Soft Hackels Vs Large Trout

[tippett7]

I have been fishing soft hackles lately and I catch a ton of fish but very seldom do I catch any big fish. I think it has to do with bigger fish hang on the bottom. Any one else out there have any thoughts on this. I did manage to catch a 20 " rainbow last Sunday in the evening and that was the biggest trout I ever caught on a soft hackle.

[Zack Hoyt]

Purely opinion of course, but I tend to agree with your big trout hiding along the bottom. There is a great movie out there titled "The Underwater World of Trout". Most of the large fish that were recorded were holding tight against the bottom and in the tight crevices of large boulders. I am also a firm believer in the big guys really feeding more at night. Once a fish of any kind reaches a certain size, his intake of food has to increase. Sometimes they will take the most productive lie for feeding on bugs, but it is easier to target larger food.

Purely speculation of course. I have seen huge fish caught on size 30 midges.

[ekl-stl]

Probaly depends on where you are fishing and what type of trout.... but the majority of the time, the larger fish are lower in the water column and a soft hackle is fished up.. If you are fishing shallow water, you could get into bigger fish..

You could go by two theories, eventually if you catch a high quantity of fish you will end up with a big one.. or fish with big flies to catch big fish.. volume will go down, but quality usually rises. Just my opinion.

[hoglaw]

I flyfished a lot in college. I went once or twice a week to the Beaver tailwaters, and once or twice a month to the Norfork. My favorite ties for the beaver tailwaters was a hot pink softhackle (with the thread spun to create a segmented thorax). I remember one January that there was a serious snow/ice storm in the forecast, and I knew campus was going to be shut down for a couple of days. I hopped in the Honda and high-tailed it to the C&R section (the middle of it right on the big fan above the long hole above Parker Flats). This is a wadeable area that drops off to 12 ft. plus.

Anyway, I hit the river and went right to this spot. I caught a dink here and a dink there for about an hour or so, when all of a sudden the bottom fell out on the snow. The sky got dark, the wind got still, and GIANT snowflakes started falling. Everything got absolutely dead quiet. Right then you would have thought you were in the middle of a school of white bass. Trout started going crazy everywhere! I was hooking them on every cast when all of a sudden a monster smashed my soft hackle like a bass hitting a frog. I didn't have a camera, ruler, or witness, but the brown was a skinny 25" plus fish. It's deffinitely my biggest out there.

Bottom line, I think a big trout will eat anything that's in its wheelhouse as long as feeding conditions are right. If they're hungry and looking for high swimming bugs, a soft hackle might draw a strike. If they're in chill mode munching on scuds and sowbugs, they probably never even notice the soft hackle. This is especially true out west when big fish in skinny water will come out of their holes to wack one surface pattern, but not not another.

[ness]

I don't think large fish necessarily hug the bottom. Within a population, the larger trout will command the best habitat - that which provides access to food and protection. You don't see the big fish because they're hunkered down in the places where you can't see them. The dinks are left to fend for themselves in the less-safe water, which is the shallower stuff. Also, the larger a trout becomes the more carnivorous they are.

[jOrOb]

First decent brown I ever caught was on a softhackle. Hot day below rebar and the shufflers had beat the water to a froth. Found him sitting below the bend waiting for something to drift out of the fast water. That fish was hanging out at the edge of deep water, but not in it. Wasn't a truly large fish, but I remember how everyone was watching me battle it because noone else was catching anything big.

There are some pretty good articles here about big fish hanging out in shallow water during hot weather. Soft hackles are a pretty good way to lure them out of their holds.

What size soft hackle are you using?

jOrOb

[Leonard]

I noticed that early morning or early evening is one of the best time to throw a softie (lets not forget about the crackleback as well)..

yes you can throw them all day long.. but when it low light...

you can up you size.. to a 12 or 14 for better hook ups..

Leonard

[laker67]

Well I'm not sure how large trout react in other states, but I can tell you what they like and what they do in Missouri. Some say big flies, some say only at night, and others say hug the bottom. For sheer numbers of large trout," lunkers", throw away the big flies, and forget about the night fishing. Tie some tan or grey sowbugs and scuds and drag the bottom in the daytime. I have caught lunkers on big flies, and I have caught them at night on big and small flies. 90 percent of my lunkers have been caught in the daytime on scuds and sowbugs. I love to fish at night for the solitude and occasionally I catch big fish at night. I normally fish 30 to 40 nights each year unless its a flood year like 08. Total up night fishing and big flies, they account for no more than 100 lunkers in the last 34 years. Day fishing, sowbugs, fished on the bottom, equals big fish in all of Missouri's waters. One other thing, give the softhackles and the cracklebacks to people who are faint of heart and mostly want to catch silver bullets.

[3wt]

"Day fishing, sowbugs, fished on the bottom, equals big fish in all of Missouri's waters. "

Make that Missouri's TAIL-waters.

I've noticed the tailwater guys (most everybody here) don't seem to really realize that a tailwater is a different beast than an ozark stream. They are just different, have many more of the sowbug/scud crusteaceans, much greater population of a midge population thus many more fish caught on the midge nymphs. Much less vegetation, and structure than natural streams. They're just a different beast.

Maybe I'm wrong, but outside of the artificial environment inside trout parks, I don't see a lot of fish being caught on sowbugs - and in the parks I'd argue that they generally look like trout chow, or fish are just curiously trying foodish looking things.

[Zack Hoyt]

3wt,

I agree that the Tailwaters are a totally different animal than a natural stream. Different water makeup/quality, different food sources, etc. But most tailwaters are just regulated streams. Not many just appeared because of dams, there were rivers before, so the beds cannot be much different. The water temp from the dam causes alot different insect organisms to grow though.

I am not 100% sure where you are fishing, but I see TONS of fish caught on sowbugs. Infact sowbugs and scuds are one of the flies you can fish in about any taiwlater and be successful. There is a different presentation when it comes to these flies thought verusus a nymph.

Maybe I am misunderstanding what you are saying.