Read this Water

[GdubyaSmith 0]

I thought it would be interesting to see how other fishermen would approach this. Here is the spot I recently fished. What would you use according to what you see???

Only one hint: "Right after the ripples it drops off into 3-4ft in depth."

Left Side:

Center:

Right Side:

Far Right side:

 

Aerial Photo(red "X" photo's taken from)

[Fish For Life 0]

I would cast a bead head pheasant tail nymph upstream with a strike indicator. The nymph would tumble and roll along the bottom until it fell of the edge. The fish will most likely be holding just off the edge of the ripples in the deeper waters. When the nymph got to these deeper waters it would quickly fall to the bottom right into the mouth of a hungry fish. To me a key point would be to get you fly to the bottom as fast as you can. Right outside the ripples in the deeper water is where most fish will be so you need to get out of the ripples and down fast. If you use to light of a fly it will sink slower taking longer to get to the bottom, thus floating right over the fishes head. This is what i think would work anyways.

[SilverCreek 0]

I assume that with the deep pool, possibly with a deep silt bottom, you must fish downstream.

 

Cast a streamer down and across toward the right side just above the head of the pool, mend the line downstream when the streamer just reaches the head of the pool so that the streamer falls into the head of the pool and is retrieved presenting a broadside view to the fish in the pool. Start at the right side of the pool near the bank and under the overhanging trees.

 

Second option is to cast toward the bank and make an immediate upstream mend to create slack that allows the streamer to sink and then strip back. My choice for the streamer would be a black or olive bead head woolly bugger.

[kentuckytroutbum 0]

I would fish the far right side with a weighted nymph with an upper fly and a dropper. BHPT and a midge to start and work the entire right side drifting underneath the overhanging trees. Could be a big brown trout lurking in the shadows at the deeper water. If the nymphs didn't get any response after a few casts, I would switch to a streamer or woolly bugger, maybe even a hopper pattern for this time of the year.

 

Bill

[Rocco 0]

 

+1 for Bill's approach.

 

In daylight hours I'd also skirt the riffles on the left staying well back on shore and go to the far end of the picture to cast lightly weighted Borger strip nymphs from there to the lip of the pool and follow them down w/o drag. No hits or follows? Then I'd try a Muddler Minnow or nose- weighted bugger to the same spot but retrieved with a short strip and pause.

 

Early AM or late PM? I'd hit the riffles with a biggish -- #10? --Au Sable Wulff and then retrieve a streamer that wiggles and moves water across current.

 

Rocco

[natedubay 0]

I'm with Bill.

 

If you zoom in you can see the left pectoral fin on the brown that is under the second tree root from the right on the overhanging tree. Hard to judge size but 22-24 inches. I can't see all of his tail so it's hard. I had to put on polarized glasses to eliminate some of the glare in the photo, so try that...

[m_grieb 0]

+1 on silver. Pretty much exactly what I thought.

 

Matt

[GdubyaSmith 0]

I used my go to locator fly and caught 1 fish per side(left & right of the pool), just after the ripple, on this:

 

6 other fish, including the big fish of the day, on a size 16 Gold Bead Nymph with Crystal Flash Tail. 3ft below strike indicator. Casting towards the far right side and before the brown leaf tree on the right and allowed to dead drift. Every fish that took the Nymph was just before or right beside the log stick up on the right side.

[troutguy 0]

I would go home, take a nap and come back at 10PM or 11 PM. Fish a #2 or #4 sculpin or muddler minnow across and let it drift down and retrieve. I would work the center to the far bank. Particularly under that leaning tree. If that is upstate New York and there are Browns look out. Fish until 2AM.

[DryFlies4Life 0]

From my understanding the creek flows into sort of pond? Right? The riffle flowing in looks to be shallow, probably less then a foot deep. The riffle flows into the pond over a quick sudden drop off. While the water is deep, the only current can be found on the surface where the riffle flows in. All the food coming over the drop of will be right on the surface, regardless of nymphs, dries or minnows. fish will sit just below the current and look up, feeding on anything that comes over the edge. Toss a dry into the riffle and let it drift out over drop off the. Fish should take it right away, if nothing, move the fly about 2 feet over. The fish should be in feeding lies, and therefore have tunnel vision, taking only whats presented directly in front of them. because the food is shallow. nymphs or drys shouldn't matter as long as the pattern is a relevant imitation to food sources nearby.

[GdubyaSmith 0]

From my understanding the creek flows into sort of pond? Right? The riffle flowing in looks to be shallow, probably less then a foot deep. The riffle flows into the pond over a quick sudden drop off. While the water is deep, the only current can be found on the surface where the riffle flows in. All the food coming over the drop of will be right on the surface, regardless of nymphs, dries or minnows. fish will sit just below the current and look up, feeding on anything that comes over the edge. Toss a dry into the riffle and let it drift out over drop off the. Fish should take it right away, if nothing, move the fly about 2 feet over. The fish should be in feeding lies, and therefore have tunnel vision, taking only whats presented directly in front of them. because the food is shallow. nymphs or drys shouldn't matter as long as the pattern is a relevant imitation to food sources nearby.

Yes as far as I know at this point without wading the entire thing to date. The riffles were just over the top of my ankles in depth. The main current flows were the right and left side with the top of the center being noticeably slower. If you can imagine it think of the current flows as a set of curved horns on each side laying forward downstream with the right side being longer and more pronounced. The current on the right was at least a half faster than the left side. I'm assuming because of the structure of the far right side shooting water down that side. I fished the center carefully but never had a take. Were there fish in the center...undoubtedly but neither dry nor wet had any takers there. A wiggle cast to the far right side with some additional quick rod pop and feeds of line got a dead drift down to the fish who were holding near the log stick up on the right. I tried high floating dry's over the edge of the riffles into the fish I knew were there but only had 2 takers out of 20+ attempts and both small fish. 12 -13 of those attempts the flies got hung-up before I got to the edge on the hydrilla/grass growing from in-between the rocks.

It's still a new place to me so I'll learn it better in the future...I'm so tempted to snorkel this place and see it for myself underwater!!!