Does Drift or Position Matter?

Photo: Dom Swentosky/Troubitten

When trout reject a fly, do they do so because the drift isn’t right, or because it wasn’t within their window?

That’s the question Dom Swentosky tries to answer in this recent post over at Troutbitten, and it’s a fantastic thought exercise.

I’ve copied a bit of Dom’s article below to give you a taste of just how he tackles this problem. You can read the entire article here.

“Imagine a trout hanging on the inside, back edge of a moderately paced seam that slides around an exposed boulder. Now imagine a Hendrickson hatch that is strong enough and lasts long enough so trout throughout the river are aware of the vulnerable duns and ready to capture them. The trout holding in our perfect boulder-seam might have a window of just six-inches, from where the current bumps into the rock to a half-foot downstream. And if the trout has its nose extra close to the origins of that seam —very near the boulder, then six inches is about all it gets, as the current slides around the rock. A trout in this position and in this mindset isn’t looking for a dead drift. It’s looking for a Hendrickson to enter that small window. And when it does, our trout intercepts the fly, (almost) regardless of the drift quality.

“This trout is selective about the pattern, as it’s looking for Hendrickson duns, but it is not selective about the drift, simply because the window is so small. Our trout is looking for a fly in a position. It doesn’t have time or space to analyze the drift. So you might very well drag and slide the fly through this selective trout’s window and score the fish of the day.”