How And Where The Trout Feeds

You should understand something about how the trout feeds and what it eats in the river or the lake. Up until they reach a certain size, trout feed on insects and other small waters creatures. Then when they reach a size which these creatures can no longer nourish, the trout turns cannibal and will eat other smaller fish—even small trout. Except in very cold weather, trout will rise to the surface to snatch insects and when they do, this is called a ‘rise’.

So you know what he means when an angler is sitting on a river bank and says he is ‘waiting for the rise’. In warmer weather, trout feed most of the time from the surface. In a river insects are carried downstream to the fish, which usually lie at a suitable spot to get them. This spot is called the ‘lie’. The trout is predatory. It will have a go at a fly or bug or insect or other living creature in or on the water. (). It is a fish which selects its food according to the season and, quite naturally, takes what it can get to provide it with the most energy for the least effort. This is the reason why it is best advise to complete your fishing equipment list.

As the various insects and other water creatures vary their cycle of life, so the trout will change its own feeding habits. As winter becomes spring, the trout are mainly bottom feeders on a snails, beetles, shrimps etc. then a summer approaches they feed on the increasing fly life on and below the surface as insects mate, descend, hatch eggs then die. At all stages of the life of may flies, sedge and stone flies, the trout will feed on them. This continues right through summer, when more land flies are blown on the water and join the menu. Then as autumn progresses and the temperature falls, the trout return to bottom feeding, until at below five degrees centigrade they stop feeding and remain this way through winter.

One of the reasons why the fishing season for rainbow trout can start earlier is simply because these fish start feeding earlier and will carry on later, cold or no cold.

Trout Interests

The flies you used for angling, together with the fishing gear that you bought,  are supposed to match those on which the trout is feeding at that moment in time. This is what makes the whole business of selecting the correct pattern and size of fly so intriguing. The trout is interested in its survival, which means three things—its shelter, its food and its reproduction. The place where you are most likely to find the fish in a river or a lake, is where you might be if you were a trout.

So far as food is concerned, look for insects on the water or on the surface and watch for any tell-tale rings which show where a trout is feeding on these. If there is no activity on the surface of the water, fish around weed beds or rocks, or where the water runs under banks –that is where the bottom feeders are hunting for snails or larvae or minnows. In a river, much of the insect life is swept in backwater, away from the main current. In a lake or reservoir it usually gets blown by the wind on to the lee shore. When looking for likely places where trout might lie, the task is somehow easier on a river.

Trout in the Underbanks

Where would you be if you wanted shelter and safety ? That’s where the trout will be –under banks, in deep holes, behind large rocks, thus sheltering from the force of the current. They are never far away from their feeding areas, so that as dusk comes and the light is fading they can move in safety out to the current and feed on the insects coming downriver. Fortunately for anglers, trout are fairly predictable in their feeding habits. This means that a beginner can train himself to use his eyes and look for the spots where he is most likely to catch a fish –and, of course, the tell-tale rings on the water which reveal a feeding fish. It is difficult to offer precise guidance about where trout might be lying in a specific river but here are a few hints which will help to simplify the search.

• Once you know that you are on a trout river, go to the nearest bridge and look down into the water through Polaroid glasses –preferably on a good, clear day or evening. Keep staring into the water and, if you are lucky, you’ll see a trout. See how he remains almost motionless behind a rock or weeds or close to the bank, only the languid, gentle movements of his tail keeping him in the one position. Then watch him as he moves rapidly but smoothly out and up to the surface to take a passing insect. There is a ring on the water, that’s all. Then he resumes his vigilant posture facing upstream.
• On warm days, and particularly in early summer, trout tend to go where the water is well aerated, and this means the rough ‘white water’. There they can shelter behind rocks and snatch passing food. This kind of place often holds the larger fish.
• When the water is slow, however, and the weather warm in summer, many of the decent-size fish keep under the banks out of sight and emerge only at dusk to feed. Indeed, when the sun is going over the horizon that’s when you’ll see them feeding in the smooth water and at the very ends of pools.
• Thundery weather keeps the trout out of sight, they will not be interested in flies. When the river is running in spate and is yellow or brown, they are not interested in fly life because they are getting worms, etc. from the spate.
• Very cold weather also discourages trout them from feeding on flies – probably because flies are very scarce anyway in low temperatures. In lakes the trout rest at certain times of the day in sheltered places, then when conditions are right, they move out and cruise about to feed on flies. The ‘right’ conditions are like those on rivers, when the light is fading or when there is a good breeze carrying insects to the water.
• There is one habit which the trout has which is very encouraging to the angler. It is most obvious on a river. If you catch a good ‘rested’ the water for a time, fish that lie again and you can be sure that in ‘pecking order’ of trout, another one who is next in the queue will occupy it.