Ok, first of all, I'm not a fly guy... but I am an 'ultralight' tackle
guy. I have a question about trout - and thier behavior - and I
thought I'd ask the 'trout experts' instead of the general fishing
public.

I have been hitting the local streams (rockland county NY) - stocked
every year with browns, brookies and rainbows for a couple of years
now.

It's been a cool spring. I started this year in mid June using small
spinners, and was very happy, catching several trout in a couple hours
at a time.

However, the month of July has been a different story. The
temperature has risen considerably. I went out on a couple of these
days, but soon realized that it was futile. I would cast upstream and
pull though, slowly, exploring pockets and riffles that had yeilded
before, but came up empty. As I made my way upstream, I could see
trout scatter in all directions. They were there, but were just not
interested.

I wrote it off to the heat. I tried another time until darkness, but
no luck. The other day I thought I had an opening. It had been
raining all night, but had stopped in the AM. The sky was cloudy and
the air was damp and cool. I headed out. The water was noticably
cooler but remained crystal clear. I spent the first two hours under
overcast skies, with no results. They were acting the same - hiding
under rocks. After a couple weeks, I began to remember their
hideouts. I changed lures, went as light as I could, tried worms,
etc.

Eventually I crept up to one of the larger pools and stared down
trough the clear water. In there had to be 20 trout all swimming
around and around the pool, as if playing some sort of "trout soccer".
Back and forth they went, swarming, and bumping into each other.
There were some mighty fine looking fish in there but I couldn't
interest them in anything. Eventally I even stopped limiting my
movments, because they seemed oblivious to my presence.

As I moved on, I continued to see fish, ignore my lures, plastic
thingies, worms, etc. Strangly enough, as the sun began to break
through and the fog fall away, I caught a nice 10 inch brown.

So I guess my questions are two-fold. Any idea what these fish
"soccer" fish were doing? And also, what kind of strategies would you
guys reccomend for the summer months?

Thanks,
Sam Matthews