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3. Leapin Brookies

Spence brought this up in another thread:


I can try to bring in that video clip, but am not sure how. It's only 9 seconds long but 15MB. Can I do that on this site, using Photobucket maybe? You can see the brookie zipping around beneath the dun, and then lining up and leaping clear to catch it in mid-air.

Jumping brookies were commonly subjects of early (and some newer) angling art and I used to think that was just the artist's fancy. The jacket of my copy of Bergman's "Trout" shows a brookie leaping clear after, and possibly coming down on, a mayfly.

Here are a few examples I found in my own library:

Cover of Bergman's "Trout":


William Shaldach:


More recent one by Dave Whitlock:

Not just brook trout! I've seen many wild rainbows do this over the years. I remember one time when we were fishing dries midday during the Summer on a famous spring creek. A large Joe's Hopper was left dangling downstream while engaged in conversation. All of a sudden a 16 incher came out of the water about two feet and came down beazer first on top of the fly. By the time I reacted, the fish was well hooked. If I had been paying attention, I'm sure I would have pulled the fly away with a quick reaction. Anyway, the fish was landed - to a lot of laughter all around.

Why? Who knows for sure, but I suspect that it's a way to increase the odds of at least trapping the critter in the water if it's missed for a second go around. I have seen this behavior with emerging caddis as well. Anyway, in my experience it's a behavior exhibited by mature experienced fish, not the kids (or planters).

I’ve yet to witness a trout leaping and reentering with a face plant put on a fly, but I did witness this after seeing a brown leaping vertically from the same spot after I moved in close enough to investigate.

An excerpt from a post a few years back:

I have witnessed Rainbows crashing down on flies and have witnesses Browns, Bows and Brooks all taking giant aerial leaps to pick off insects. I actually watched a small Brown Trout about ten inches jump over a dozen times trying to get a spider from a wall of a dam. If you think about it, it seems like a good way to ensure a victory in procuring a meal.

I love those paintings/drawings that you posted PaulRoberts.
I would really like to see a trout do some of those jumps.

I've seen brook trout jumping out of the water and down on a fly. It has happened to me on quite a few occasions when fly fishing. Yes, small brookies do it more often but I've had a few trout in the 16 to 20 inch class do this on my fly. It happens more often when the fly is large.....like a hopper imitation or a floating Muddler Minnow.

Here in the Saguenay region of Quebec, most of the lakes have nothing other than brook trout. No other species of fish or minnows of any kind. The brookies in these lakes have to eat insects. There are few frogs or other animals to eat. Fly fishing is great all season.

Dabluz,

Send us a map! We all are packing our gear and warming up the Jeep...:)

In 1976 I spent a honeymoon with my first wife within the old city walls of Quebec City...I picked out the place after visiting there with a friend in 1975...

In 1992 I took a train ride to Montreal to watch my Red Wings play in the old Forum before they tore it down...I purchased a ticket on the street and sat 5 rows back from the glass...It was an old-schoolers dream trip...Train, like the old days, and the Forum. I may have actually cried a couple times. :)

I remember telling a couple Canadiens fans next to me that if they would give me Patrick Roy I would guarantee them the Cup in Detroit...:) Just a few seasons later he was in Colorado and the old Nordiques team won the Cup there with him...Ouch!

Spence

OK...I posted the video on YouTube. Apologies for the poor resolution -it was shot with a point-n-shoot.

You can see a Baetid dun lift off just right of center screen. As it tries to gain air, a brookie chases it. You can see the flashes in the water beneath the dun of the trout chasing. Once the dun makes a bee-line, the trout captures it in mid-air. I watched several such captures in the 10 minutes or so I fished and watched.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3KzTe_TaQw&context=C3645983ADOEgsToPDskLWYmLIMYIGcTjx22_nRc4l

Paul,

That was cool! Did you catch him? :)

Spence

Dunno, Spence. I don't think I got that particular one as he was in a flat side cove away from current. I believe I let him be. Here's my write-up on that day:

http://www.troutnut.com/topic/2396/High-Country-Gems
…
As I progressed upstream I began to spot fairy wings in the air –Baetis. It was a tiny one (as expected in late summer) and this one was around a size 20. It was dark olive and wagged its tail side to side like the nymphs do. Emergences are not expected to be dense in these mountain streams, but they don’t have to be to liven things up. Trout are expert noticers.

I checked my watch, it was 2pm, and I had to pick up my son at school at 3. So I reluctantly skipped more pots and hoofed up until I hit something more pool-like, as I wanted to make the best of this emergence. The trout in the pool were at full attention, some on the drift, others cruising side coves for hatching duns. And they’d chase the little duns as they bumbled across the smooth surface. Some eager trout leapt clear and were surprisingly good at aerial capture: The duns wings were backlit; a trout would leap, and the wings would vanish. Very cool! I shot some video of them, waiting for a dun to lift off, then start the camera rolling. Some duns were strong and gained altitude quickly, others stumbled across the surface and the trout were on em. I taped a brookie catching a dun in mid-air.

With careful low profile B-n-A casting I picked off the trout in the tailout 1-2-3. Then I waited for cruisers to show themselves in range, or claim the now vacant tailout drift sites, ending with hand roll casts to reach the last risers at the pool head. I pulled each trout out through the tail of the pool to keep the others from spooking. The trout were pretty much pre-occupied though, making a bit of a commotion themselves chasing those duns. I finished that pool strong, with 7 to hand and 2 more that came unpinned.
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I remember reading that Paul...Sounds like a wonderful day...One that stays locked away some where in the memory of the lucky angler...:)

Spence