We have the right imitation and are using a textbook presentation, but the trout don’t care. What to do? Toss the fish something unexpected, and hold on!
[by Al Ritt]IT BEGAN AS ONE OF THOSE DAYS: pale-morning duns were hatching, and the trout were rising. It was a perfect fly fishing scenario—or was it?
I caught a few trout using nymphs before the hatch, then the telltale little sailboats began appearing on the surface of the water, followed by the noses of fish. I’d come for this event, and switched to a dun imitation. After 30 minutes and no takes, I looked closer and realized the trout weren’t eating the adults. No problem: I switched to a Hackle Stacker Emerger with a Soft-Hackle Pheasant-Tail Nymph trailing four inches below it. Smug in my detective work and with restored confidence, I resumed casting to the nearest pod of feeding trout. After another fishless half hour, I sat on the bank to watch and think.
We’ve all been in this frustrating situation. We know the fish are there, but for one reason or another, our best efforts go unrewarded. We observe, we adjust, and we try again. Sometimes we think we have solved the puzzle, only to discover that we have not; we have missed some important piece. What to do? We could pack it up and return on a more predictable day, or we can just keep changing flies and fishing, hoping to stumble onto the right pattern. Or, it could be…
