The Rise - High tech

When trout are feeding near the surface they displace water with their movements. The way in which the water moves tell us about what has just happened. With experience, a rise can tell us some, if not all, of the following:

What food item the fish has just taken.

The depth at which the foods item was in relation to the water surface.

Which direction the fish was and is now travelling in.

What depth it is cruising.

What speed it is moving at.

It's size

And sometimes whether it is a brown or a rainbow.

Understanding the language of rises can triple your catch rate some summer evenings. I will deal with the food side a little later. Let us consider some of the others:

1. Fish direction: surface rises are generally egg shaped. The fish is travelling towards the blunt end with the rare exception of case (2)
   


2. When a trout rises from deeper water (rare) his angle is steeper and he tends to hit the surface with a force, which causes the ripples to bulge. In this case the fish travels in exactly the opposite direction to the ripple shape suggested in (1) Confused. Don't worry, we all get it from time to time.
   
   


3. The speed of the trout; faster moving trout create more surface disturbance.
   
   


4. Large fish disturb the water much less than smaller fish (!) This is partly because small fish have to turn slightly on their side to take in the fly. The smallest dimples of rises can often be huge fish….or fry.
   
   


5. I believe, although I haven't read it to be the case or otherwise, that rainbows rise at a different angle to browns. I could be wrong and there might be other explanations, such as different cruising depths - but still the rise form would be different. I think browns rise at a steeper angle than rainbows.