Recently fished a small still water and trout were feeding on the surface . They seemed to be taking what looked like very small spiders. I did get a few on a size 22 Griffiths gnat (what they were taken was much smaller)but they swirled at it more often than not, without taking it under. Any ideas?

ub

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Never Disturb a Trout when it's Feeding

I would bet money that the fish were being put off by something like a floating leader rather than you using the wrong pattern ub40. Did you notice if your leader was floating at all and are you 100% certain they were feeding on the little spiders to the exclusion of anything else...?

Yeah wee jimmy, could see the insects on the water, my leader was .18mm soft plus flouro leader and was degreased. When there was a choice between an insect and my offering there was no contest. My fly got lots of offers but only a few hookups

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Never Disturb a Trout when it's Feeding

Aye but are you positive the fish were feeding on them...did you spoon the fish you caught and check what was in them...?Forgive me if I'm stating the obvious here but was the leader definitely sunk....In certain conditions,leaders can have a nasty habit of floating again only a couple of casts after you degreased it.Assuming everything was ok with your leader,the next likely cause for refusals is usually down to three other things.....1/ the fly was sitting too high in the film.2/ the profile of the fly did not provide the correct silhouette or footprint.
3/if there was a breeze the fly may not have been drifting along in the ripple at the same speed as the naturals.The most extreme example of this effect occurs when we are on the bank, casting straight downwind.In this situation,the artificial will be held back against the surface drift and will look very unatural to the fish.

It could be down to one or all of the above,apologies again if you are familiar with all this but the third point is often overlooked even by experienced anglers.In my experience,it is also far more likely for any of the above to cause the fish to refuse our offering.The actual pattern is relatively less important in the majority of cases.

Point 3 may have hit the nail on the head. I was bank fishing with a side breeze and was indeed fishing a little down wind. Thanks for that. Lesson learned

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Never Disturb a Trout when it's Feeding

Nae bother....