#21 Aquatic Trout Food

What the heck do fish eat?

As many of you are learning about fly fishing, not only do you have your hands full with learning how to cast, all of the terminology, the strange tackle, but now we are adding another straw to the Camel’s back, now we add aquatic trout food!.

As I read through many of the on-line forums related to beginner fly fishing, I see countless posts on the same question, “what fly do I use”. There are numerous and helpful answers to these questions, but if you do not know all of the facts, you cannot answer them correctly.

Asking what fly to use is like asking the question, “how long is a piece of string”? Not a question that can be answered with a single response. If you want to increase your chances of catching fish with more consistency you need to have a better understanding of “what the heck fish eat”.

Let’s take a closer look at the original question of “what the heck do fish eat” Whether you are fly fishing for trout on a beautiful river or casting at your local pond for Bluegill or Bass, you will need to answer this question first.

We will start with trout and what do they eat. Trout, like many other fish, being opportunistic feeders, consume a varied diet based on their habitat and available food sources. A trout diet predominantly consists of aquatic insects, such as mayflies, caddisflies, and stoneflies. They also feed on terrestrial insects like ants, beetles, and grasshoppers that fall into the water. Small crustaceans like freshwater shrimp and scuds are part of their diet as well. Additionally, trout target small fish, including minnows’ smaller trout species, even snails, leeches or aquatic worms.

Trout are adaptable and will adjust their feeding patterns to take advantage of seasonal changes and local food availability. Their ability to adapt and exploit available food sources contributes to their success as a popular game fish. It has been said that Trout is the fish invented for fly-fishing. Now we have addressed the first part of this question, well take a look at warmer water species that you might be in pursuit of.

Warm water fish like Bass or Bluegill have diverse diets that will vary depending on the species and habitat. Many warm water fish are omnivorous, feed on a combination of plants, insects, crustaceans, and smaller fish. Herbivorous species, such as tilapia, and Carp consume algae, and other aquatic plants.  Insectivorous fish, like catfish, consume insects, larvae, and small invertebrates. Carnivorous fish, such as Bass and Pike, prey on smaller fish, crayfish, and amphibians.

Some warm water fish are piscivorous, specializing in a diet primarily consisting of other fish. Additionally, opportunistic feeders scavenge on whatever food is available, including organic matter, small animals, and even human food scraps in certain environments.

So, this might help answer a small part of the original question, but let’s take a look at a trout’s diet and answer the rest of the question. If you plan to chase a trout and you have no clue as to which fly to use there is a place that can help, it’s called a “fly shop”. If you venture into your local shop these fine folks will gladly help you in selecting a few choice flies that you can use for your local waters.

If there is no local fly shop in your area, you will most certainly be able to find a “Hatch Chart” for your local waters on the internet, now what the heck is a hatch chart. (I know more terms). Let’s look at the hatch chart below for the Yellowstone River.

If we look at this chart for the month of May we can see the chart is colored in for three types of bugs, that are historically on the for the month of May.  Blue wing Olive, Western March Brown, and Mother’s Day Caddis are all listed as flies for the month of May. This chart even shows the size fly you should use. If you review the chart you can see the flies used in May will differ from flies used in August or September.

 So, if you are planning to visit the Yellowstone River in the month of May you now have a starting point as to which flies to purchase. There are hundreds of these types of charts available for you to choose from, you should be able to find one for your own local waters. These charts are very useful and help you choose the right fly.

If you are not chasing trout and warm water fish are on your radar this hatch chart might not be helpful for your local pond or lake. If Bass is what you are after the fish food game needs to change.

The bass is a top predator in most bodies of water. Once a bass has grown to about 6 inches in length their diet will shift from small aquatic insects to a primarily carnivorous diet. The reason you need to be aware of this is you will be using different types of flies that will most closely resemble a form of bait or forage fish. Since bass are predators they are used to eating other fish, fish that swim, fish that spend their days trying not to be eaten. These types of flies or imitations will need to be retrieved and fished in a manner that closely mimics a fleeing bait fish, or an unaware frog, or dragon fly, or even a small bird.

You can see from the photo that we have poppers, plopers, chuggers, crawdads, and frogs, in all sorts of configurations and colors. As a fly fisherman who targets bass you will quickly know what the local bass prefer to eat. Just remember a bass will literally eat anything that is available to them as a food source, this is the reason they are considered a top predator.

 From experience there is no better feeling than watching that bass come up to the surface literally smash your surface popper frog.

If Bluegill is more your speed there is a very wide choice of smaller flies that you can use to successfully target Bluegill or Crappie. These warm water fish generally have smaller mouths than a bass, so your flies will need to be on the smaller side of the spectrum. Bluegill like to take in small bugs from the surface of the water, so small poppers will do the trick quite nicely, you can even use certain dry flies from your local trout stream.

Ok enough with Little League of fishing

If you are one those fly fisherman lucky enough to spend their time on the Salt Water, well give you a brief insight into this universe. Gamefish in the Ocean live by a very different set of rules than trout or warm water fishes. The rule of the Ocean is very simple “if a fish is looking at another fish, that fish might be dinner”

Oceanic game fish can be anything from a Kelp Bass, Barracuda, Tuna or Skipjack, or even a Shark. All of these types of fish are honest to goodness died in the wool killers. They spend their lives looking for and chasing after their food, the whole time trying not to become food themselves.

Saltwater flies are generally very flashy and made with materials that breathe life into the fly. When you strip in Saltwater Flies, they magically come to life as they swim along, hopefully attracting the attention of a predator. Equipment used for Saltwater is similar to equipment you use in your local river or pond. Fly rod, Fly-line, Leader, tippet, and reel are very similar, with one very big exception, the reel. The reels that are used in Saltwater fishing are more robust in that the drag system of a Saltwater reel is able to literally stop a truck. Fly lines are only 90 Ft. in length and with a generous amount of backing you might have only up to 400 Ft. of line to play and land your Saltwater quarry. So, the function of a Saltwater reel is critical on the Salt.

I hope that I have been able to shed some light on our original question of “what the heck do fish eat”?. As you can see the answer will depend on which species of fish you are chasing and where that species might call home.

Now you have a brand-new base of knowledge, go out and spend some quality time in the outdoors, impress your friends with your new found ability to correctly choose the right flies, and in no time they will be asking you, “which fly do I use”, or you can answer their question, “what the heck do fish eat”

Cheers

Gary