Frog water trout

[barrybarry]

Anybody have any thoughts on fishing long pools of water behind dams. Obvious fish. Long flat pool with an sleepy current. Three foot banks, two feet of silt and a lot of brush make wading/casting a struggle. You know the type.

I've had some success. But not a lot. I pick my spots and fish them. Not a lot of insect activity. Terrestrials/midges/buggers/nymphs all work but they don't work often.

Often I see trout taking something small just under the surface. Never been able to get them interested. Hate to just ignore this section.

 

[salmonoid]

I'very had my best success in stream sections like that at night. From a stream that produces 10-12" fish on average, I caught a 17" fish and lost an even bigger fish that just bulled down to the bottom of the stream. But I never tend to do well at these long slow pools during the day, despite apparent presence of trout. Too much time for the trout to inspect my offering?

 

[AFISHN]

Heritage Angler/Ed mentioned something to me many years ago that has paid big dividends,especially on tail water low slower pools as described above.
His thought was something like this:"behind the lake side of the base of the dam silt builds up.This silt creates very small type insects...like zebra nymphs."
With this in mind ,I almost always(except during an obvious hatch)always fish very small zebra or other nymphs(copper johns etc)..either under a terrestrial or, caddis.Sometimes I just nymph with the small flies.
Usually works..

 

[dryflyguy]

Some of my best honey holes have been the back ends of lakes where the stream flows in.
I refer to these areas as "channels" - where the water is still shallow enough to wade around a bit, before it deepens up as you get into the lake

 

[greenghost]

I hate those places. But if I see fish rise consistently, I usually at least try. I think the worst part is positioning yourself for casting and drifting. I often end up in muck over my knees waiting for the muddy water to settle and for the fish to start rising again. I'll throw whatever until I figure them out... or not. Then scramble up onto the bank a muddy mess and ask myself why in the hell I even did that.

 

[DavidFin]

One of my best fish from the Delaware came from frog water. I was leaving a spot and casted my nymphs out and just fed them line as I walked to the bank. This is on an area that widens out considerably. I had almost my whole line out when the indicator dipped and I set. There was basically no current in this spot.

 

[geebee]

rather similar to Afishn's post I would suggest either chronomid patterns in 18&20 fished downstream, or some kind of emerger also small 18 etc.

if you are tying them yourself, something like a red serendipity would work - no bead, weight, flashback or rib, just thread body and a puff of antron, zlon or cdc for the breathers. deer hair and turkey flats make them ride too high imho.

you want both patterns to fish in the film.


in flat water I've found that the simpler a pattern is the more it works - the fish seem to find less to be cautious of, they are still difficult trout to catch though and large numbers of drifts might be needed before they take, but when they do they take aggressively sometimes even turning on it as it passes by.

hence, I wouldn't go any lower than 6x if the fish are any size.

cheers

Mark.

 

[DavidFin]

Also doesn't hurt to tug (not strip) at your setup in still water. You'd be surprised at the hits you'll get.

 

[barrybarry]

Water like that, though difficult, is what keeps fly fishing interesting to me. Just trying to figure things out. You just know there's a way to catch them. You think "one day I'll figure it out."

Thanks for all the help. I'll be tying up some serendipity's and taking everyones comments to the stream.

 

[SteveG]

North country spiders

 

[Mike]

great for night fishing BIG wets.

 

[Dave_W]

Another reason to carry a wading staff: you can probe silt and verify that it is wadeable. Often, it isn't wadeable and the thick brush along the shoreline and overhanging trees make it essentially impossible to fish. In these situations, the spot simply isn't safe. There may be risers, but catching that 10" sipper just ain't worth the potential trouble you could get yourself into.

You're better off looking for fish elsewhere. (Or return with a spin rod or a kayak.)

 

[The_Sasquatch]

I enjoy fishin' beaver ponds up in the hill country. Silt IS the problem, but they always produce fish. Sometimes I'll come up from downstream and cast up into the pond to avoid navigating the silt. This, of course, wouldn't work on big rivers like the Delaware.