Dimples, nose pokes, heads, bites, rings, bubble rings, winks, swirls, bulges, splashes, spits, gulps, chomps, flushes (cavitations), explosions, kill shots, water clearing jumps, dorsal-tail humps, tail tips, and more.

As I gained experience, I came to the realization that using knowledge of rise forms and eating styles to help determine prey type select flies was only somewhat helpful. Not nearly as important as to what they revealed about feeding trout behaviors:

The mere presence of fish and bugs (duh), number and position of fish (pods v individuals), specific and often predictable feeding locations: feeding lies and lanes, station depth, stationary v mobile (searching, advancing), abundance of prey, frequency of eats, water displacement (i.e. fish size), mood: fearless v. skittish, hatch times and water types.

It took me too long to learn that:

Both teams have to show up – and cooperate. Blanket, river-on-fire hatches are extremely uncommon, in part because windows can be very short, but mostly they just are, especially given the current declines in aquatic insect populations on so many waters.

If mayflies duns are on the surface, don’t tie on a dun imitation unless trout can be observed eating duns. Don’t just assume they are because you see duns floating downstream and rise forms around them.

One-and-done risers are usually a waste of time, but not when prospecting

Accurate inspection of the drift is often dependent on specific currents and seam lines.

Garbage feeders, smutters, and the TDS hatch can be maddening

Small trout are the most selective hatch feeders; the bigs are more often than not opportunistic.

When head-hunting or prospecting, they will always reveal themselves

The holy grail is a very large, steady, happy (fearless) dun eater.