A Riseform Detail
Calm, quiet rises usually result from smaller, less mobile food items being taken.
By John Juracek
When we see bold, splashy rises, our initial thought should be that the food item responsible is either large and/or mobile (caddisflies, stoneflies).
Calm, quiet rises usually result from smaller, less mobile food items being taken (mayflies, midges, cripples). While there are never any guarantees in reading riseforms, these concepts are a good place to start in figuring out what a fish may be feeding on.
But there’s an important caveat, and it has to do with current speed and depth of water.
If fish are rising in relatively fast water and coming from down deep to do so, splashy rises can result, even if the food item isn’t large and active. The splashiness is a consequence of the fish taking the food and turning down quickly to get back to the slower water near the bottom.
I’ve seen this in stretches of fast and deep water, where size #16 Pale Morning Dun mayflies are being taken–insects neither particularly large, nor especially mobile.
Attention to details like this can make a difference in your fishing, and it’s also rewarding to simply understand more about what’s taking place around us on the water.
John Juracek is a fly fisherman, writer and photographer from West Yellowstone, Montana. For twenty-some years he was a partner at Blue Ribbon Flies, a local fly shop, and is currently the head casting instructor at the School of Trout and Anglers Academy. His writing credits include Yellowstone: Photographs of an Angling Landscape, Fly Patterns of Yellowstone, Fishing Yellowstone Hatches and Fly Patterns of Yellowstone, Volume Two.
He is considered one of the sport’s expert fly casters and instructors and offers casting lessons for $100/hour at jjuracek@gmail.com or (406) 640-2828.