Larry L wrote:
"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.

Maybe, but I'm skeptical.

I don't know about you, but I can't see fish under stillwater from a
pontoon boat or a kick boat -- unless I'm right on top of them -- so I
don't know which direction they've headed after a rise.

I have, however, watched trout feeding on the top of stillwater from
heights. It's fascinating (and really fun if you're directing an
otherwise blind caster, and even more fun when you're the caster).

In stillwater, watching from a height, I can't accurately predict where
a fish is going after taking a natural on the surface. Its path is like
slowed-down Brownian motion on a plane. Sometimes they move straight
ahead, and sometimes they veer off at an angle.

In moving water trout clearly have favored routes -- the way they use
large eddy pools, for example. Stillwater is very different, IMO.

From a kickboat, all I see are rises. If one fish is rising, the odds
are good that several are rising. I can't tell which rise matches which
fish, UNLESS the rises are very close to one another. They often are.
Then it's probably the same fish.

That's why I cast directly at a rise form. Its the most likely location
for the fish. At 70', Larry's range, I'd probably miss by a good margin
anyway, but it's nice to aim at something. Even you don't get a take
there's the satisfaction of a good cast.

Obversely, from the fish's point of view, the most likely place to find
a natural while expending the least energy is close to where it found
the last one, and if that doesn't work after awhile then move slowly in
a more-or-less random direction while avoiding bigger fish. :-) If
you're quick enough with your cast the fish won't have moved far and
will be within your casting error.

--
Cut "to the chase" for my email address.