Tis that time of year when even the most hapless of anglers can tie on a mayfly in the hope to connect with that big brownie... however the other evening whilst taking a break by the river a friend and I were discussing that the fish in our water didn't appear to be leaping out quite as much as we had recalled other years... does any know why trout leap out of the water, particuarly at Mayfly time and why the don't leap at times?

can be a few reasons, the most common one i've found is beacause they have lice on them and splash to get them off, although i think this is more common on stillwaters.

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Chris

Gott weiss ich will kein Engel sein

Ours jump for two reasons ( I think) at this time of year. The female mayflies and larger sedges moving low on the surface some times gets them up, or following a recently hatched mayfly off the surface. I think the smaller wild trout prefer to try and drown these big flies first.
But the usual reason is the appearance of black Silver horns ( small caddis) sweeping low over the surface and the wild trout try to knock em out of the air and sweep up the fallen. These start to appear in numbers about the same time as the mayflies.

I like to think they just get frustrated at seeing this stream of food travlling 6 inches over the surface, and get so wound up they say 'B*gger it' and just leap at it. But i doubt it.
I have had F fly's snatched before they land, but never successfully hooked. It does make you realise just how quick there reactions are.