Hi Mike,
I have seen this behavior before. As a lad in Pennsylvania, I would
occasionally fish the Falling Spring branch near Carlisle. It is a spring
creek noted for having some rather smart fish. I was sitting on the bank
having a sandwich. When I was done eating, I flicked the last bit of bread
crust into the water. Wham--a big rainbow sucked it down. Seems the local
farm kids had been feeding the trout and they had grown accustomed to eating
bread. Being a youngster and wanting to catch fish, the next time I went to
the Falling Spring, I had a supply of white and brown bivisibles. The fish
ate them with relish in the pools where they were being fed. Cheating?
Maybe, but lots of fun for a 12 year old nevertheless.
Took my nine year old son on a drift down the lower Yakima yesterday. He
had a ball catching small smallmouth one after the other. Great place for
kids as the fish cooperate plenty often enough to keep them interested.
Regards,
Don Kelly
Tri-Cities
----- Original Message -----
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Monday, September 04, 2000 6:11 AM
Subject: Fish adapting to their environment
> I observed some very interesting behaviour from some rainbows this weekend
> that I thought I would pass on.
>
> I took the kids to the ol Labor Day Weekend foodfest in Riverfront Park in
> Spokane. After we were done eating, they wanted to go feed the ducks some
> bread. Now these are very well fed ducks and get bread tossed at them
> non-stop. The ducks must have been full because they weren't very
interested
> in our offerings. As the bread floated down stream, I saw a fish rise up
to
> it and take a chunk out of it. I thought I was seeing things so I sat and
> watched for about 5 minutes. Fish after fish hit these chunks of bread on
> the surface and many were really hard strikes. Once they bread sank, they
> had no interest. Further downstream, I saw the same scenario and even one
> young man, who was using bread on his hook, land a small rainbow about 10
> inches long.
>
> It was quite evident that like the ducks, these fish had figured out a
> plentiful and easy food source. Guess I better start working on a chunk
of
> bread fly pattern!
>
> Mike W.
> Spangle, WA
>
