[Bob Mitchell]

Out in a flat calm looking for nymphing trout. End of day cleaning the fish they were full of snails not nymphs and I was wondering if snails rise to the surface at times.
Excuse if this has been on before but this is my first post.
Thanks.
Bob.
[Wish all forums you had to use your proper name]

[Mike Barrio]

Hi Bob ....... welcome to the forum

Wee snails can be very common on stillwaters, there were large numbers of them at Haddo Trout Fishery and the fish certainly seemed to like them.

A Bibio (and spiders) in size 14/16 often worked well, fished static, drifting on a ripple, or retrieved very slowly,

Cheers
Mike

[Jeff Donovan]

Another warm welcome Bob.  Just a suggestion for a snail pattern is the humble Black & Peacock spider, why? I have no idea but it works.

[Bob Mitchell]

[Should have been rising trout sorry]
Thanks for your reply's. Have noticed over the years that snails are getting more common when gutting the fish.
Have tied up peacock spiders size 14 and are now hoping for another flat calm.
Bob.

[Dave Felce]

hi there Bob,

providing you're no purist, i've got a couple of foam / chenille patterns i sometimes use for carp. i'll post 'em up later....

[Derek Roxborough]

small snails stick to the weed round here, always fish the weed edges,a Kate MacLaren seems to work,  Derek Roxboprough

[Ross Errington]

Just happen to have read something very recently by Peter Cockwill on snails..he says they do come to the surface.  Small snails stick to the under side of the surface film.  And it can seem to happen in bursts.  probably something to do with snail & water density....
And trout love to feed on them
It's in his book, Observations & Obsessions

[Bob Mitchell]

Thank you for your help.
All I need now is another flat calm.
Bob

[Rob Brownfield]

Sorry, been away ion holibobs... Yes. snails do come to the surface. It is thought that they do this to "migrate" to other parts of the lake. If you think about it, it would take them years to travel from one end to the other of most lakes

They fill a part of their shell with gas/air that makes them buoyant, float to the upper layers, and then get bobbed along in the tow. Once they get to where they want to go, they expel the gas and sink to the bottom again.

Another theory is that its to do with spawning.

If you have a garden pond, you may actually witness this. I can remember one morning seeing loads of them bobbing around and the goldfish trying to eat them. Come evening time they had all sunk again.