Rise Form

Rise Form Blog- Murray’s Fly Shop- Edinburg, Virginia

Vince Marinaro taught me a great deal about the trout’s rise form. Suppose you are looking upstream and spot a rise form as a trout takes a natural dry fly. Over the next several minutes he takes three more naturals at the same spot. The glare on the stream prevents you from seeing the trout but you can easily see his rise form.
You know your artificial matches the hatch so you cast it two feet above the rise form. But you get no strike! However, the trout continues to feed. Several more casts bring no strike. Finally you sneak up the bank to where you can see the trout.
His holding station is actually five feet further upstream from where he rose to take the naturals. You slip back downstream to your original casting position and cast your fly to where you know the trout is holding.  As your fly drifts into the feeding station where the trout had take the naturals he rises and takes it solidly.
Since I first encountered this long ago I have taken advantage of it to catch many trout.
Vince referred to these rise forms as Simple, Compound and Complex. A Simple rise form is when the trout takes the natural rights above where he holds in the stream. A Compound rise form is when he drifts straight back downstream from his holding position to take the natural. A Complex rise form is when he tips up, almost vertically, and drifts a long distance below the natural fly before taking it.