Trout are perfectly happy to feed on myriad tiny insects until they reach about 16 inches in length. Then they become carnivores. Perhaps they realize that they’re not going to get much bigger sipping tiny bugs and decode to seek out more meaty morsels like minnows, creek chubs, gobies, crawfish, rodents, frogs and even their own kind. My dad once caught a 17-inch brown that had a 7-inch trout in its stomach.
Trophy trout will still sip on insects when a prolific hatch is taking place, but they won’t pass up a bigger meal. They often wait patiently beneath stockers that rise spastically to fill up on bugs … only to gulp down one of the hatchery fish. When it comes to trophy trout, there’s a big-lure/big-fish relationship to exploit.
A REVELATORY EVENING
Colorado’s South Delaney Butte Lake is one of the state’s best trout lakes, and my expectations were high on a calm, surreal summer evening. Just about the time the sun started tomayflies began to hatch. I noticed the emerging mayflies fluttering on the surface and soon the trout took note, too. In a few minutes I was surrounded by splashy rises along with the occasional slurp that belied a bigger trout. Problem was, I didn’t have my fly rod.
