Understanding Fly Fishing Trout Feeding Behaviour

In new, creative and well researched approach to trout fishing for rainbow and brown trout, Wayne Smith examines the feeding behaviour of both Brown and Rainbow trout -

The feeding behaviour for trout is the sum of two factors:

Firstly, through the fry and fingerling stages, identification of ‘Food Recognition Keys’ is ingrained resulting from the repetitive feeding pattern of their natural survival instincts.

Second, as their size and dominance in their environment increases, they can begin to consider more sizable diet items. Supplementary behaviour is then learned as a reactive response to the local fauna in the area where they are hatched or released. Local knowledge is normally of benefit here and this is what you traditionally focus on when flyfishing for brown and rainbow trout.

Instead of examining potentially thousands of insects and the flies created to imitate them, I've found I need only several patterns, each one designed to do a unique job in the different circumstances encountered on the water.

Trout Flies induce takes by the use of food 'Recognition Types,' rather than imitation, hence numerous existing patterns which work, yet really don't resemble known insects, find themselves given the label 'Exciter pattern', because quite simply, they resemble nothing. Many of the 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 behaviours differ between fast flowing and slow waters.

Just as in many different modes of angling, there is not just one single, simple answer. If there was, it would have been uncovered, and been made common knowledge, a very long time ago.

There are various pieces to the puzzle. The growing number of pieces we have to put together, the further the multiplication factor sees your fishing results soar.

The more time you have spent fishing with incorrect or insufficient knowledge, the further 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 many 'experts' have finished giving their insights, the intimate knowledge of these fish necessary for such results, has often become even further out of reach.

Which's not putting anyone down, it takes years of studying these fish, trial and error with multiple fly patterns, different fishing techniques, different innovative designs and ways with the right focus to get to a place where we truly understand the plight of these creatures adequately for such results.

However, we can vastly short-cut the learning curve by years and even decades, if you were to carry on using the same ways of long enough, just by finding an excellent mentor with sufficient time to pass on the finer points of hunting trout.

Unfortunately, there exist 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 primarily on the instinctively learned ‘Food Recognition Keys.’ They enable anglers to understand trout in any location or situation where they exist. Local knowledge becomes largely irrelevant.

This also means flies do not have to imitate anything to tempt the trout. What!?! I hear the outraged questioning.- Flies do NOT need to imitate anything to catch trout (This is not going to make me popular in many flyfishing circles, but my results speak for themselves and you can find them online for all to see).

Flies can then be tied to counter stream or water conditions, or to counter, and or take advantage of, many aspects of trout behaviour.

That approach has been enhanced by the use of creative strategies, tactics and trout fly construction innovations, which have dramatically raised the bar on fly fishing for rainbow and brown trout success rates.

My downloadable knowledge and experience will give you the edge in your trout fly fishing.