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On many occasions over the years I have been told that trout are true opportunistic feeders and that they will eat almost anything. From my experience this statement is both true and false.

If you approach your fly selection on the basis that trout eat anything, over time (probably your first outing) you will miss fish that a more discerning fly fisher would at least win a look from. For example, on Lake Eucumbene when we are having a good hopper season, if you tie a fly on that is a good representation of the local hopper you have almost as good a chance as any hopper of attracting the interest of a fish. If however you tie the same fly on in the middle of August you can float that fly around the dam (in this case dam dam) all day and not even raise a fish.

The truth of the statement is that over time if you examine the stomach contents of the occasional trout that you keep you will find all sorts of fare. I’ve even heard stories about cigarette butts and other non-food items being found in a trout’s stomach. So to the extent that trout have eaten an enormous assortment of both food and non-food items over time does give credence to the claim that trout are true opportunistic feeders. Also there are very rare days when (within reason) whatever you present to a trout is readily accepted, those days in my case have been very few and far between.

What I think the statement that “trout are true opportunistic feeders” really means is that trout will take the opportunity of focusing on a wide range of different food sources depending on what is available to them from time to time. Trout do have to eat to survive and the search for food is a trade off between expending energy in the search and capture versus gaining nourishment. It appears to me, that, instinctively as the seasons change so does that menu of the trout. As hoppers become less prevalent they drop them off the menu in favour of some other more available food source. If trout didn’t adjust their “shopping list” they would expend too much energy looking for hoppers that weren’t there and they would miss the opportunity of feeding on other available food sources, eventually they would die.

In streams it’s well understood that trout station themselves in locations generally where there is some relief from the current but where food will still pass them by within striking range thus allowing them to expend the minimum of energy in collecting their food. In most cases if you float a fly over a fish that represents something that’s not on the trout's shopping list at that point of time the trout wont waste energy swimming up to even investigate your fly and will pass the fly up. If however you select a fly representing something that is on the trout's shopping list at that time, and put it where and how the trout expects to see it, the trout will generally at least investigate the fly. It may reject it because: its not what it first thought it was; there is line drag; the fly fisher spooks the trout; or, for a number of other reasons, but at least the trout may be interested.

“match the hatch”

This old adage has stood the test of time and remains sound advise if you want to catch more fish. If you walk up to a lake, and using the hopper example again, there are hoppers flying every where and a few are landing on the water where fish are scoffing them down, its pretty obvious that the right fly to select will be a hopper – that’s matching the hatch. On other occasions you may walk down to the lake and there is either no discernible action at all or whilst there are fish rising or visibly moving around you cant determine what they are feeding on what do you do ? Unless you can identify what trout are feeding on and “match the hatch”, the best option is to make an educated guess as to what things may be on the trout's shopping list and present flies representing those food items. By doing this you have a much better chance of connecting with a trout than the person that ties a hopper pattern on all year around. Over time by observation and experience you probably will gain knowledge as to what types of flies to fish at different times of the year or day or according to the prevailing conditions and be able to make a reasonably informed fly selection on that basis.

In the short run however have a look at the following food charts for some guidance:

• What trout eat – Central Victoria
• Fly fishing options – Central Victoria




• What trout eat – Snowy Mountains of NSW and Victoria
• Fly fishing options – Snowy Mountains of NSW and Victoria




• What trout eat – sub alpine (NSW and Victoria)
• Fly fishing options – sub alpine (NSW and Victoria)




• What trout eat – Central Tasmania
• Fly fishing options – Central Tasmania

I don’t claim that the charts are definitive or exhaustive. There based on my experience, and the experience of other fly, lure and bait fishers that I have fished with or talked to over time and should provide you with a starting point upon which to make an informed fly selection at various times of the year. Keep in mind however that there is no substitute for being conscious of your surroundings and by careful observation you may well be able to narrow the fly selection significantly. For example, using the hopper example yet again, if you were fishing Lake Eucumbene in the middle of February it would be reasonable to contemplate before arriving at your fishing spot that you may find trout feeding on hoppers. If however you arrive at your fishing spot and there are no hoppers present in the surrounding grass and no fish rising, a hopper patter may not be your best choice of fly. Even if fish were rising under these circumstances a hopper pattern may not be your first best choice of fly. Have a good look at what the fish are doing and hopefully identify what they are feeding on. Are they taking emerging duns, are they sipping beetles off the surface etc. Temper your choice with what you can see.

Any way getting back to the charts. The first column lists the activity or food sources I have identified for the various fisheries. The next twelve columns represent the months of the year. The heavier the shading a in a cell the more of that activity there is likely to be in that month.  The final column provides a list of flies that may be reasonable fly selections for the activity or representations of the food source in question. When considering fishing methods, keep in mind that as well as using the suggested methods for fishing each fly its always worth trying something different. In my experience if you have made an informed selection of fly and are still not catching fish, particularly when fishing with pulling flies, nymphs & wets its worth varying your retrieve from, dead drift right through to “rollie pollie”, and from smooth right through to jerky and varying the depth your fishing the fly at to make sure you have covered all the options with that fly at that time.

Entomology

Entomology is the study of insects. As insects in their various forms form a substantial portion of a trout's diet some understanding of entomology can bring great rewards to the fly fisher. Having said that idea of this web site is not to teach you entomology but to just share the basics with you.

Whilst the range of insects that make up a trout's diet is quite small there are many stages in their life cycle for each insect and consequently a large range of artificial flies are needed to imitate them. An interesting observation is that flies that are representational in general form to the insect being imitated seem work better than flies tied to be as close as possible to exact replicas.

It is generally accepted that most of a trout’s diet is taken below the surface of the water. Also accepted is that across a range of trout habitats. Caddis Fly Nymphs form by far the largest part of the trout's aquatic shopping list. Having said that the habitat for the majority for the 480 odd Caddis Fly Nymphs identified in Australia live in fast flowing streams. This means that if you considering what trout eat in lakes that Caddis flies drop a little down the list in order of importance. In any case the general order of importance is not really important because as alluded to above the order of importance of any given food source is constantly changing as a result of changes with the seasons, time of day, climatic conditions and the micro environment and because anyway, you also have to factor in terrestrial insects such as beetles, grass hoppers, crickets and cicadas and other full time and part time aquatic life forms such as yabbies, tadpoles, small fish and shrimp.

There is a lot to be said for favourites.

I am sure you have yours when it comes to flies and of course I have mine. When I make my choices of flies that I fish with I certainly take the above information into account and make sure that the flies that I carry on any given outing include flies that are representational of what is like to be on the target species of fishes menu or are the sort of flies that when in the right mood the target species of fish are likely to react to in say a territorial way and finally give me enough options to 'match the hatch".

These are my default fly selections ... I hope that my selections will help you with yours.

My “trout” river wet fly box

My “trout” lake wet fly box

My “trout” dry fly box

My “trout” booby fly box

Do keep in mind that these are my default flies and of course any time I am planning to fish an area or particular fishery I do add specific flies for that particular region of fishery and you should consider doing that as well.

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