is a point above them at
which their line of sight will not pass through the surface of the water. It is exactly
48.5 degrees from a point at which a vertical line extends from a trout’s eyes to
the surface of the water. This means that they can see through the surface of
the water in an area formed by a 97 degrees cone. This cone looks like an
upside down snow cone cup with the point of the snow cone extending from the
trout’s eyes up to the surface of the water. Using this analogy, if the circle of the
cone (or top of the upside-down snow cone) was even with the surface of the
water, it would be referred to as the window of vision.
The trout sees everything that is outside of that cone as a mirror image
of the underwater surroundings. The deeper the trout, the larger the window
of vision is at the surface of the water. If the trout is only a couple of inches
deep, the window of vision is just over four and one-half inches in diameter.
If the trout is two feet deep, then the diameter of the window of vision is just over
four and one-half feet in diameter. In other words the trout can see objects at
the surface of the water just over two and one-half feet in front of, two and one-
half feet behind and two and one-half feet on either side of their position. A fly
on the surface of the water passing over the trout can only be seen by the trout
for a total distance of four and one-half feet or the diameter of its window of
vision.
This window of vision is caused by light refraction. Stick the tip of you fly rod
down into the water at an angle. Notice the rod appears to bend at the point it
penetrates the surface of the water. This optical effect is caused by the change
in speed of light as it goes from one transparent medium to another or air to
water.
Sometimes trout will hold just a few inches under the surface where they can
closely inspect their food and at the same time, expend only a small amount of
energy eating. When they are only a few inches deep, the depth of focus only
allows them to see objects that are within a few inches of them. In other words,
when they are holding this shallow, their feeding lane is only a few inches wide. If
a dry fly passes by several inches away, to their left or right, they may not even
see it. On the other hand, if the trout is three or four feet deep, the depth of
focus is much greater, and it has a much larger feeding lane. Although trout can
focus on almost every direction at once, they cannot focus on an object that is
three feet from them the same way they can one that is inches away.
When objects on the surface or beyond first appear in the window of
vision or come in view on the outermost edge of the circular window,
they appear much shorter and wider than they are. The more they
approach the center of the window of vision, the more they appear like they
should. Objects directly overhead appear exactly as they should. That means
that the appearance of your fly is changing as it comes into the window of vision
from being short and wide to actually looking like the real thing.
Now don’t misunderstand this to mean that since the trout sees a distorted view
of your fly when it enter the window, that its appearance of your fly is not
important because they see the real insects on the surface in the exact same
manner. They too appear short and wide near the perimeter of the circle. So, it is
still a fact that the more your fly looks like the real thing, the more the trout are
likely to accept it for the real thing.
Surface Film:
The cohesive forces between liquid molecules are responsible for the
phenomenon known as surface tension. A surface “film” is formed which makes it
more difficult to move an object through the surface than to move it when it is
completely submersed. If an insect is perched on the surface film its six legs
and/or other portions of its body may protrude through the film. The parts of
the insect or fly that extends below the surface can be seen by the trout
even when it is outside its window of vision. Seeing the legs of an insect or
other parts of its body may alert the trout that something is coming into its
window of vision. A midge may make such a sight indentation in the surface film
that would be almost impossible to see outside the window simply because the
parts penetrating the film are so tiny. A grasshopper’s legs and maybe even part
of its body would be visible outside of the window from much farther away. I
could go on and on explaining light refraction, Snell’s Law and just how it affects
the trout’s vision of the fly but I would be getting away from some of the main
points I want to make.
When a trout sees an insect on the surface that has drifted into its window of
vision, it determines whether or not to take the insect. If the trout attempts to
take the insect, it moves its fins in such a way that allows the current to assist it
in propelling its upward motion. It takes the insect in its mouth and then moves
its fins in such a manner as to propel back down into its holding position.
Binocular and Peripheral Vision:
When us humans look ahead, our field of vision allows us to see thing that are
within a 176 degrees area called the “field of vision”. Our forward zone of
binocular vision is 90 ninety degrees or forty-five degrees on either side of a line
straight ahead. The portion of our vision that is outside of that 90 degrees zone
of binocular vision represents the area of our peripheral vision. Our peripheral
vision represents a total of 86 degrees or 43 degrees on each side of our
binocular vision.
To illustrate this, place your finger about two feet directly in front of your face
and focus on it. Now continue to look directly forward and move your finger to
your left until you cannot clearly see it in focus. You should be able to see it
clearly until it is 45 degrees left or right of straight ahead. The area in which you
can see it clearly is the area of your binocular vision. If you continue to
move it left up to 15 more degrees, you should still be able to see the finger but
your cannot see it clearly or in focus. This area represents the area of your
peripheral vision. Of course, things work the same if you move your finger to the
right.
Trout have a much narrower width of binocular vision than humans. The trout’s
binocular vision allows them to only focus on things that are within a total of 30
thirty degrees directly ahead or fifteen degrees on either side of a line directly
forward of their eyes. However, they have a much larger field of vision than us
humans. It is a total of 330 degrees or represents an area almost completely
around them. Of the 330 degrees field of vision, their zone of peripheral vision
represents 300 degrees of it or 150 degrees on either side of their narrow 30
degrees binocular zone. When they detect something with their peripheral
vision, they must move their eyes towards the object to focus on it. There is only an area of 30 degrees directly behind a trout that is not visible to them. This narrow area is commonly referred to as their blind zone. The bottom line to this is that although trout can detect movement and contrast almost all the way around themselves they must look almost directly at an object, or align the object in their narrow 30 degrees field of binocular vision, in order to clearly see it.
Binocular vision is necessary for the trout to see things in detail. It is necessary
for a trout to feed. Peripheral vision is great for detecting movement and
contrast but things within the trout’s peripheral vision cannot be seen in detail.
Light Effect:
The amount of available light also has a huge effect on how a trout sees your
fly. Their iris is not adjustable. It is fixed and cannot be enlarged or reduced.
This means that they cannot control the amount of light that enters their eyes
with the iris. Rods and cones allow them to adjust to various light intensities.
Trout can detect color and very fine detail, but bright sunlight can eliminate the
color that enters their eyes. By the same token, under low light conditions such
as when it is early in the morning, late in the day or at times when the sky is
dark, they cannot see the colors of the fly and well as they can in a well lit
situation. Light doesn’t penetrate very deep in water and the depth of your fly
also affects how the trout sees the color of it. If the trout is deep in the water,
flies that are floating on the surface will not be viewed in their true colors.
The trout must get closer to the fly to see it in true color. The bottom line to this is that under many different lighting conditions, they cannot see the fly very well at all. But the amount of light is not the only factor in how well a trout
sees your fly. There is yet another, far more important factor, in how well the
trout sees an insect or fly. It is the speed of the water and insects or flies that
are drifting in it or floating on it.
Speed of the Water:
Now let’s discuss another, huge factor is how well a trout is able to see an insect or your fly – the speed of the water. In fast moving water with a broken surface, the trout must make a very quick decision as to whether to take or reject a fly. The speed of the water doesn’t just apply to flies drifting on the surface of the
water. The same thing applies to a nymph or larva moving through the water. In
fast moving water, the trout cannot take their time in deciding whether or not to
take the fly.
The speed of the water is the number one reason trout can be fooled by
generic, impressionistic or attractor type flies. In fact, if the water in the
current seam is moving fast enough and the trout are holding close to it,
they can often be fooled by a fly that doesn’t resemble much of anything they
have ever seen before. Due to the factors that I have mentioned above and the fast
speed of the fly they don’t have much opportunity to examine anything.
In smooth, slick water where the current is moving at a slow rate, the trout has
plenty of time to make a very close inspection of your fly. For years I have said
that you want a fish to see any artificial bait or lure just well enough to think it is
a real creature, but not well enough to determine that it isn’t. In other words, you
want them to be able to just barely see it – just enough for them to think it is the
real thing. The same thing is true of flies. It doesn’t matter if it is a twelve-inch
long marlin lure, jumping in and out of a wave in offshore blue water; a crankbait
passing by a bass in dingy water, or a fly passing by a trout in clear water. You
want the fish to see the artificial imitation only well enough to fool it into thinking
it is the real thing. The more the lure or fly looks and acts like the real thing, the
longer you can allow the fish to examine it. In other words, the slower it can pass
by the fish. Notice I said “acts” like because that is even more important than
“looking like” whatever you are trying to imitate. A solid brass nymph cast to
perfection exactly like the real thing won’t fool a trout very well. It’s abdomen,
gills, legs and other body parts will not move and act like a nymph.
When you are fishing for trout with flies, the faster the water is moving, the
easier it is to fool them. When trout can only get a quick glimpse of the fly, they
are much easier to fool than they are when they have a lot of time to closely
examine the fly. This is especially true when it passes by at close ranges where
they can really focus on the details of it.
Fast Water Mountain Streams:
Now so far, when you are fishing the fast water freestone streams, everything sounds great and in favor of using generic, impressionistic and attractor flies. I have just explained in detail the main reasons trout can be fooled into taking attractor flies for real insects.
The typical small stream, fast water angler makes all of their presentations in the fast water of runs and riffles. The biggest decision made is whether to fish a dry fly
on the surface or a nymph below the surface of the run or riffle. If they don’t get
them on one or the other type of attractor or generic flies in the fast runs and
riffles, they excuse their performance by declaring that fishing is poor. Poor
success usually occurs when the trout are not feeding in the fast water
of the runs and riffles.
Where Trout Feed When There Is No Hatch to Match:
First, and most importantly, trout do not always feed in the faster moving
water. They often feed near the bottom in slow to moderately moving water.
They sometimes feed in pools. When the water is fairly cold, they almost always
feed in very slow-moving water.
In cold water, since most of the faster moving water in freestone is near the surface, they choose to locate in the lower or bottom sections of the stream where the water is moving much slower to feed. Many anglers think they position themselves on or near the bottom to get warmer.
Trout are cold blooded and do not seek warmer water for comfort. They seek
the slower moving water to prevent spending more energy than they can take in
from food in the cold water. Besides, the water temperature changes little if any
with the depth of the streams.
Larger brown trout do not feed on crawfish and sculpin in fast water. They eat
them in slow to moderately moving water on the bottom either under low light
conditions or from an ambush position.
Terrestrial insects are eaten wherever they happen to fall in the water. More
often than not, this is near the banks and often in slow moving water.
Where Trout Feed During Hatches:
Where do the trout feed during aquatic insect hatches? For example, where do
midges hatch and the trout feed on them?
Answer: In the slow-moving water such as eddies, calm pockets and the slow
moving water of pools.
Where do most mayflies hatch?
Answer: Even the clingers that live in the fast water runs and riffles move to the
slow moving water of calmer pockets and shallow water that is near banks and
behind boulders to hatch. Just about all the crawlers and swimmers move to slow
to moderately moving water to hatch.
Where do the spinners fall?
Answer: Usually in the riffles and runs where they hatched but they are eaten by
trout in eddies, calm pockets and the slow water at the heads of pools where
they collect.
Where do the stoneflies hatch?
Answer: They move out of their fast water habitat into slower, shallower water to
hatch on the banks and rocks.
Where do the caddisflies hatch?
Answer: They just about always move to the slow to moderately flowing water for
their pupae to emerge.
In other words, about everything that hatches does so in moderate to
calm water. Often this slower moving water is very close to fast water. Often the
calmer water is in pockets distributed throughout the stream within the fast water
of the stream. Sometimes it is the ends of long runs where the water slows down.
If the newly hatched insect stays on the water and doesn’t fly away quickly it will
most likely be caught up in the fast currents. It depends on the species hatching.
Some never get caught in the fast water. Examples are stonefly nymphs that all
crawl out of the water in calmer areas. Slate Drake mayflies that crawl out of the
stream in calm water to hatch. Blue Quill and Mahogany Dun mayflies almost
always hatch in calm pockets along the banks and usually never get caught up
in fast currents before they fly away. Many species of Blue-winged Olives are able to depart the water from calmer sections or moderately moving water before getting caught up in fast water.
Some mayflies do usually get caught up in fast water before they are able to
depart the water. Some mayflies hatch in calm pockets within the fast water areas of the stream but often get caught in the fast currents prior to departing the water. However, the facts are that most hatching aquatic insects and egg layers do not usually get caught up in the fast currents.
When trout feed in the slow to moderately flowing sections of the streams; or
eddies, pools, the ends of runs and riffles and calm pockets that are within the
fast flowing freestone streams, they can examine the fly much closer. Given that
opportunity, if the fly is not very imitative of the natural insect and if it is
not presented in such a manner as to behave like the natural insect, the
trout will usually reject the fly.
As I just touched on, the problem isn’t just a matter of how well the imitation looks like the real thing. The way in which it is presented may be an even bigger
problem. You have probably heard over and over that the presentation of the fly
is more important than the fly itself. That is a very correct statement, but it doesn’t
mean that the fly is not important. It just means that a perfect imitation is not
effective unless it is presented to the trout in the same manner they view the real
thing. The fly must drift and act like the real thing without the trout being able to
become alerted or alarmed by a tippet, fly line or leader attached to it. Again,
that is easy to accomplish in fast moving water but again, that is not always
where the trout are feeding. The presentation and the appearance of the fly
become even more critical in slow or moderately moving water. When anglers concentrate only on the fast water of riffles and runs, they are making a big mistake.
The Big Misconception:
When there is no hatch occurring (which is much of the time) anglers tend to
think they are better off using an attractor or generic imitation that imitates a
variety of things. A fly that imitates no specific insect but rather a variety
of them works best when environmental conditions (water temp,
oxygen, stream levels, etc) are near perfect and lots of insects are
readily available for the trout to eat. In other words when anyone that can
cast a Royal Humpy twenty feet upstream in a run can catch trout. When you
can hit them over the heads with the line and they still will eat the fly, a Royal
Wulff works great. When there is little challenge in catching trout most anything
made of feathers and hair with a hook in it will produce some good results.
This big misconception came about because book after book about
trout fishing lumped things into one of only two categories – selective
feeding or opportunistic feeding. Most anglers think that trout are feeding
either one way or the other. It is true that if trout are not feeding exclusively on
one insect, they are categorized as feeding opportunistically, so by strict
definition, I suppose they are. That is fine as far as categorizing them is
concerned but it has little to do with what is really going on and it is of little
information or use in catching trout.
For example, let’s suppose that there are lots of Little Yellow Stonefly nymphs
crawling to the banks to hatch. Don’t think the trout don’t know it. They view their
underwater world 24 hours a day and they know and see exactly what is going
on. Since these nymphs are crawling across the bottom to get to the banks, they
are easy prey for the trout. Naturally, the trout will focus on feeding on the easy
prey.
If the trout are eating these nymphs migrating to the banks and a stray mayfly
nymph happens to come along, the trout may or may not eat it. Most likely, if the
trout does not have to go out of its way to do so, it may very well feed on the
mayfly nymph. If it takes more effort than it does to catch another stonefly nymph
crawling to the bank, it most likely won’t eat it. Let’s suppose a trout did eat the
mayfly nymph. You would have to categorize the trout as feeding opportunistically. That is why marine fishery biologist classifies all
trout as opportunistically feeders. It makes sense from a scientific
standpoint but little sense from a practical standpoint of catching fish. A
trout may be feeding selectively at the same time one a few feet away
may be feeding opportunistically. One run or riffle may have several trout that
are feeding selectively at the moment when another run or riffle a few yards
upstream may not.
Call it whatever you prefer to call it. Under these conditions, would you
rather be fishing an imitation of a stonefly nymph or a mayfly nymph? I
think most anglers would agree that your odds would be greater if you were
fishing an imitation of a Little Yellow Stonefly nymph.
The Bottom Line:
You are always better off using specific imitations (a fly that imitates a
specific insect at a specific stage of life) to imitate the behavior of the
insects or other food the trout are most likely eating at the particular
time and place. Unless a substantial hatch is underway, this would most
likely be the food that is most plentiful and easiest for the trout to
acquire.
Summary:
1. The trout’s “window of vision” on the surface of the water is relatively
small. Insects and flies pass through it quickly, especially in fast water.
2. While they can see movement and contrast most all the way around
themselves, they only see objects clearly when they directly face the object to
align it in their narrow area of binocular vision.
3. Attractor or generic flies usually work okay in fast water where the trout
have little time to examine the fly, but trout don’t always feed in fast water. Day in
and day out, most of the time, they feed in slow to moderate water.
4. Attractor or generic flies work best when environmental conditions (water
temperature, oxygen content, water levels, etc.) are prime and multiple hatches
are underway. Simply put, when hungry, aggressive trout have a lot of food to
choose from. When it is easy to catch them.
5. Trout do not have to be feeding “selectively” to be focusing on or keying
in on a particular insect. Most of the time they are feeding they are focusing on
one or no more than a very few insects. Call it opportunistic feeding if you like.
Regardless of how you label it, they are going to feed mostly on the insect or
insects that are most abundant and easiest to acquire at the time and
place.
6. You are always better off using specific imitations to imitate the behavior
of the insects or other food the trout are most likely eating at the time
and place. Unless a substantial hatch is underway (to repeat the most
important point again) this would most likely be the food that is most
plentiful and easiest for the trout to acquire.
Hiding from the Trout
If the trout see you, it will be next to impossible for you to catch them. In order to hide from them, you need to know a little about how a trout sees the world outside the water. The subject is far too complicated to discuss in detail in a short article but thank goodness, it isn’t necessary. The above link to the same previous article gets into the trout’s window of vision and how they see things both under and above the water. For purposes of what I want to point out today, just a little common sense and a little basic knowledge about how trout see is all you need to help you prevent them from seeing you.
Trout don’t see objects above the water, especially those at a distance, clearly. To make it simple, let’s just say they see things as a blur. They cannot see anything in detail at a distance. A person standing twenty feet from them is just a blurred
image. Now for those who want to get picky, what I am about to say isn’t exactly
technically correct but I am not writing a scientific paper. I am describing how a trout sees someone trying to catch them. For all practical purposes, I am being accurate.
What trout will notice, much quicker than anything else, is the movement of an
object above the water. They are used to seeing blurred images of objects above
the water that remain still. Trees and boulders don’t move around a lot.
Overhead predators pose a danger to them. Large birds and a animals pose a
danger to trout. When something moves above the water, it gets their attention.
The bottom line to this is that you should move as little as possible and when
you do move, move as slowly as possible. Of course, it is difficult to cast without
moving.
The other thing about what they see above the water has to do with the distance
the object is from them. To make this simple, due to refraction of light, they don’t
see things that are low above the water. The higher the object, the easier it is for
them to see it. For example, they could see an object ten feet above the water as
far as twenty feet away but they would not see an object one foot about the water
that is ten feet away. The lower you are, the closer you can get to trout without their
seeing you. If you stand on top of the highest rock in the stream and look around
you, chances are every trout within twenty or thirty feet of you will see you. Your
movements climbing up on the rock and back down will spook them for sure. Stay
low and slow, right the opposite of what you want to do if you are flying an airplane.
Trout face normally face in an upstream direction. Their bodies and fins are
streamlined for them to remain in current expending as little energy as possible.
They would have a difficult time holding their position in current if they had their tail pointed into the current.
Most all their food comes to them in a downstream direction. Aquatic insects in a current seam is drifting downstream. The trout face in an upstream direction
looking for them. The bottom line to this is that you can get closer to trout if you are downstream of them. If you fish in an upstream direction, they will not be able to see you as easily as they would if you were fishing in a downstream direction. With few exceptions I will not go into here, in small fast water freestone streams, you should always fish in an upstream direction.
Trout don’t see the same way us humans do. They have a much wider peripheral
vision. In other words, they can see almost all the way around. Their binocular vision is not near as good as ours. That is part of the reason why they don’t see things at a distance above the water clearly and in great detail or resolution.
Sounds simple so far. However, just because you are approaching them from their back side doesn’t mean you can slip up on them and tap them on their shoulders. Trout have a blind spot in their peripheral vision. It is a small
area directly behind them. When they are positioned in the moving water of the
stream facing in an upstream direction, that small blind area enables you to get
close to them provided you approach them from their rear. This must be done
carefully and quietly. Approaching them from their front (the direction they are
looking) isn’t as easy to do without being spotted.
Again, it is movement of objects at a distance that gets their attention quicker than anything. Another big factor in just how well they can spot you has to do with your contrast with the surrounding background. For example, If you are wearing a white shirt and white hat, you are not blending in very well with the typical background of a stream unless snow is a foot deep. You want to blend in with the background in the same manner a deer or turkey hunter would. In fact, the best clothing you could possible wear would be the best matching camouflage outfits you could find to
match the colors of the forest during the different seasons of the year. I am not
suggesting you should go so far as to wear a camouflage net over your head or
that you should shade your eyes. I am not even saying that camouflage clothing is
necessary even though it would solve the problem very well. Trout will not detect
your presence near as well if you blend in with the background. Subdued shades of
browns and greens usually work best. You should avoid bright, flashy colors.
Another factor in how close you can approach trout is how well you can see them. If there is a lot of glares on the water, and there always is, you should wear polarized glasses. There is no sense in stumbling over a trout directly in front of you. It will go upstream and warn its entire family that a creature is coming. Seriously, when trout suddenly shoot upstream, I believe it signals other fish that danger is approaching, or it at least makes them aware something is not normal. The least fish you can spook, the better off you are, even if you are not trying to catch them.
It helps if you can see what is ahead. I don’t want to get into wading yet, but
when you can see everything in the water ahead of you, you can wade making the
least amount of disturbance.
Trout do not have to see you for them to detect your presence. They can
hear you. You can yell at your buddy and that won’t bother them. If you move a
rock on the bottom of the stream, it will. If you stumble along the bank, it will disturb them. They can hear the sound you through their lateral line. Again, I don’t want to get technical. This is not the place to discuss how fish hear in detail. Just be aware that you should walk softly, without disturbing things on the bottom of the stream or the ground.
Let’s summarize what I have said so far about hiding from the trout:
1. Keep a low profile. I don’t mean crawl along the bank or even that you need to
stoop low when you are wading. Just be aware that the higher you are, the farther
away trout can see you. Don’t climb up on boulders and search the water for the
trout. They are there. You are just warning them that you are there.
2. Fish in an upstream direction. Whether you are wading or moving along a
bank, progress in an upstream direction, not downstream. Cast in a general
upstream direction, not downstream. You can get closer to the trout and they won’t
see you as well as if you approached them when they are facing you.
3. Dress to blend in with the surroundings. Don’t wear flashy or bright colored
clothing.
4. Don’t disturb the bottom of the stream or the ground along the banks.
Trout can hear you. Avoid moving or kicking rocks.
5. Wear polarized sunglasses. The better you can see what is ahead in the
water, the easier it is for you to prevent spooking the trout ahead. If you loose your
footing and step off into a deep hole you will spook every trout in the creek.If you really want to learn a lot about what spooks trout, and how well they can see
and hear you, do right the opposite of what you should do. See how many trout you
can spook. Spring creeks are perfect places to do this. It is easier for you to see
the trout and easier for the trout to see you. You can see the reaction of the trout,
whereas in freestone streams, trout can flee without you ever seeing them. We
have experimented with this several times and I believe we have picked up a few
things we would not have otherwise learned.
The first thing I noticed was that when I was about 40 feet away in full view of a trout, yet not noticed by the trout to the point it would flee, I could wave my arms
without spooking the trout. Waving my arms and fly rod didn’t seem to make any
difference in the reaction of the trout. I would be well within its line of vision standing on a bank, not below it. If I started walking to my left or right, the same trout would shoot under the grass to hide. I think that was because they could not see my arms well enough for the movement to get their attention but when my body moved, they could see what was going on. That is only a guess. There is no real proof of that theory, of course. I tried the same experiment on several trout and the results were always the same. The movement of my body had a different reaction than the movement of just my arms.
If I stayed low on the ground and slowly stood up within about twenty feet of a trout, I could get by doing so most of the time without spooking the trout. However, when I would do the arm waving deal, they would all take off every time. That told me that it was next to impossible to cast to a trout that close to me without spooking it if it was looking in my direction. It also told me that if you move very slowly the trout didn’t spook as much as they do when you make sudden movements.
I could do the exact same thing, approaching trout from their rear, and pull it off
without the spooking the trout. The effects of the blind spot to their rear became
obvious.
I have tried moving up on trout in spring creeks about every way I could think off. I worked on a DVD on fly fishing spring creeks for about six years.
That was the reason I was spooking trout rather than trying to catch them. I
attempted to show, on camera, the different reactions from the trout for various
scenarios. It didn’t turn out very easy to do. Some of the things I discovered fooled me, but in most cases I was able to guess what would happen. That makes me think common sense goes a long way in approaching trout.
I have kicked rocks just to see the reaction of the trout. I have stomped the ground with my feet. I have yelled as loud as I can yell and done a number of sound test on trout in spring creeks. That did fool me. They can hear much better than I thought they could. I have also do these sound test in the smokies. You can drop a rock on another rock in the stream and send every trout in sight fleeing. Try that from one of the high banks along a stream and watch the reaction.
Spring creeks taught me a lot about approaching trout. You must be able to do so successfully, or you are not going to catch any trout. Blind casting is a waste of time in spring creeks unless you are fishing a riffle section of the stream. I love fishing spring creeks because it does teach you a lot about the reactions of trout and a lot about being able to fool and catch them. Spring creeks are perfect
places to learn how trout react to movements and sound. You can clearly see what spooks trout and what you cannot get away with. You must stalk trout to catch them. You do not blind cast because you can see everything in the water. In one scene I was moving closer and closer to a large trout casting all the time with the
camera looking over my shoulder.
Silver Creek Idaho is one of our favorite streams. We have fished this beautiful
creek several times and we have learned a lot about trout doing so. You rarely catch a trout you don’t first see. If the wind is not blowing hard, you will be looking at the trout you are casting to every time. Knowing what spooks trout, what you can get away with and what you cannot get away with, goes a long way in
being able to catch them. We learned that the surface of the water makes a huge difference in what the trout can and cannot see above the water. If it is smooth without ripples, you are seen by the trout much farther away than you are seen when the surface of the water is disturbed by current or wind. That is another reason you can get closer to the trout in riffles and runs than you can in the smooth water of a pool or pockets along banks and behind boulders.
Fish holding in deeper water will spook much quicker than those holding just under the surface. I think this is to do with their window of vision but it could also be a result of what the trout are concentrating on. When they are only inches deep
feeding in current, they are looking for tiny insects. You would think they would be keenly aware of what was around them since they are in an exposed position but
they don’t spook as easily as they do when they are holding in water a couple of
feet deep. When they are holding inches under the water, they don’t see insects in
the water until they are within inches from their nose. This is due to their small
window of vision.
Reviewing the Basics – Hiding from the Trout – Wading
Wading can help you catch more trout in the small in some cases, but before I discuss when and where it can help you, let me give you a fair warning. Wading can also prevent you from catching trout. It is an easy and fast way to spook trout. The trout can see you under the water and above the water. They can hear your boots scrape the bottom or move some sand and gravel. If you are in calmer water such as a pool, your wake can spook trout. Never wade unless it is necessary for
you to get into position to make a presentation to areas of the water you
think are holding trout. If you can reach those areas and get a good drift from
the bank, do so. Every time you wade you are taking chances on spooking some trout that you may have been able to catch from the bank.
The problem with everything I have said so far is that it is often and very common that you will not be able to present your fly to areas of the stream that are likely holding trout without wading. One thing that makes it almost impossible to cast from the bank is the heavy growth of trees and bushes along the banks of the stream. In many areas there is timber growing right up to the banks of the streams. This is great because if it did not, the streams would not have the trout that live in them. The water would be too warm in most areas for trout. They do keep you from casting along the banks in many cases.
Now don’t take this wrong. Just because there are some trees along the bank don’t mean you can’t cast from the bank. You can make all kinds of creative cast if you try and learn to make them. When you can, be certain to fish the water near the
banks before you get into the water to wade. About the biggest mistake you can
make is just to walk up to a stream, wade out into the center and start casting. You
may have spooked some trout right where you headed into the stream. Always
take you time. Stop and look at the water. Figure out your best approach to get to
the likely holding and feeding areas you intend to cast to.
I am not the best person in the world to give out this tip but I will anyway. Never cast while you are taking steps wading. You can’t concentrate on both and you will eventually end up making bad cast or tripping, stumbling or even falling. Stop casting and look at the water where you are wading. I am often guilty of making this mistake. I catch myself doing it and stop, then forget and do it again. I have also busted my you know what a few times – casting when I was wading.
The bottom line is wading can be dangerous. Never wade when you question
the water depth or speed. Use the knee-deep rule. Don’t wade water over
knee deep. Stop casting when you move and look at the bottom ahead. Move
slowly. There is no need to rush. Everyone must get used to wading the water.
The more you wade, the easier it is to do. It also takes some leg muscles if you do
very much of it. Climbing up and down and over rocks gives your legs a good
workout. The water resistance in the current and weight of the waders and boots
will tire you out until you get used to it. Never wade when you are tired. That is a
huge mistake. If you are tired and give out and you have a problem such as
slipping and falling, you do not want to be tired.
Wear a wading belt tight around your waist. If you fall in the water, it will run down into your waders filling them with pounds of water. Try standing up with your waders full of water. The wading belt will keep your legs and waste from filling up with water. I fell in the Madison River one time, just above the two-dollar bridge. I had a big rainbow on that I ended up catching and was moving
downstream with the trout wading when I stepped off into a deep hole. I went
completely under the water except for the very top of my head. I have no idea how
or even why I held the fly rod. I almost did not get up because the current carried
me about ten yards downstream as I fought to regain my footing. I am totally
convinced that if I did not have my wading belt on, I would have drowned. The entire episode is on video tape. I will never forget it. It took every ounce of energy I had. I should have dropped the rod and I have no idea why I didn’t. When I caught on and got back up, it dawned on me I still had the fly rod and when I tightened the line, I found the trout was still on. It was a solid eighteen inches long. A bridge full of vehicles also watched that little episode. Angie was running the camera from a
tripod and was screaming to the top of her voice. She could not have possible
helped me. I did a stupid thing, wading in deep, swift water. I did one thing right that I think saved my life. I had my wading belt on tight. From my waist up, I had a lot of water to deal with. I don’t think I could have handled the current if my pants legs filled up. Wading is dangerous. Several anglers have died from mistakes. Many of them were below dams but some of them were in other types of streams.
I got off course with safety, but it is very important.
Tips on Fishing Hatches
Although there are a few insects that hatch during the Fall and Winter, most of them take place during the Spring and Summer months of the year. Of course, this varies greatly with the section of the country you fish. It is a fact that many anglers don’t really know how to go about fishing hatches, or for that matter, what is important about them. This article isn’t going into any detail, or any specific aquatic insects. It is intended to point out just a few basic tips about how to go about fishing the hatches.
1. Why Hatches Are Important
When an aquatic insect hatches, it must come out of its hiding place – from underneath a rock, crevices between rocks, out of a grass or moss bed, or in some cases, a burrow. To hatch, meaning emerge into an adult insect, it must develop its wing pad and either accent to the surface, or crawl out of the water to emerge. It becomes directly exposed to the trout, or a sitting duck, you might say. The insects are very easy for the trout to acquire during the hatch. It may have to dry its wings to fly off the water.
2. What Flies Should You Have During Hatches?
You should have flies that imitate all stages of life that trout eat of all the aquatic insects that may hatch while you are on the water. For mayflies, that includes nymphs, emergers, duns and spinners. For stoneflies, that includes nymphs and adults. For caddisflies, that includes larva, pupa, and adults. For midges, that includes larva, pupa, and adults.
3. When To Fish Nymphs or Dry Flies (Below water or on the surface)
I’m often asked, when to fish a nymph, or larva, or dry fly during a hatch. It depends somewhat on the insect, but in general, you should fish a mayfly or stonefly nymph, or a caddisfly or midge larvae during the morning hours, and a dry fly to imitate the mayfly dun, adult stonefly, or adult caddis or midge, during the afternoons. Early in the season, most of them hatch during the warmest part of the day. During the mid to late afternoon, most mayfly spinners return to the water to mate, deposit eggs and die. Caddisflies and Stoneflies usually deposit their eggs from the middle to late in the day.
4. What Fly Should You Fish First?
It depends on the time you start fishing, but always the one that imitates the most plentiful and available insect at the time. In the case of multiple hatches, and there is often more than one insect that may hatch the day you fish, and assuming you start in the morning, fish the nymph or larva of that insect, or in the case when other types of foods are plentiful and more available, such as terrestrial insects, crustaceans, or baitfish, fish imitations of that food. If you are not sure which food or insects are most available for a given stream and time, you can always email or call us at Perfect Fly, and we can help you.
5. Where Should You Fish the Stream?
Some trout streams are ninety miles or longer. Most all are at least five to ten miles. Whatever insects are hatching at the time, rest assured they are not hatching in the same place on the stream. They are usually hatching only in a small section of a stream ranging from a few hundred yards to maybe as much as five miles. In cases where the elevation of the stream changes a lot, they usually start at the lowest elevation and move upstream each day, remaining in one section for only a very few days.
6. The Type of Water Is Also Important
Different types of aquatic insects hatch in different types of water. Burrower, crawler, and swimming mayflies live and hatch in slow to moderate water. Clinger mayflies live and hatch in fast water. Stoneflies mostly all live and hatch in fast water. Caddisflies hatch in different types of water depending on the species. When you are fishing a stream and a certain insect is hatching, spend your time only in the type of water that insect lives and hatches in.
There is much more you should know about hatches, but hopefully, these tips will help make your next trip more productive. Each of our Perfect Flies has a page of information under the info link on our website on how, when and where to fish them. If you are planning a trip and don’t know what insects are hatching at the time you will be fishing, send us an email, or call us and we will be glad to help you.
The more your fly resembles the appearance and behavior of the most plentiful and available food the trout are eating at the time you are fishing, the easier it will be for you to fool the trout into taking your fly for the real thing. You’ll probably read and hear that the presentation of the fly is far more important than the fly itself. It’s a talking point some anglers frequently use as a cover up for their lack
of knowledge about the aquatic insects in the streams of the Smoky Mountains. To say the presentation of a fly is more important than the fly itself is like saying the engines of an airplane are more important than its wings. When trout in are wild are stream-bred trout, it means they are not stocked trout that were raised in a hatchery on fish food pellets. One reason they survive as well as they do is they are extremely skillful at avoiding predators. The trout are as nervous as a long tail cat in a nursing home room full of rocking chairs. They survive their entire life by eating the food that’s in the streams they live in but only when their pea size brains signal, they are safe from being eaten by one of their own predators.
If you want to be successful in catching them, you better make certain your fly is the only thing they see. If they see you, your shiny fly reel, or even the shadow of your fly rod waving through the air, you can forget about catching them. Just the sight or sound of your fly line hitting the water is enough to send them fleeing for the nearest cover. Since the fly represents what the trout are trying to eat and since it’s the only thing the trout should be able to see to avoid spooking them before they are hooked, don’t you think it’s rather important? Furthermore, doesn’t it make sense the fly should resemble the same thing the trout are eating?
Get used to hearing that trout feed opportunistically, a tongue twisting statement often used by bug challenged anglers to lessen the importance of the fly. It is a true statement because it can be said that trout feed opportunistically, everywhere
they exist. In a technical sense, all fish are opportunistic feeders. That simply
means if it’s available, they may eat more than one single item of food. This
particular one word oversimplification of how trout feed can create big problems for those that misunderstand it. The fact trout feed opportunistically is often misinterpreted to mean the trout will eat whatever happens to come along and that the particular fly you use isn’t important.
Selective feeding is another little understood fly-fishing term that’s often interpreted to mean just the opposite of opportunistic feeding. Trout are said to be feeding selectively when it’s preferring one insect over another. In a purely technical sense, if a trout ate a hundred Little Yellow stonefly nymphs and just one Light Cahill mayfly nymph, it could be said the trout was feeding opportunistically. From the same technical standpoint, the trout would not be feeding entirely selectively because it ate more than one insect. If selective feeding is used in a more meaningful sense it would imply that even though trout may not focus entirely on one insect, the great majority of what they eat is always the one that’s most plentiful and easiest for them to acquire. If a trout is feeding near or on the surface in a certain area, feeding lane or zone of water, and both a Light Cahill dun and a Blue-winged Olive dun happened to be drift downstream, side-by-side within that zone, the trout may very well eat either one of the insects. If it could react quickly enough it may even eat both. It may not feed selectively in the sense it would choose one insect over the other. The problem with this hypothetical scenario is that it’s unrealistic. Such a scenario rarely exists. During the times trout are lined up in a particular lane, line or zone of water feeding on the surface in a fast water riffle or run, they are there because of a concentration of food. This food almost always consists of one and only one insect. It’s rare that two or more different aquatic insects are hatching at the same time and are getting caught up in the fast water current seams together.
For example, Light Cahills are clinger nymphs that prefer fast water and Blue-winged Olives are swimming nymphs that prefer slow to moderate flows. They neither live nor hatch in the same areas of the streams. They rarely get caught in the same currents and almost never at the same time. Even though much of the water in the high gradient streams is fast flowing water, less than a third of all aquatic insects that exist in such streams hatch in areas where they can easily get caught in the fast water. Most of them can emerge and fly away from slow or moderate areas of flow.
About a third of the aquatic insects, including some mayflies, several
caddisflies and all stoneflies, don’t hatch in the water. They crawl out on the banks to hatch. Trout focus on eating them when they crawl out of their normal hiding spots beneath the rocks to the banks. Those hatching insects that do get caught in fast water are almost always clinger mayflies. Although they move from their normal fast water habitat to the nearest slower flowing water to emerge, many get caught in the seams between the slow and fast water and channeled downstream in the fast water.This feeding zone, area or lane I’m referring to, whether it is in fast, moderate or slow areas of water, also relates to depth. It includes the surface and the column of water from the surface to the bottom as well as the bottom itself. Although you may envision various nymphs, larvae and other food drifting downstream at random, whether accidentally or in a behavioral drift, such a situation very rarely exists. Aquatic insect nymphs and larvae don’t survive drifting freely downstream. On numerous occasions, during the two years period we had a special permit to catch and photograph insects in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, we placed special designed aquatic insect drift nets in several different streams of the park for hours at a time only to discover an empty net. If you sit on the bank of a fast water stream in the Smokies staring into the water looking for insects drifting downstream, get ready to fall asleep before you spot the first one. Except during a hatch, there’s almost never enough free drifting nymphs, larvae, terrestrial insects, or any other form of food in the fast water at any one time to warrant trout holding in the faster currents to feed. When trout are feeding in certain areas, zones
or lanes, they are almost always feeding on one insect that’s hatching in
quantities sufficient to warrant the trout being there holding in the fast water
feeding on them. Anytime there’s lots of food drifting downstream in fast water current, you can bet you last dollar there’s a hatch underway. Trout won’t hold in fast current waiting on random bits of food to drift downstream. If they did, they will expend more energy than they could replenish. The exact location of whatever is most available and most plentiful for the trout to eat in a stream at any given time varies greatly. The different aquatic insects live, feed, hatch, mate and fall dead in different sections and depths of the streams depending on the species of aquatic insect. Even if the trout aren’t being one-hundred percent selective as to the food they are eating, they are certainly being selective as to exactly where in the stream they are looking for food. Selective feeding is nature’s way of letting the trout feed efficiently. This allows them to use less energy and take in more food. The trout are feeding in similar areas of the stream, focusing on eating what’s most plentiful and available for them to eat using a minimum amount of effort. It’s necessary for their survival. If trout expend more energy than the food they take in can replenish, they will soon die. Trout will only get into a certain fast water feeding zone, line or lane and hold there only when there’s a substantial amount of food coming their way. If there’s an adequate amount of food coming down the same feeding lane, the trout won’t move to another area of water or seek another depth to feed. Again, in such cases, it’s almost always one and only one insect.
Why do certain generic flies that mimic several insects of the same size and general shade of color sometimes work quite well in the fast water and why do attractor flies that don’t necessarily match anything often work in the fast water? For example, trout will sometimes take a gray body Parachute Adams dry fly when yellow Light Cahills are hatching. The answer lies in timing. First of all, a trout has only a fraction of a second to examine a fly in fast water. Secondly, the trout has only a small window of vision when it is feeding near the surface. The trout is only able to see a distorted image of part of the fly that’s above the surface and only for a split second. Even then you will often see flashes where trout detect something that’s unnatural and rejected the fly at the last split second.
Even when an insect is hatching and becoming caught up in the fast water runs and riffles and trout are feeding on them, which had you rather have tied on – a fly that imitated the hatching insect, or one that imitated something that wasn’t even present? Or had you rather have a generic fly that imitates a little of everything as opposed to a fly that’s imitating the insect that’s hatching. Even in fast water situations such as I just described, you will find better, more realistic imitations of the naturals results in a higher percentage of hookups.
What about those other two-thirds of the insects that either emerge or crawl out of the water to hatch from the slow to moderate sections of the pocket water streams? In those cases the trout are able to get a very good look at your fly. In those situations, I think you will find that an imitation that closely resembles the appearance and behavior of the natural will greatly increase your odds of success.
Please don’t refer to this solely as “matching the hatch”. It involves much more than that. It’s also matching the 99.9 percent of the aquatic life in the streams that hasn‘t yet hatched. It should also mean “matching the egg layers”. It should even include “matching the dead”, or the mayfly spinners and other aquatic and terrestrial insects that fall into the streams and die. Don’t forget the other trout foods. Call that “matching the sculpin and minnows” if you like. Instead of improperly calling everything “matching the hatch“, just call it “matching the naturals“. Even better, just think of it as matching the food the trout eat with a fly that closely resembles that particular food‘s appearance and behavior. Don’t think I’m attempting to undermine the importance of presentation, or that I’m even contending that the fly is more important than the way it’s presented. That’s not my intension at all but do keep this in mind. The first and foremost important key to presentation is knowing “where” in the streams the insects live and hatch. Remember, although the trout may not be feeding selectively, eating one and only one insect, they are always selective in exactly where they feed. They feed where the insects are most plentiful and easiest to acquire and that often isn’t in the fast water where the trout are easier to fool.
If you’re not satisfied with mediocre success, or you do okay and you want to improve to the point you will be able to consistently catch trout, I suggest you start by learning all you can about the food they eat to survive on. If you have been fishing using the traditional generic and attractor flies like the Royal Wulff, Parachute Adams, Hares Ear nymphs and other generic and attractor flies, and you’re not achieving the all the success that you desire, you certainly should consider switching to more realistic imitations of the insects and other foods the trout eat.
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