"I fully understand the value of thorough reconnaissance, but like a lot of anglers I have to travel a fair distance to follow my sport. How long do I wait before I go searching for the Trout when they are not rising and what tactics do you use to do so?"
The real answer to the first part of this very reasonable question is: "It all depends..."
It depends on: what time of year it is; what time of day you are starting; the nature of the water you are fishing; and what you can see already now you are there.
At the beginning and end of the season the best of the fishing day is usually compressed into a short time of about three or four hours in the centre of the daylight hours. This is variable though, as weather conditions can change and a sudden warm spell occur that can extend the day until dark as flies and fish make the most of these special occasions, but generally you will be doing most of your fishing in that central part of these shorter days. So if you have arrived at the at the waterside by 11:00 you will be waiting a short time and if no rises are evident within half an hour you would do well to, slowly, go-a-hunting, working your way upstream until you find either rising fish or see a fish on station that looks like it might come up to your artificial.
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Get there before dawn and you will very likely find that there are fish rising. These have probably been feeding all night. You would start fishing immediately in these circumstances, but an hour or so after dawn everything goes quiet. This has prompted me to think that when we say, at around 08:30 or so, "We are too early!" we are kidding ourselves. We are actually too late, for the first activity of the day that is.
At the "normal" time of starting, mid-morning, you will probably have to wait a while before any serious hatch, and consequent rise, gets under way. To answer part of your question, your own mood should determine how long you are prepared to watch and wait.
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The Sedge fly is a fly associated with the evenings but they do put in appearances at other times too.
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The day can switch off for a little while during high summer in the late afternoon or early evening. The hatching flies stop hatching and the adult flies are not yet ready to return to the river to lay their eggs. If the flies included the Blue Winged Olive (BWO) you can expect some activity later on as their adult females, the Sherry Spinners, return to the river to lay their eggs and finally die, ending up on the water, cruciform as spent spinners. These returns of spinner often lead to what many regard as the cream of dry fly fishing. You can read about some tactics here and the flies here.
This has turned out to be a long answer to a shortish pair of questions, please do forgive me. There is no firm answer, but I hope these ramblings will give you a starting point or two. Angling is unpredictable. Dry Fly Fishing is even more so. That's why we love it, I think...
:)
Regular Rod
Many thanks for the response, very interesting - if you want to call it 'rambling' you are fully entitled to do so - but for acolytes like myself, keep rambling!
ReplyDeleteregards
Stephen