IT'S ABOUT BUBBLES

 By Chip Chipman

 When Harvey -- my fly fishing mentor when I was a kid -- and I arrived at one of our favorite streams I got excited right away. The rings on the water indicated to me that trout were feeding on the surface. I hurriedly tied on a dry fly. 

I figured I was just going to slay the trout. I figured wrong. After several casts failed to get a rise to my fly, I changed to another. And another, and another, and another. 

I was getting frustrated, rings were all over the stream, and yet my offerings were being totally ignored. I really became incensed when I saw Harvey upstream fifty yards or so catching one fish after another. 

I yelled to Harvey, “Whatcha got on?”

 “A nymph,” he replied. 

A nymph! That doesn’t make any sense with all these fish rising. He’s pulling my leg. I took in my line and walked up to where Harvey was still catching fish. 

“Well, did you get tired of catching fish?” Harvey asked with just the trace of a grin on his face.

 “I just don’t understand what’s going on. Trout are rising all over the place and I can’t get a single hit.”

 “Did you try a nymph?” asked Harvey.

 “Why would I do that when trout are feeding on the surface?”

 “Because they ain’t feeding on the surface, that’s why.”

 Now I’m thinking that Harvey’s eyesight is failing along with his hearing. It must be tough getting old, I thought. 

“Can’t you see all those rings on the water, Harvey? I asked. 

“Yes, I can. Do you see any bubbles within the rings?” 

I looked at a few rises and didn’t see any bubbles. Now I am worried that my eyesight is not what I though it was.  

“No, I don’t see any bubbles.” 

“I don’t either, because there aren’t any. When a trout takes a fly from the surface in quiet water like this, it takes in air with the insect and the air is expelled through the gills causing bubbles. The absence of bubbles indicates that the fish is taking insects below the surface. When a fish grabs an emerging insect near the surface, he does a quick u-turn. The turn near the surface disturbs the water, causing the rings.”

 Harvey continued, “Sometimes you may see a trout’s back breaking the surface. That’s an indication that it is feeding on insects just below the surface. That behavior is called a bulge rise. That doesn’t produce any bubbles either.”

 Every time I went fishing with Harvey, I learned a little more about trout fishing. Harvey would never part with his wisdom until after I had struggled for a while. Maybe he didn’t want to waste words on something I might have known already. Maybe he thought I learned better through mistakes. Maybe.

  But I think the real reason was that he just liked to watch me throw a fit.