Need help from troutmen

[wannafish]

I've been casting to rising brookies the last two evenings with no luck; they are aprox. 2lb trout in a feeding frenzy just before dark, dozens of 'em driving me crazy. I know from previous seasons they will soon move up river over a falls that holds them back for a while each spring.I determined they are feeding on emerging mosquitoes and I was using size 22 mosquitoes and nymphs but they are not taking. What's the next step...even SMALLER flies?! I can barely see to tie the 22s on. I may try a smaller tippet as well but if there is something else I'm missing feel free to chime in.

[williamhj]

What patterns are you using? I find when I encounter feeding trout sometimes they'll only take a specific pattern and will reject other variations. On Monday I encountered a bunch of trout feeding heavily on blue wing olives. Usually fish in the area love parachutes, but I could only get them to hit an upright wing BWO or a sparkle dun size 18 or 20 with 7x tippet. No hits even on parachutes, nymphs, or emergers. Once I figured it out, I kept catching them.

I'd try other variations of the fly you were using - same thing in a parachute, upright wing, hair wing, etc style. Or drop a size smaller. Maybe get one of those threader fly boxes so you can load up the size 24's at home where the light is good to save your eyes on the river?

[gatortransplant]

One trick I've learned (someone on the forum suggested it but I can't remember who...) when fishing ultra-small dries that I cannot see is to use a two-fly rig, with a more visible fly like an Elk Hair Caddis as the point, then a length of nylon to attach the second dry. The point fly will show the position of your drift and will also give you an indication of any drag. An added bonus is sometimes the bigger trout will take the heartier offering, or even crazier, you'll have two simultaneous risers. It is also a handy trick when using heavier droppers.

[wannafish]

Thanks guys; I was back out today to try some other patterns and gave it my best shot for a few hours till my wife needed the truck. Either these fish are very cagey or it's my lack of trouting experience (probably the latter). I've thrown just about everything at them by now. They weren't in a frenzy like last night but they were still surfacing once in a while. I'm very humbled

[williamhj]

Can you see how the fish react to your fly? If you are able to get into a spot to see a feeding fish after he returns to his spot on the bottom it's helpful (also very interesting). You might be able to see if they're taking flies right floating on the surface, or flies moving across the water, or perhaps flies just emerging even just under the surface.

You can also see their reaction to your fly. Sometimes your fly passes over them without any reaction other times they'll hang under it drifting down stream studying the fly before rejecting it. That'll tell you how close your fly is, they might reject it if it's a little off, little big, or if it's dragging. It's one of my favorite kind of fishing, as long as I catch one once in awhile When you work that hard, an 8 inch brookie can be a very satisfying catch.

[danielp]

I have had similar experiences with ultra picky trout and have found more often than not the fly is not the problem. If they are feeding small I would be confident of catching them on a size 20-26 f-fly (presume they are as popular in the USA as they are over here). Long fine leaders and a drag free drift are the most important in my experience.

That is ofcourse assuming they are feeding on the dries and not the nymphs. If you can get close enough to see clearly and they are taking the adults on the surface a Griffith's Gnat is a good copy of an adult mosquito with just the legs touching the water.

Dan

[wannafish]

William, I can't see into the pool as the water is choppy due to a falls upstream but I scooped out what I believe are mosquito emergers with a butterfly net; the wings were laid straight back over their backs and they were probably less than 1/4 inch long. The trout were sometimes moving a short distace along the surface with their backs showing I assume taking more than one insect in one rise. I'm going to try once more this evening and I suspect they will be gone tomorrow with rain coming.
Dan, I'll show my ignorance by asking what are f-flies? Thanks for the help gentlemen.

[sandfly]

are you absolutly sure they are feeding on flies at the surface and not just below the surface. do you see the head out of water, or the back will tell you whether they are feeding on the top or just below.

[wannafish]

Originally Posted by sandfly

are you absolutly sure they are feeding on flies at the surface and not just below the surface. do you see the head out of water, or the back will tell you whether they are feeding on the top or just below.

Yes the heads clear the surface (they're big) and their backs "porpoise" out of the water by times but I think its tiny midge nymphs/emergers because I can't see anything at all and I'm getting what looks like mosquito and black fly forms in my butterfly net mesh. I'll try to post a pic of one.

---------- Post added at 11:11 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:04 PM ----------

Here's a pic of one of the bugs I think they are eating; it's blurry but you can see how small they are;





This guy across the stream was pulling ~2lb trout in all evening on a spincast (in a flyfishing C&R zone) I took his license # and reported him grrr

[nickj]

Looks like they're feeding on black midges, from your picture.