TRM inmates need reassurance. Do they rig up a dry fly cicada pattern or a weighted nymph?

My initial advice is not to rig up at all until they decide where to cast. For years now, we have watched novices carefully rig up their gear for a particular spot, wherever they caught their last trout. We are not being critical. That is normal human behaviour. But when they discover a burglar already poaching in their pool, they move on to another, completely different pool, and, of course, they cast the same specification they read in a book.

The fact that the replacement pool location is much deeper, requiring more weight, or that the stronger flow is faster, perhaps requiring a shorter or longer trace, or that steep access is more difficult, so the lack of any backcast space and the overhanging trees are overlooked and not considered, etc. Such is the absolutely natural traditional enthusiasm of anglers. They expect the trout to alter their lie to fit their rig.

Sorry, it depends on what food species the trout are looking for. Are they looking up for floating food or patrolling the river bottom for caddis? They will never attract a trout to change depth on their feeding patrol. They might move sideways but rarely up and down.

Meanwhile our more experienced and successful anglers never rig up until they know which pool they are going to cast to. Then they “read the water” to ensure their rig is suited to the actual conditions. The primary aim is to achieve a natural drift. OK? Try it sometime. You might be surprised at how much you know.

So today, when Juno took me walkies, we deliberately hunted for surface-feeding trout for our imaginary dry fly. The photos below illustrate anglers in the rip above the Birches swingbridge, with their guide advising them to nymph, while trout further upriver cruise the surface and aggressively take floating insects. Apologies for the poor quality of the surface feeders’ photos, but they knew exactly what they were looking for. Cicadas?