Working The Feeding Lanes

Whether you are a fly fisherman or prefer to fish for trout when using traditional spin fishing gear, one of the most important areas of a river to concentrate on are the areas that are often refereed to as "feeding lanes". Feeding lanes are the areas within a river where bait fish and other trout food sources tend to congregate. In fact in many cases rather than "congregating" in feeding lanes, bait is funneled into these areas because of the way that the current is flowing.

As trout fishermen we want to be aware of where these feeding lanes are within a river so that we can maximize our time on the water. "Feeding Lanes" are generally area's within the river that trout can hold in the current and let food come to them, rather than having to go find it and working these feeding lanes is one of the best trout fishing tips that you will ever receive. By spending time in these areas the trout can expend as little energy as possible to get a meal. Nowhere is this point more true than when you are talking about large trout. Large trout will often move very little when feeding which is important to anyone who is seeking trophy trout.

Below I will outline a few of the most common area's of a river, where a feeding lane is created, so that you can concentrate your trout fishing efforts on these areas.

1. Outside Bends - When a river bends, making a sharp right or left turn, the current "digs" out the outside edge of the bend making the water deeper. This area is known as a "feeding lane" and a place where trout will hold to feed. The current isn't nearly as harsh along the outside edge of bends in the river, meaning that the trout can expend less energy holding in the current. These outside bends need to be fishing thoroughly any time that they are encountered.


2. Large Underwater Boulders - Many trout fishing rivers contain large boulders that sit in the middle of raging current. As you can imaging, behind these boulders the current is much less fierce, and is a perfect place for a hungry trout to sit and wait for food. For this reason, we want to make sure that we fish directly behind large boulders, especially if the boulder sits directly in heavy current flows.


3. Natural Funnels - On many trout fishing rivers the topography creates natural areas where the river itself becomes much more narrow in relation to the rest of the river. When this happens, these "thinner" area's of the river are generally fairly deep and contain water that is flowing faster than the rest of the river. Trout will hold directly below and to the sides of these natural funnels, waiting for anything that gets pushed through the "funnel" and out the other side.

The bottom line is that working the feeding lanes is integral to catching trout consistently in rivers and the aforementioned areas are a great place to start. Implement these simple trout fishing tips into your arsenal today and start experiencing more success fishing for the beautiful fish known as trout.