I was fishing a local stillwater on an evening ticket recently, when during the last hour of light the fish began feeding from the surface.
The rises were very delicate followed by a supping noise with very little of the fish being seen.
This was happening in all areas of the water.
No matter what dry I used the fish were not interested, sometimes taking only inches from my fly.
There was plenty of fly life around but I couldn't distinguish what they were taking, whether it was emergers or spent flies.
First time I've seen or heard this (not been fishing too long) does anyone know what they may have been feeding on and a possible imitation to use

Last time I fished a stillwater and that was happening for me a yellow owl or experiment with different coloured body cdc shuttlecocks.

Hard to tell really without knowing what was hatching but that's all part of the fun of fly fishing

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My guess would be there was caenis .When they are on them they can be hard to tempt.
there are caenis patterns about which work,also white cdc,s aswell.

other than this a complete opposite would be a kate mclaren pulled fast can bring success.All trial and error .

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Kevin

Sipping trout actually make a slurping sound when feeding. They're sucking up spinners, immergers, or dead flies left floating about. If you couldn't see the trout they were feeding on immergers just below the surface. If a dry fly pattern didn't arouse any interest it would have been a good idea to try small black buzzers allowed to drift or very gently retrieved.

BK

I've noticed on the still-water I fish that the trout become quite catchable in the hour or two before the insects really start showing, almost in expectation.

But once the full show is under way, they don't seem to want imitations.

Perhaps it's just that they have so much choice, the chances of any individual insect (or imitation) being taken is vastly reduced.

(If they nailed everything, there wouldn't be an evening rise the following year!)

Sipping indicates trout feeding on smaller insects like ants or spent spinners low on the water surface.

Definitely agree with that. Also when faced with this situation (which is fairly regularly as I tend to fish evenings) I have found that small (16-20) shipmans fished in or just below the surface can be deadly. If they are on caenis good luck, but a small white shipmans with a little black seals fur as well does work. Shipmans are a doddle to tie (I use thin silver wire over the pearl rib to make them last longer), but there is something about the mess of seals fur,rib and 'breathers' that seems irresistible to trout when feeding on or near the surface.

This was the case on a small Stillwater I was fishing recently. I couldn't tempt the trout on a dry fly (I think mainly because it was very calm and I could see my leeda) so I put a pheasant tail pattern on and cast out to the fish rising all in one specific area and almost every cast I was catching.

Maybe emergers, so put on a wee black dubbed body, orange thorax and a small black hackle on thr front, mucilin up the hackle and let it sit, It may also have been the fish pcking up buzzer shucks so in this case fish an okey dokey....

---------- Post added at 01:54 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:50 PM ----------

Defo agree there, for caenis i put on a size 14 hares ear shipmans, very good fly...