I've been studying the behaviour of trout today, some of them rainbows into double figures, on the River Wye at Bakewell, Derbyshire, where the day-trippers were feeding a whole shed-load of them with bread.

Some of the fish were woofing down the pieces like springer spaniels. Others were chasing after the bread at a rate of knots only to turn away at the last second - sound familiar? That bread didn't have a hook in it, didn't have a leader attached, didn't have a slick of floatant and looked like every other piece of bread - so why the refusal?

I did notice that the larger pieces were often ignored and some fish were taking the bread only to spit it out seconds later.

This puzzling behaviour drives us to distraction when fishing but perhaps it's natural behaviour to trout for some reason we can't understand. It did occur to me that the only other possible reason could be taste.

Any opinions?

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How poor a thing, sometimes I find,
Will captivate a greedy mind - Isaac Walton.

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Tommy,

I am not sure about the rainbows on the Wye, but the rainbows and browns on the Test, at Stockbridge, seemed to be very partial on wholemeal. The ducks did not stand a chance

You can judge by the photos.

hundreds of times if pung a ciggarette doubt in the water while out in the boat at different waters and a rainbows came up and gulped it, only to spit it out seconds later, only thing i than think of is taste or the texture of it puts them off quick

Tut tut, JR, me thinks you need an ashtray.

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"A glint of sun has warmed the air,The flies will soon hatch out, To lure and tempt from their deep lair, The bonnie speckled trout." SKB tackle supporter. I love Furled Leaders.

Clueless turtle took me and my wife on a day trip to bakewell the last time i was down and i couldnt believe the amount of fish that were in that small stretch, and yes there was lots of people feeding them, mainly chips! there was a flock of ducks and gulls there taking most of the chips, but every so often you'd see one of the trout lurking beneath a duck and then shoot out and grab the chip, i even seen them taking small pink sweets about the size of a BB.

Had a trip to the Orvis shop as well, absolutley lovely stuff in there, some extra large hip flasks too!

Tom

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I'm an angler not a fishmonger

Quo Fas Et Gloria Ducunt

It's certainly worth a day out at Bakewell - if only to watch the trout. There are some huge rainbows in there now, well into double figures. You can occasionally spot the odd brownie and there are a few grayling.

The fish I was watching were all being fed with pieces of white sliced loaf. Their behaviour was puzzling at a times, I wondered also if they were ignoring and rejecting the pieces that had crusts on, they would look different and give the bread a different texture in the mouth.

The Orvis shop is worth a visit and there is also a small Orvis dealer in a shop in an arcade on the main road. Ask in the main Orvis shop for directions.

The guy in the shop is very knowledgeable and it's well worth having a chat with him.

His latest advice was to lubricate knots with Mucilin instead of saliva - perhaps that's why some anglers are more successful with fluorocarbon knots than others. It could be that some peoples saliva is a better lubricant ?

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How poor a thing, sometimes I find,
Will captivate a greedy mind - Isaac Walton.

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*****©(

I hope you didn't try to 'match the hatch'. We shoot people who fish for trout with bread in the midlands .................birdsnest

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Fear not if I steal from your side, as of yore, from paradise streams to fish Teifi once more.
BN based in Wolverhampton

taste smell an texture are traits of refusal usualy comes about when the guy next to u bags up on a fluffy blob dipped in all things nic for fish the other factor could be that the refusing fish have been jagged a few times

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lets fish the clydeGuide

The only time I have ever fished with anything other than a fly was once at More Hall Reservoir near Sheffield and that must have been over 30 years ago!

There were some good quality roach topping on an evening of flat-calm with not a trout in sight. At the time my main quarry was roach on the Trent so I just had to have a go for them.

I stripped bare a size 12, heavy gauge, wet fly hook and pinched some bread-flake on. At the time I only used a slow-sink line but the roach were taking the flake "on the drop" and just sailing away with my fly-line in tow!!! I finished up with about 10 fish all around the 12oz mark.

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How poor a thing, sometimes I find,
Will captivate a greedy mind - Isaac Walton.

~~*~~~~~
*****©(

The trout in the pang seem partial to the odd chip too, there are usually a few lurking within feeding disance of the "cross keys" beer garden.

Maybe I should post this on the Tying forum, see whether anyone has come up with a chip shaped lure yet.

John