Fishing for Trout in Pools

All Pools and Lakes Share Basic Characteristics

Pools can be as small as a bathtub in streams, and as big as a small lake in large rivers. But they all share similar characteristics. The three prime fish-holding areas in pools are the head of the pool where water enters, the tail of the pool where water begins to speed up as it enters the pool exit, and the main current areas in the body of the pool.

Because pools can contain the widest variety of feed options, the techniques for fishing them are wide. The two major issues to be dealt with are placing the fly or lure at the right depth, and dealing with slower and often swirling currents.

Fishing Pools - Where Water Exits and Enters

The places where water enters and exits a pool are called ‘heads’ (entry) and ‘tails’ (exits). These areas can be fished either by upstream or downstream methods.

Nymphing Upstream in Heads and Tails

Use a fly-line or spinning with a bubble-float, cast up into the faster water and allow the fly to sink as it floats into the deeper water as the current slows, or at the tail cast into the slower water and allow the fly to drift in to the faster water. Allow the fly to lift on the end of the drift before picking it up for re-casting.

Depth control is important, and allowance must be made for the fact that depth will vary as the pool deepens (head) or shallows (tail). Too much weight and the fly will sink correctly in the faster water, but plummet to the bottom when the flow slows. If anything, err on the side of being too light, but be prepared to adjust the weight of the nymph or nymphs to get it right.

Line control can be tricky when fishing pools, because there can be slack water between the angler and the fly. More tricky still is back eddies between the angler and the fly. The only way of overcoming this is constant mending of the line, both up and downstream. You may well have to face the fact that on big rivers and big pools the volume of water, and the size of the eddies, may preclude fishing using upstream methods.

Fishing Downstream in Head and Tail Water

Use the traditional downstream method. Cast across the faster water and allow the fly to sink, then swing across the current and down into the pool. Retrieve with a twitching, irregular action.

Choose a line that will give you the best depth control. This can range from a floating line with a long leader, through slow sinkers and right down to fast sinking shooting-heads. The key to line choice is achieving the maximum lure action at the correct fishing depth. I find that wet flies with plenty of in-built action work best. Try Woolly Buggers, or any of the marabou flies. Big Glo-Bugs work well too - especially on a short leader, with a very fast sinking line.

Choice of lure when spin-fishing will again be governed by the weight required to achieve the best depth control. Lead-head jigs work well here. The soft-plastic tails provide good action with minimal action applied by the angler. If you carry a range of head sizes and weights, adjustments can be made quickly.

Fishing Pools - The Main Body

The main body of the pool will usually contain the deepest water, with the slowest currents. And once again where your lure is, is the prime factor.

This water can be successfully fished using nymph, dry fly, downstream and spinning techniques. The key is to ensure that whatever fly or lure is being used, it is being fished at the correct depth.

Very often pools are formed where there is a distinct change in the direction of the stream or river, especially where the flow meets a steep bank or cliff. In this situation there may be quite strong, but narrow, currents running alongside the bank or cliff. These are prime fish-holding areas. Drifting a fly down through these fast current areas is often one of the most successful forms of trout fishing. But it can be the most difficult.

The currents pushing up against the cliff or bank push back-eddies out across the pool. So maintaining the fly in the main current without the line pulling the fly away is often a problem.

One way of overcoming this is to get into a position as directly below the main flow as possible and cast directly up-current. Anything you can do to reduce the angle will help. Another method is to hold the rod tip as high as possible to have the least amount of fly-line on the water as possible.

Spin-fishing Pool Bodies

Spin-fishing is often the best method of effectively fishing deep swirling water. Currents affect mono line the least , and lure weight is quickly and easily adjusted. It is also easier to control line by either retrieving or feeding out.

There are two lures that I regularly use to spin-fish this water:

• Lead-head Jigs - These jigs are absolutely ideal for this water. They can be fished in a variety of ways. Cast out and retrieved with a yo-yo action - lift and drop the rod tip. Cast out and let swing. Cast out and very slowly bounced along the bottom.
  The key to fishing soft-plastic lures is to do very little. If you have never used them before, cast on into the water where you can see it and see just how little movement is required to set up a wriggling action. Use light short-sharp tapping motion, just like tapping a drum.
• Spinning Wing Lures - These lures of the Veltic type are a personal favourite of mine. I have used them for over 40 years, and they still out-fish many of the newer lures. But just like lead-head jigs, understanding their action is a key to success.
  
  
  Many anglers fish these lures too fast. The wing is not designed to spin around the body like a demented dervish dancer. It is designed to ‘flop’ slowly, round and round. Goodness knows what it is supposed to imitate or represent, but they work. (Actually some suggest that the flopping wings represent the action of some nymphs that use their wings to propel themselves to the surface.)
  Just like lead-head jigs, if you have not used these lures before, try them where you can see them, to gauge their action.

Fishing Pools - When Up is Down

Years ago I was fishing just below the Waimakariri Gorge. The river had narrowed and was further compressed by two huge boulders. The water plunging between these boulders spilled into a deep wide pool. Most of the current hugged one bank, the bank I was standing on, till it thrust up against another steep bank. This bank forced the river into a near right-angled turn.

The flow hitting this bank threw off a big eddy that formed a large circular current that flowed back up the pool where it rejoined the main current at the head of the pool.

The water was very clear, and I soon spotted three good trout moving from side to side, deep down where the eddy spun off the main flow. These trout were actually facing downstream in terms of the direction of the river, but ‘upstream’ in terms of the direction of the current flowing around them.

I tried just about every-which-way to drop a nymph in front of these fish without success. The problem was that no matter how much I tried to drop the nymph downstream of the fish in river terms, where the current formed into the eddy, I could not get the flies to sink until they were well behind the fish.

Finally I decided to cast just to the other side of the current flowing in front of me, but behind the fish. The current picked up the nymphs, pulled them down past the fish from behind, then swung them into the eddy, and down in front of the fish. A few casts later when the eddy did the right thing one of the trout grabbed the nymph.

Actually this story has wider implications.

Most of the time we think of a river as having an upstream and downstream in terms of water direction. In other words, water flow is pretty much constant, in terms of direction. But this is not so.

Even when water is travelling apparently straight downstream in a river of uniform shaped banks, what is happening underwater might not be the same as what appears on the surface. Very often underwater features may alter the direction of the water, and therefore the direction a fish is facing.

In fact the way, or direction, a fish is facing can provide a clue as to where to cast in order to have the fly or lure pass in front of the trout's nose. If the trout is lying at an angle to the apparent current flow, then, if you were nymphing, the fly might best be cast to one side of directly upstream.