"trained" trout

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dryflyguy

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I spent this past beautiful, indian summer weekend on the little juniata river with a buddy. The water was still very low and clear, and the fishing was pretty tough. We did always manage to find just enough fish rising to play with though.
We also had a rather interesting experience.
My buddy Mark was wading in one of the larger pools, looking for risers, and seeing very few. Then a train came roaring past, and right as it did, some fish started rising very splashily along the far bank, - which was very close to the train tracks. As he waded over to get into casting range, he was able to see some small specks falling out of the trees along the bank. Apparently, the train was shaking things up enough there to knock some kind of insects off those trees, and into the stream, where the hungry fish feasted.
He cast a beetle among the splashes, and was quickly into a nice fish. By the time he got it in and released, the train was gone, and the rises quit. He kept casting there, but the fish pretty much ignored his offering now.
About 20 minutes later though, another train came by, and the fish went nuts again, and Mark caught another one
After spending a few hours there, Mark ended up catching 5-6 fish on these train induced fish. But things were pretty dead in between train passings. And around 4pm, when the sun went behind the mountain, and the air got noticably cooler, the rising quit there altogether. I guess what ever was crawling around on those trees, got less active also.
I can't recall ever fishing to a train hatch before, and am wondering if this was a fluke.
Just wondering if any of you guys have seen this along streams with train tracks?
 
No train hatches, but my friends used to see something similar on our teenage carp fishing trips.

Whenever a train came, we'd hook up within a few minutes. I always assumed it was a weird coincidence.

Your situation is clearly different, and makes for an interesting story. You'll never know what you'll find going on out there.
 
Great story / observation dryflyguy. I’ve never seen fish turn on because of a train, but I have observed a similar thing when the wind kicks up and insects are blown in the stream. During calm conditions nothing, but when wind kicks before / during a passing storm or front, the fish turn on and start rising to the insects blown into the stream.

I know you’re the “dryflyguy” but if you “cheat” and fish some sunken ants, beetles or smaller nymphs, you can go down and get them since the fish are apparently hungry, but won’t bother rising for food unless it’s plentiful. Maybe just tie a dropper with a small weighted fly off your beetle and pretend you’re just dry fly fishing. Just sayin…….
 
drflyguy,
Great story. Something like that did happen to me years ago on the Yellow Breeches. It was around this same time of year and I was fishing far downstream from Allenberry. There was a single track trestle bridge that crossed the stream. It was a warm sunny day with little happening. A train went across the bridge and fish suddenly began to rise. I tried ants, beetles, crickets, etc. nothing seemed to work. The risers slowed down and I decided to investigate. To make a long story short. Stink bugs were covering the bridge and the train knocked down hundreds of them. Since I didn't have anything that big -- stink bugs are about a size 10 beetle -- I took a Letort cricket and trimmed it roughly into shape. Worked like a charm.

FYI -- I fished the J last week, too. Did you run into flying ants? I did one evening. The sheer number of fish that were rising in one stretch I always fish above Spruce Creek was unbelievable! I never realized there were that many fish in the section. The ants were about a size 20. I only had 18s and 16s with me. But I still managed quite a few, including a plump 18-inch brown. An amazing couple of days were spent on Spring and the Little J. The fishing was pretty decent but the weather and scenery were amazing.
 
Have wondered what the impact of the passing trains.

Can say if the fish were rising the trains never really effected them or put them down. The trains generate tremendous wind along the river but have never seen the "trained" trout effect you mentioned- although there have been many days that I wished that had been the case.
 
I guess I'd be that Pavlovian if I were a trout too...here comes the train, put on the feedin' bags boys, were having terrestrials tonight.
 
On numerous occasions fishing limestones I’ve witnessed trout following a muskrat. Once the muskrat starts digging and pulling weeds, the trout position themselves about 5-7 feet downstream and feast on the chum line of cress bugs, scuds, midge larve, nymphs, etc., that gets dislodged by the foraging muskrat.

So the train hatch doesn’t surprise me one bit. Trout seem to be very resourceful in figuring out what rings the dinner bell.
 
I know a guy who got skunked a number of years in a row as a kid. This was a problem, because he wrote the elementary school newspaper's "fishing report."

One year he put his mind to breaking the curse. A week or two before the opener he started going to the local stocked stream near the rail line. When the train came by, he would throw a handful of salmon eggs into the water.

Opening day was cold and slow, and the banks were lined with frustrated adults. My friend (technically my dad's friend, but I've gotten drunk with him too) rigged up and nonchalantly caught his limit in the time it took one freight train to pass. He claims there was an audible gasp when he tossed the remaining eggs into the water and walked away.
 
Great story. Shows the importance of paying attention and keeping an open mind on the trout stream.
 
Great story and follow-up storys, it is a wonderful sport ain't it?
 
I once read a story (fiction, but possibly inspired by real events) in which a guy in the UP decides to catch the big brookies under an old wooden bridge. He shoots a porcupine, then hangs it under the bridege to decompose. Every time a car comes over the bridge, the rumbling shakes a bunch of maggots into the stream and the fish go crazy. Naturally, he just has to wait until the fish gets used to then fish among the chum. The train sounds a lot less smelly...
 
This train induced rising took place along one section of streambank that was perhaps only 10 -20 yards long at most.
I was upstream of Mark about 50 yards, and saw nothing rising there.
I noticed that the trees along the banks where the activity was, were mostly sycamores. Maybe the bugs that were being knocked in liked those kinds of trees for some reason.

Little Juniata: I know you've been fishing that river for a long time. Have you ever seen anything like this before there?

Green Ghost: I didn't see any winged ants during this trip, but I have seen them just covering the stream there before though- usually in late august. They are very small - a #22 or #24 - and dark brown in color.
I've also come across them on the Yough in late summer

You mentioned about stink bugs on the yellow breeches. What are they?
 
stink bug = buffalo bug
 
Here's what Stink Bugs look like. I sure you've probably seen them.

http://www.ento.psu.edu/extension/factsheets/brownMarmoratedStinkBug.htm
 
i wonder if the train had anyhting to do with creating shadows or even the slightest change in light/relections.

jeff
 
I thought stink bugs were supposed to taste awful to the things that would eat them.

Anyway, some stocked trout are very well trained. You see this were they get fed by hatchery workers on a regular schedule. When they are fresh stocked you can throw gravel into the stream and see them rush for the pebbles.
 
Speaking of the hatchery conditioning, I used to think fresh stocked trout would feed twice a day according to the hatchery feeding time-table. I learned over the weekend from a fellow angler at Erie that Steelhead feed twice a day as well, as he explained: "once just before you get there and once right after you leave."
 
So thats a stink bug - they look alot like the squash bugs that eat my zuchini plants in the garden. Yes, I think have seen them along the stream.
I don't see why a trout wouldn't eat them. They eat those big nasty looking cicadas. I've also even seen them eating - and have caught them on - bees
 
Stink bugs may taste awful to trout, but they were definitely eating them that day. I have also seen trout go gonzo over lady bugs which tend to hang out around bridges and such.

But I have never seen the water boil with risers like I did last week on the J when every trout in a hundred yard stretch was rising to flying ants. One of those sights that'll be with me for the rest of my life.
 
I took a little tour of the river this afternoon, quite a few guys on the lower end, not doing much, saw a few rises at the stone quarry, TOO MANY LEAVES!
 
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