Fishing: Fishing Frenzy

“Holy Maloney can you belief that, Wohooo!” My fishing partner was ecstatic and so was yours truly. We had every reason to be happy. Between us we hooked 10 trout in less than twenty minutes. The fish where in a feeding frenzy and often hit the bait the moment it hit the water.

The timing was perfect. As soon the rain stopped and the sun came back we where on the river, fishing rod in hand and ready for action. For me, one of the best times to go fishing is right after a heavy rainfall. The rain will wash smaller baitfish from the side tributaries into the river and the water surface will be littered with small bugs such as mosquitoes and grasshoppers. This in turn will create a feeding frenzy amongst the bigger fish. The longer the rain lasted the bigger will be the appetite of the fish.

When it rains heavy fish will seek shelter under overhanging brush and undercuts - they don’t like rain -fish don’t like it not to be able to see what is coming from above such as bald eagles or fishers. But as soon the rain stops they come out from their hiding places and snap at anything that floats in front of their mouth.

But don’t be fooled into thinking that you just can toss the lure into the water and the fish will run for it. Read the last sentence of the paragraph above again. I wrote, “…that floats in front of their mouth…” not a word about being tossed in front of their mouth. Fish don’t like having things chucked at them it scares them.

You have to be mindful to present the bait naturally, meaning, let the water current carry the lure to the fish. This is not too difficult when you cast the bait but it's a different story when you retrieve it. Do it every so slowly and use the structure of the river and the flow of the water to make it look natural. Fly fishing tackle is better suited for this type of fishing but can work with spinning and bait cast tackle too. Heck, I have been doing it with spinning cast gear for many years.

I use a light rod for this and make some changes to the front end of the line. I add a length of floating fly tippet and a dry fly. Rather than casting the fly to the fish I let the water current take it to the fish. Sometimes I raft bait - That’s not a real term but one I came up with. I place the bait on a tree leaf and then let it float away in the current, once the bait is over the fish I give the line a gentle tug and the bait comes of the leaf. Very often I had fish take the bait very fast, when presented in this way. Maybe the fish see the leaf floating in the water and think that it has a passengers on it like a grasshoppers. Sometimes I had fish actually knocking the leaf like they wanted to knock insect of it.

So next time it is raining hard for a day get your fishing gear ready and be on the river or lake the moment the rain stops and you might very well experience a fishing frenzy.

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In the book "What Fish Don't Want You To Know" by Frank P. Baron, you can read more smart fishing tricks.
Read the book review here.
Or you can go direct to the Authores website My Book

Category: Fishing