Understanding the size difference in lures (beginner's question)

[jbu311]

Hi all,

A book told me to use different lures for the same particular creek and for the same type of fish (brown trout). Why does it seem like half of the baits it suggests are less than 1cm and the other half of baits are large like streamers and wooly buggers? Is it like bass fishing where a large bass will take either small or large baits? Or is it that the book is telling me to use small baits for tiny trout and the large baits for the mammoth trouts?

It just doesn't seem to make sense to me. Please help me out.

Jbu

[MTskibum]

Because they are imitating 2 completely different food sources.

The small ones are imitating fly pupa, the larger ones are for imitating small fish, leaches, frogs, etc.

You can catch small fish on large flies, or large fish on small flies, it depends on what they are feeding on.

[plland]

Next time you're at a stream find a spot where a bunch of leaves have settled in the muck and kick up the gravel and mud and then scoop up all the debris with a net or something and dump it on shore. All the little tiny insects you see crawling out of it are the stuff that trout love to eat and are what the "nymph" fishing flies imitate. In some regions, there are stoneflies that have nymphs stages as large as 2-3 inches, but generally the larger fishing flies are minnow and crayfish imitators.