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Fish eating indicator
Post 12 Jun 2020, 20:18 • #1 
New Member
Joined: 06/30/18
Posts: 18
Location: US-CA
Last weekend I was trout fishing in a river using a 1/4" cloudy white air -loc strike indicator. Had a few fish approach it and look at it. Had one or two strike it. Later in the trip I went to a 1" bright yellow version and had a ton of strikes. Also had a few fish swim up beside it, get their head out of the water and get a good look at it from the side. Even had one fish take it down to the bottom before spitting it.

I know smaller indicators get mistaken for terrestrials. Any ideas what the trout mistook this big indicator for? Hopper?


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Post 12 Jun 2020, 20:36 • #2 
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Joined: 08/10/05
Posts: 19077
Location: downtown Bulverde, Texas
I tie parachute dries on Unibobbers just for that

Nobody could guess what they're rising on, unless it's you, but it doesn't have to be something, could be the attractor curiosity factor.


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Post 12 Jun 2020, 23:40 • #3 
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Joined: 11/06/17
Posts: 2498
Location: South of Joplin
Fish don't reason as far as we know, so to say a fish takes a fly or a cigarette butt for this or that is just a make believe in our minds. Fish react to stuff in and on the water because it looks like something that an ancestor might have eaten. Things lying on the surface make a dimple in the surface and the water in that dimple reflects and refracts light differently than the surrounding water, perhaps even the object lying on the surface reflects light into the water, the combination of those factors plus any apparent movement or drag confuses the fish's tiny brain into reacting as though the Marlborough is an insect or the bobber is a drowning bird. I've seen trout packed full of orange cedar leaves and they eat dough balls made of wheat flour. They eat rocks because snails resemble rocks not because they think rocks are snails.
Head out of water usually is believed to indicate trout are taking spent spinners of similar things trapped in the surface film.
I've seen trout move a fly or a bobber when taking something very near it, from another angle it would look as though the fish was refusing or missing the object. We can only guess what a fish is taking any fly for.


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Post 13 Jun 2020, 10:54 • #4 
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Joined: 03/30/09
Posts: 1525
Location: Hamilton,Ontario,Canada
Whenever I have had this happen it has been large fish(Browns).Who knows what they think they are taking.


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Post 13 Jun 2020, 16:30 • #5 
New Member
Joined: 06/30/18
Posts: 18
Location: US-CA
Thanks for the replies. I had some success with a chubby chernobyl ant pattern once I realized they would come off the bottom for a large dry. Still, they were more enthusiastic for the bright yellow bobber. That's fishing....


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Post 13 Jun 2020, 17:42 • #6 
Master Guide
Joined: 02/02/16
Posts: 515
Location: Georgia
Similar to Bulldog’s unibobber suggestion, you might have luck with Griffin’s stimicator.



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Post 13 Jun 2020, 17:43 • #7 
Master Guide
Joined: 04/07/18
Posts: 382
Location: Reston VA
Initially, I thought your indicator was eating fish... It's hard getting old.

But then, isn't it humiliating when we spend all this effort on accurate imitations, painstaking design and techniques, and selecting dedicated materials calculated to fool trout and then they eat our bobbers!

There is a corollary in the human mating game but damned if I can do it justice right now.

Heddonist


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Post 13 Jun 2020, 18:20 • #8 
Guide
Joined: 02/26/15
Posts: 219
Location: US-north ga.
I've always used appropriate sized popping bugs for a float.
Trout love them in summer.


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Post 14 Jun 2020, 10:04 • #9 
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Joined: 06/30/18
Posts: 18
Location: US-CA
Heddonist wrote:

isn't it humiliating when we spend all this effort on accurate imitations, painstaking design and techniques, and selecting dedicated materials calculated to fool trout and then they eat our bobbers!



Heddonist


:lol :lol :lol So true!


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Post 17 Jun 2020, 07:14 • #10 
Piscator
Joined: 08/10/05
Posts: 19077
Location: downtown Bulverde, Texas
with all the summer tubers on our tailwater, we figure they're rising on cheetos.
And if the indicator has a hook, maybe it is eating the fish.
Another approach is simply to bump-stop a bare hook about a half-inch below the indicator.


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Post 24 Jun 2020, 19:30 • #11 
Guide
Joined: 12/05/18
Posts: 134
Location: US-MN


Foam works, but I like deer hair and floatant as my “indicator”. I’m no longer surprised by how many fish I catch on the large surface flies. Diving flies work well too stripped back at the end of a drift.


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