"rw" wrote


When you see two rise forms in sequence it's tempting to cast to where you
extrapolate the fish will be next. This is, I believe, a mistake. Fish
feeding on the surface of stillwater move randomly. I cast directly to the
last rise form. If that doesn't get a take I start searching around it.



On Hebgen, after a few days of heavy hatches, the fish DO become predictable
and you can plot their path and intercept it.

Sure, it never becomes exact, but it gets close enough you can count out
rise times nearly exactly uniform and predict the area ( within a foot or
so ) of the next one. They DO make sudden shifts and direction changes,
but it usually after many 'predictable' rises in a row. I've seen times on
Hebgen when you'll be approached by a dozen fish traveling together in a
group the size of a kickboat, each fish rising ever few seconds ... a moving
Silver Cereek pod ... you toss your fake out in front of this pod and
can't find it in the middle of all the naturals, even with a shortish cast,
exciting stuffG. Anyway, I've seen many fish rise every few feet in a
rhythm for 50 yards or more in a 'straight' line on Hebgen, but never
elsewhere and they don't 'always' do it there ... it takes some time, days,
a week, after they start surface feeding each summer before they really
start 'gulping'

The tactic you suggest ( casting quickly to the last seen rise ) is what
works best for me, most lakes, most days, especially during damsel time when
I'm tossing a nymph and ( I believe ) the plop gets his attention and turns
the fish back.