Do fall fish and trout feed at the same time?

[NRD]

Yesterday late afternoon, I spent nearly 3 hours fishing the nearest delayed harvest zone. Pressure on this water is high enough to dim my enthusiasm for future visits. My standard practice for this water is to swing wets until I see risers, then switch to dries. I foul hooked a beat up rainbow before the switch. After I put on a size 14 elk hair caddis, I started catching 4" long fall fish.

By the time I lost interest, I'd hooked one trout via a very subtle eat, and dozens of small fall fish. There were a couple trout near the bridge where they are historically difficult to catch, but otherwise, I saw no signs of the normal trout population for late April. It seems odd to me that fall fish would be eating voraciously, while trout are hunkered down doing nothing. Is this likely?

Interestingly, the fall fish vastly preferred the caddis right after treating with Loon Top Ride. When the flies were riding high and still coated with white powder, it was common for them to be hit on the first drift. For a while, that was the only way they would take them. I had to re-powder the fly after each eat, or they would just ignore the ones riding low in the film.

 

[troutbert]

During a hatch I've seen both fallfish and trout rising at the same time, and caught some of both. The rise forms looked so similar that I couldn't tell the difference.

The fallfish tended to located more in the slow areas, and the trout located where the current was moving more.

 

[CLSports]

I have fished over rising fallfish or chubs too many times on Penn's, Lehigh River, and other places, thinking they were trout. If there is anything I learned by wasting way too much time on those risers is that fallfish are generally very poor at taking a dry fly. If you find yourself missing takes, then most likely a fallfish. Trout are much more skilled at the job. Just my observation.

 

[SBecker]

Catching a ton of fallfish on the Lehigh right now nymphing. Pretty sure they are spawning or something.

 

[5footfenwick]

Yes, but they don’t mate at the same time. What you are seeing could be pre-spawn bulking or post spawn hunger. I’ve run into quite a few chubs lately. I’ve seen a few chubs on reds fighting each other the last week or so. I think spawning related. I would assume there are periods where some fish are more aggressive due to the caloric intake needed for spawning. So the fallfish might be next to spawn. They are ultra aggressive because they need extra calories for eggs and milt etc. Plus fighting off rivals, plus building stone mounds. The Fallfish might just be extra active and the trout are not. It happens.

~5footfenwick

 

[Bamboozle]

Some of the best trout I ever hooked turned into fallfish when I brought them to hand...

 

[SBecker]

Yes, but they don’t mate at the same time. What you are seeing could be pre-spawn bulking or post spawn hunger. I’ve run into quite a few chubs lately. I’ve seen a few chubs on reds fighting each other the last week or so. I think spawning related. I would assume there are periods where some fish are more aggressive due to the caloric intake needed for spawning. So the fallfish might be next to spawn. They are ultra aggressive because they need extra calories for eggs and milt etc. Plus fighting off rivals, plus building stone mounds. The Fallfish might just be extra active and the trout are not. It happens.

~5footfenwick

yes, this was my insinuationg. Bulking up before spawn.

 

[Mike]

I don’t know why they wouldn’t. Fallfish are a transitional species that bridges the gap between wild brown trout stream segments and smallmouth bass and rock bass segments of streams with overlap at both ends. I’d definitely say there is more overlap on the warmwater community side of things, however. In the generalized natural downstream transition in wild brown trout populations, as water temps increase in the downstream direction you’ll start to find a mix of wild browns with fallfish, often a lot of fallfish, and at the pretty much tail end of the wild brown stretch perhaps a mix rock bass as well. I saw a lot more streams with the fallfish/brown trout mix than I ever did the rock bass/brown trout mix, but that could have been a function of the waters where transitional stretches were included when sampling.

 

[Nymph-wristed]

The fallfish tended to located more in the slow areas, and the trout located where the current was moving more.

That is what I have seen over the years too, trout and fallguys eating from the same buffet, just in slightly different types of water. Fallfish will notice the bugs before stocked fish often, but even in wild trout streams, they may be active when trout aren't and vice versa. Also, one might be taking emergers while the other is dialed into the surface. Nature, you know?

 

[Bamboozle]

Taking into account the size of some of the spawning rock piles I've seen in some larger streams I fish, what I do know, at least about creek chubs is they are STRONG CRITTERS...

So I imagine if a trout has a problem with chubs feeding at the same time, the chub would probably kick the trout's a$$...

 

[jifigz]

I know of a particular stream that has many, many fallfish and many, many brown trout. That is pretty much all this stream has. It probably has slightly more BT that FF, but the FF aren't too far behind. Mike, I know you are aware of this stream.

 

[SBecker]

I do know fall fish on the West Branch of the Delaware love to eat mice too!

 

[Streammagic237]

As a bad trout fly fisher 🤣, who catches tones of fall fish , I would disagree on the slow water observation and it may be stream dependent but I catch a lot of fall fish in fast riffles on certain streams , and will also say they are moment oriented even more then trout sometimes , hitting a fly just as it lands out of instinct very often if they see it .

 

[Nymph-wristed]

It does freak me out that they freeze and start trembling like I hit "the spot" when I hold them, but I might have intimacy issues.

 

[Alwaysonthewateer]

water temps, diluted oxygen, and depth. Fall fish love slower, deeper water and pools i have found and tend to be active when the water warms and the trout slow down. If you start catching a ton of creek chubs / fallfish / sunfish, its time to move spots.

 

[DomR]

It does freak me out that they freeze and start trembling like I hit "the spot" when I hold them, but I might have intimacy issues.

Agreed! The benefit of fishing with barbless flies, I rarely have to touch the b@st@rds. But when I do, it gives me the willies.

 

[tjsingle]

Yep - They'll feed on the same things. Last weekend same pool, same hatch, had browns and fallfish chomping during the spinner fall. The rises did have some differences which you could discern between what was what.

 

[Sylvaneous]

Some of the best trout I ever hooked turned into fallfish when I brought them to hand...

HOG browns too frequently turned out to be a decent sucker for me. But hey, they took fairly and fought well!

 

[HopperPlopper]

Right now in the White Clay Creek system both fish are actively feeding, and it's fun to throw flies at what could be either. Anecdotally I find fallfish rises more splashy than trout's -- based on what I could see, big chub don't have the apparatus to "sip" midges and small bugs off the surface the way trout do. Also, fallfish tend to first grab the fly off the surface and then swallow it underneath, with allows for hookups even with slightly delayed hooksets. I guess this two-step process is also what produces the extra commotion on the water when they grab a bug. But I caught both species in the same riffles and pools and on the same bugs.

Side note: I understand the prestige issue, but I just have a hard time considering fallfish a lesser fish than trout. I also disagree with the fact that they're easier to catch. Big fallfish are as selective as big trout are, if not more, especially during hatches.

 

[ROVERT]

I caught a fallfish, brown trout, and smallmouth in the same seam yesterday, on the same dry fly one after the other. All were rising to caddis.