Why do some trout sometimes just annihilate your dry fly? I just started thinking of this the other day last week…. Well, maybe long before that. So, I’m fishing a lake a week ago. I had on a callibaetis emerger and later I added a dropper midge dry also. Regardless of the double fly setup, how many times have you had that trout just slam your fly and break water like nobody’s business? Is it their way of being careful? After all, they just got done slurping in a natural so gently. Then you put your fly in their face, and they just kill it! Why is this? Do they feel safer by crashing and crushing your fly, because it’s not quite natural looking like the flies they have been feeding on? Is crashing this unfamiliar-like fly on the surface a defense mechanism? I have not other ideas. My double fly setup was getting smashing rises and I missed a lot of hits that day. I don’t know if the double fly setup had anything to do with anything that day, as I have had this happen on many other occasions with a single fly as well. Could it be that the callibaetis is a mouthful and drives them crazy? Perhaps it could be from my success in using this fly regardless of a callibaetis hatch happening, that it is familiar food but scarce at the moment, so they crush it? Yesterday, the same thing happened on a beaver pond. It was a long day, no hatches, a lot of patience, but I kept the callibaetis emerger on. Again, they smashed it when they decided to take it. All the cutthroats were beauties of 14-16 inches. Slow, but a fine day. Your thoughts, “dry fly freaks”.
I notice fish will often smack a dry fly but not actually take it. A tactic of drowning it first then having a leisurely meal? I can understand it in lakes but it happens a lot on small streams I fish too, usually by a small fish that ruins the presentation. So the fish is going to come up from it's lie (think buffet and safety) drown a fly then follow it downstream to eat, return to the lie; possibly having to contest it? Or maybe it is an abort at the last instant. Either way it is expending a lot of energy for a meal. Guess that's why (or because) they are small (and aggressive). At any rate, in the streams dropping down a size or two typically stops the smacks by the smaller fish that ruin a presentation, and the larger fish start taking them. Trouble is (besides my myopic eyesight) the smaller fish are aggressive and now they're taking instead of drowning.
Well now, good subject dry! I would start by saying cali nymphs are very good swimmers, hatch fairly fast when they reach the surface and fly away which would make the fished used to chasing the nymph or emerger to catch it before the adult flies away. many of the may-fly nymphs in lakes and ponds are very good swimmers being in still waters, now in rivers they are clinger nymphs and not fast swimmers. Also I have seen fish in pods taking hard on midges because of other fish around, not so much as a "have to catch that bug" as a get to it first-race-slash take. I noticed if it is a single fish sipping they tend to be very calm about the take. hard to tell if there is other fish under the surface sometimes with the one fish feeding on the surface. another thought would be predators! larger older fish know they can not be swimming for ever on the surface for hawks and eagles to spot and grab. chiro's are terrible swimmers and risers taking forever to get to the surface and many times having trouble braking through the surface film, they attach themselves to the surface and then crawl out of the shuck and then are terrible fliers. when there are lots of different hatches reading how they are rising can tell you what they are feeding on or at least give you clues as to what to start with. sippers chiro's - faster risers - cali's. boils - jumping - slashing - maybe dragon fly nymphs or damsels. of coarse these are only my guesses! Figuring the game out is all the fun and is the challenge I love even when I get it wrong! but when you get it right it's ohhhhh soooo nice! cali nymph and chiro emerger videos - notice how long the mid emerger takes to swim and hatch compared to the cali swimming nymph! Emerging Chironomids by David Strawhorn - YouTube YouTube - Midges: Chapter 5 of the "Bugs of the Underworld" DVD YouTube - Mayfly Life Cycle: trout view depending on water temps or sun - no sun how the hatch will come off - fast swimming - slow - just some thoughts!!! And as the may fly video states sometimes many of the insects fail to hatch and get stuck in the surface film for an easy meal. I have found on a certain lake fish rising all over without bugs in the air "failed hatch" then I will fish softies real - real slow! even when some bugs are in the air the fish are keyed in on the dead or struggling nymphs instead of the adult. maybe why I very seldom use dry flies in rivers on still waters.
Great discussion. I've always figured a fish smashing a fly on the surface was an effort to eat or cripple it so it can't escape. That explains why they often "miss" the fly and if you can resist jerking the it away, the fish will come back for a second or even third shot. The only other explanation for the misses is that some fish are cross-eyed.
I guess I should clarify that that one day last week where I wasn't hooking up from the smashing rises is, I was too slow on the draw (I think) or the double fly setup may have effected how they took the fly perhaps, especially if it was the front fly perhaps they felt the dropper leader? I don't know. Regardless, my experience Saturday was they were smashing it but not missing. Good thoughts Mark and all.
Good topic Larry. As a follow-on question, why do fish continue slamming a dry fly even long after it's been chewed by so many previous fish that it barely still floats and doesn't look at all like it originally did (or anything else for that matter)? I'm not complaining mind you, but it always gobsmacks me to see how well some dries work even long after they stop looking like 'flies'. K
a good topic i look forward to some of the responses i think fish just have some anger issues sometimes probably because they watch these strange tall things waving a stick around all day on dry land that when something that looks suspiciously good floating right over them they have to let out their anger in some way
Ah, so very true, huh Ken?! That is what has been happening to me as well. My callibaetis emerger was falling apart and tore to crap, but they kept on it. Occasionally, I'll drag the emerger to move from one place to another without taking it out of the water. They like to smash it that way also. It produces a nice "wake" that I think is attractive to any trout and frankly, can drive them crazy at times. Let's face it, a callibaetis is a "mouthful" for any trout, but I have had this happen on midges as well, so, it remains a mystery to me. What is funny is, you might be fishing and watching trout gently slurp in other naturals nearby, then they take yours so hard and violent, it scares the crap out of you! They were supposed to take it gently right?!! I have noticed while fishing with blue damsels, the trout tend to usually hit it very fast and your "set" has to be fast as well. It usually is a pretty fast smashing rise. I surmise it is because damsels are quick to fly off, the fish know that, so they are very aggressive when they hit the dry blue damsel. The pond I was fishing the day before yesterday had and eagle present and a couple of osprey. I suppose it could have something to do with it, but I'm not that convinced regarding the birds of prey fear theory, but it does make some sense.
Larry, your thoughts about damsels makes a lot of sense since they are fast. I was fishing big salmon fly patterns recently and it seemed we had a lot of trout make slashes (a smash that misses) at my flies. Sometimes they'd take a second shot at it. Granted most of the time they'd smash the fly and it was game on. Unlike damsels, salmon flies can almost never take off from the water, but flutter their way to shore to climb out. We were joking that maybe the fish were cross eyed since a friend used to have a cross eyed dog and if you bounced a ball to it half the time the dog would close his mouth on thin air about 6" to the side of the ball.
Takes awhile to adjust to it but the Lochsa River Cutts often jump out of the water then take the dries on the way back down. It is sometimes hard to hold the trigger long enough to avoid jerking the fly out from under them. Mangled artificials often work well. I suppose they resemble crippled bugs so that is why they continue working well.
I've had several occasions fishing october caddis where a trout came out of the water next to the fly and landed on it, then turned and ate the fly. I too assume that is to drown the fly first before eating it. Or maybe trout are like cats and want to torture their food before eating it. Similar with crane flies, where trout on lakes will leap way out of the water to smash them. On the other hand, with other large dries like hoppers and skwala, they tend to sip them in slowly far more often than smash them, and I can't remember a time when they first drown the fly with a belly flop. Trout must be smart enough to know which large insects tend to be able to fly away easily.
