there is river fishing, which is generally distributed around the coast, although it's quality varies a good deal more, and finally there is angling in tidal waters, whether estuarine or in the sea itself.

Water conditions are vital when fishing for sea trout. Not alone do fish need the actual body of heavier water to allow them to make their way upriver - there appears to be something in the taste and smell of fresh water after heavy rain, which spurs some impulse to run. Anyone who has watched a shoal of white trout drought-bound in a river pool or small loch and seen their reaction as floodwater percolates downriver will know what I mean! The fish rush about excitedly in a positive frenzy of anticipation, hardly able to wait before taking off upriver.

Characteristics of Sea Trout fishing
* In very warm water and weather, sea trout are nearly impossible to catch during the day. Night fishing is best.

* A full and steady wind in otherwise settled weather is perhaps the best condition of all.

* Sea trout take best when they are freshly run; equally sea trout who have been loch-bound or in a river holding pool for some time and are "off the feed" will come back on it when heavy rain comes to raise the level and freshen the water.

* In calm conditions, small sea trout take better than big ones; in rougher water and weather the reverse seems to occur.

* Sea trout are unlike brown trout in that they are largely unmoved by hatches of natural fly. Sea trout have their "time of taking", and if a rise of fly coincides with this time they will not overlook the natural, but a rise of natural will not necessarily bring on the "take". The "take" seems to be the result of a sudden burst of activity quite unrelated to food. * There is a time of day when sea trout move about rather than remaining in one position, it is more often than not from mid-morning to about lunchtime and then again in the late afternoon.

* Fast-rising water is detrimental and seems to put the sea trout off their feeding, while thunder also seems to have the same effect.

* Dry-fly is usually much inferior to wet-fly and sea trout can be astonishingly clumsy when it comes to taking the dry-fly.

Like all who fish for sea trout, the angler must realise that by and large they do not generally take the fly in the belief that it is food but for some other unknown reason, be it curiosity, playfulness, anger, fear or whatever! Therefore we can assume that it is feelings other than hunger, which motivates a sea trout, for most of the time anyway, to take an artificial fly.