Autumnul Fishing Tips Catch Bigger!

Autumnul Fishing Tips Colder, Blustery Weather Catch Bigger!

What Happening In Water's Now?

Typically now September and October should see the return to colder weather, which is often accompanied with blustery conditions.  Sensing winter is approaching, Trout will be eager to pack on weight and in search of a high protein diet, often turning to coarse Fry / Baitfish during Autumn.

On smaller stillwaters, or upland tarns where coarse fish species aren’t prevalent, resident Trout will prey on minnows and stickleback.  On reservoirs this usually consists of infant roach, rudd or perch of up to 6 inches in length.

What To Look For

Trout singling out smaller fish frequently do so in packs, herding their prey towards the shore, before charging to seize their victims.  Naturally, such feeding behaviour creates quite a disturbance with the water erupting.  Some tiny fish that are stunned go unnoticed and wash up on the windward, so check here first for any signs of fry feeders.

As small fish feel safer at low light levels and are therefore become more active during this period, expect the best of any fry feeding to occur at dawn, or dusk.

What To Use

Obviously, it’s quite important to try and imitate what stage trout are preferring as sometimes they smash into shoals of fry, trying to grab everything in their path, calling for a mobile fry pattern, or streamer that’s cast into the mêlée and instantly draw away.

On other occasions, trout simply charge through the confusion of fry, only to circle round and return to pick of stunned fry in an orderly manner.

Trout doing this are best tackled using some sort of floating fry that can be left static, like a ginked up Muddler Minnow. Equally, a Zonker / Minkie can be presented static with the occasional tweak as it sinks ever so slowly.

Baitfish have a reputation of attracting specimen sized trout and coupled with throwing large fly patterns at them. It’s as well to step up in rod ratings with 7-weight and 8-weight outfits popular with those who regularly pursue Trout with cannibal tendency.

The Wychwood RS2 10 foot 7-weight, or 8-weight rods fit the bill perfectly.

One misconception is the need for sinking lines, which many anglers naturally associate with fishing lures and the likes. Usually, Trout attack fry from beneath, or in shallow water, so much of the action takes place to the surface, calling for only a floating line.

Weight forward lines are a lot more dynamic when it comes to turning over larger, wind resistant flies. Especially the ones with a short front taper like the Lee Wulff triangle tapers.

Share

Tweet