In a new, innovative and well researched approach to fly fishing, Wayne Smith explores the feeding behaviour of both Brown and Rainbow trout -
The feeding behaviour of trout is the sum of two factors:
Firstly, through the fry and fingerling stages, identification of Food Recognition Keys is ingrained as a result of the repetitive feeding pattern of their natural survival instincts.
Secondly, as they get larger, they can manage larger diet items. Supplementary behaviour is learned as a reactive response to the local fauna of the area in which they are hatched or released. Local knowledge is normally of benefit here and this is what we traditionally focus on when fly fishing.
Rather than studying potentially thousands of insects and the flies imitating them, I've found I need only a few patterns, each designed to do a job in the different circumstances encountered on the water.
Trout Flies induce takes by the use of food 'Recognition Keys,' rather than imitation, hence some patterns are given the label 'Exciter pattern', because quite simply, they resemble nothing. Some of the most well known flies world wide bear no similarity to any insect whatsoever.
Trout behavioural patterns vary significantly between species, size and circumstances. Trout habits change during different times of the day. Feeding habits and behaviour change between fast and slow waters.
As in most modes of angling, there is not just one single, simple answer. If there was, it would have been discovered, and been made common knowledge, long ago.
There are many pieces to the puzzle. The more pieces you have to put together, the more the multiplication factor sees your results soar.
The more time you have spent fishing with incorrect or insufficient knowledge, the more time you have spent developing the mindset that the trout is a vastly superior, cunning and unpredictable adversary, and results like mine become seemingly unattainable. Assumedly, they just do not exist.
Of course, when you lack the very intimate knowledge of these fish necessary for such results, the practical reality remains precisely that.
That's not putting anyone down, it takes years of studying these fish, trial and error with different fly patterns, different fishing techniques, different innovative designs and methods with the right focus to get to a place where you understand these creatures adequately for such results.
However, you can vastly short-cut that time by years and even decades, if you were to carry on using the same methods for long enough, just by finding a good mentor with sufficient time to pass on the finer points of stalking trout.
Unfortunately, there are very few experienced anglers with time and resources available to offer that sort of tuition, let alone those who have the skills to even make them eligible to do so.
Fly Fishing For Trout - A Quiet Revolution, focuses largely on the instinctively learned Food Recognition Keys. They enable anglers to catch trout in any location or situation in which they exist. Local knowledge becomes relatively irrelevant.
This also means flies do not need to imitate anything to catch trout. What!?! Say that again.- Flies do NOT need to imitate anything to catch trout (This is not going to make me popular in some circles, but my results speak for themselves and are online for all to see).
Flies can then be tied to counter stream or water conditions, or to counter, and or take advantage of, various aspects of trout behaviour.
That approach has been enhanced by the use of innovative strategies, tactics and trout fly construction, which have dramatically raised the bar on fly fishing success rates.
That experience and knowledge is now being shared in this groundbreaking new publication, specifically designed to give you the edge in your fly fishing. |
