Large plunge pools/ water fall pools on small streams

[lycoflyfisher]

Ok, so you are walking up a freestone stream in NCPA and encounter one of the infamous large plunge pools/ waterfall pools/ large bedrock outcrop pools etc. what is your tactic and how do you approach these holes with fly gear?

We all know these holes hold the largest trout in the stream, and I have caught some small stream giants over the years with minnows and other live bait. On fly gear however, I struggle with these holes. Unless you have surface activity on the tailout, dry flys are useless. With the wacky currents there is no such thing as a natural drift or way to maintain contact with a nymph. I have had some success with dragging heavy streamers on the bottom, but there has to be another tactic.

How do my fellow small stream enthusiasts approach these holes?

 

[timbow]

My thoughts on pools like these are that there is very little bug activity in them due to the scoured bottom and strong hydraulics. If fish are holding in them then they are more into a holding pattern and not actively feeding. Streamers or dragging larger nymph/crawfish may get you a few fish. These fish most likely move to the tail out to feed and are much more approachable.

 

[Swattie87]

I usually fish whatever I have tied on first. Usually a standard issue attractor dry. Agree this usually doesn’t work well. You sometimes catch a fish in the tail or in a corner eddy, but you rarely raise the best fish (often times in NC PA a Brown) from the best, deepest lie in the hole.

I switch to a small heavily weighted streamer for these holes after the dry doesn’t work, though I rarely catch the pool boss either way. Admittedly these fish are tough to catch. I think it’d be a better strategy to switch to the streamer first, and make your first cast into the pool to the best spot with the streamer, if it’s your intent to just try to catch the pool boss. And yes, pretty much every one of these primo holes on decent or better NC PA streams has a pool boss. Again, usually a Brown, which inherently are tougher to catch than Brookies.

One of my most memorable fish of all time came from one of these types of pools on a NC PA small stream. I was fishing dries, catching nothing but Brookies. I came to a primo pool and cast my Wulff up to the head of the pool and right down the main current tongue. A 14” Brown rose and the fly just disappeared into its mouth. I wasn’t quite sure what happened but I set the hook and the fish was there. It can happen!

 

[lycoflyfisher]

I guess the never say never saying always holds true Swattie...

Ill try and dig up a picture of one particular hole to discuss.

 

[just_jon]

My mind went straight to Manor Falls on Slate Run. Beautiful to look at, but never had a lot of success there.

 

[dryflyguy]

I've caught fish on dries in plunge pools too. A few nice ones too.

I treat them just like any other pool, really.
Sneak into casting range without (hopefully) spooking anything.

 

[lycoflyfisher]

Here is such an example. The log to the left is entirely within the pool as well. Other than a seem coming off the log and a backwater Eddy on the right there is virtually no current. I get throwing big dry flies and hoping for an interested fish, but if I fishing minnows you could catch fish for hours in this hole and probably several nice trout. Even chucking heavy streamers has produced limited production for me. I'm thinking maybe a heavy jig style streamer may be worth trying.

 

[Swattie87]

Hmm. I don’t recognize that pool. Be a good one to find one day.

I’d fish it with a standard dry to start, in the soft spots below the plunges and let it drift back down to me. Pool Boss is probably underneath the ledge rock on the far right in the slack eddy under the foam. You’d need something heavy to dig him out.

 

[troutbert]

If you PM me the latitude & longitude of the pool, I'll tell you how to catch them in a pool like that.

 

[lycoflyfisher]

This stream in particular has a common name, but is not well known or heavily fished today. It used to be stocked but there were residency issues. I can't speak to what the wild population was before, but it is very stable now. There are quite a few large holes similar to the one pictured, most without as big of a waterfall but perhaps more bedrock driven. I have caught several 15in+ browns on minnows, but have not gotten there one flies yet. I wish you luck in finding it!

 

[lycoflyfisher]

Ha good one troutbert! catching isn't necessarily the problem even on flies... Catching the pool boss on flies is the challenge that I have yet to figure out.

Other habitat types like under cut banks, deep runs with large boulders etc I have caught my share of larger small stream trout.

 

[klingy]

On holes like that, I sloooow down. Usually on small streams I’m casting a couple times to the likely holding spots and moving on. If there’s a brookie there and they don’t take in a few casts, they usually aren’t taking. But a pool like that I would spend quite some time on trying to entice out the pool boss. I’d probably tie on an olive or black bugger and make multiple casts to the tailout first, then moving up and hitting all edges. I’ve caught countless fish in holes like that, and they are usually tucked up under a shelf or rock.

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

A pool boss is a pool boss because he eats or chases out the other fish. A BWO means nothing to this fish.

 

[dryflyguy]

salvelinusfontinalis wrote:
A pool boss is a pool boss because he eats or chases out the other fish. A BWO means nothing to this fish.

But a plump beetle sometimes does the trick

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

True to form. You would be correct. I love beetles.

Another thing to consider is this....
If you are fishing a trib that directly flows into a larger river or is a trib of a trib of a larger river where its mouth is also near the mouth of the tributary, then they are easily accessible to larger moving fish. That means they wont be there all year. Sometimes not catching the pool boss means there is no pool boss too.

 

[lycoflyfisher]

salvelinusfontinalis wrote:
A pool boss is a pool boss because he eats or chases out the other fish. A BWO means nothing to this fish.

Agreed, so what streamer tactics do you use for these types of pools? with very little moving water, you get little to no action dead drifting. I have had some success dragging streams along the falls and other obvious structure. One thing I haven't tried much of would be tying heavy jig like streamers and fishing it like a jig along key structure points.

 

[afishinado]

Also, a deep pools or undercuts can be barren with a mud or sand bottom or featureless bedrock. I've learned this lesson by visiting streams during low periods and seeing how barren pools can be and how I wasted time fishing in a place that is in reality an aquatic desert.

 

[Swattie87]

salvelinusfontinalis wrote:
Sometimes not catching the pool boss means there is no pool boss too.

Maybe. But when you catch (or identify) nothing at all in a primo hole, this usually indicates the presence of a Pool Boss that you’re not catching or seeing. A primo hole on a small stream without a resident Pool Boss will usually harbor many smaller fish, of which you usually can easily catch a couple. Over time, one of these fish grows faster than the others, becomes dominant and turns into a Pool Boss. Or a new Pool Boss migrates into the hole. Most of the time IMO, these primo holes have a relatively good fish in them though, by small stream standards.

My biggest Brookie ever came from this scenario. I fished a massive culvert hole (by far the best habitat on the stream) probably close to a half dozen times over an 18 month span, and caught nothing in it. (The stream is Class A Brookies, and fished like it, other than the big culvert hole.) Then on a cold, windy February afternoon I learned why...a 13” Brookie was in there. It was about 9 months til I fished that stream again...I caught a couple of standard issue 6-7” Brookies that time, so I figured the big fish was gone. Since then I’ve caught a 15” Brown from that hole...The only Brown I’ve ever caught in that neck of the woods, but they’re clearly there...

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

No doubt Swattie.
Youll see from my stream report later today how much i believe in pool bosses.

As usual you are spot on. Just wanted to throw the other thought out there too.

Sometimes there just isnt a pool boss. As with falls and plunges or waterwalls, it can divide populations. Ive seen some creeks with multiple falls the population dynamics change between stretches nearly yearly. Some years one is good and others it is not. Often effecting where a pool boss could be.

Still if you have multiple mouths of multiple creeks near a larger trout stream your pool boss percentages go up drastically.

Is that culvert the one you told me about?

 

[sarce]

The lack of current definitely poses a challenge - so go when there is current. An uptick in flow will draw the pool boss out of its hiding spot and right to the base of the falls. 3-4" long streamer on a jig hook should do the trick. If the water is on the muddy side, black is best. As it clears up go to olive.

In normal flows, you could try jigging something slowly along undercuts. It doesn't always work, but it works often enough to try it.

In low and clear water, there's a decent chance the fish will take a dry or nymph, particularly if nobody has fished the place in several days, and also provided that the water temp remains in the 60s.