Reading the Water

[afishinado]

Tips on reading the water:

 

[gulfgreyhound]

Good stuff ,A fish. Good refresher. GG

 

[JackM]

Jack on reading the water. Read the how-to-do books, watch the how-to-do films, but don't neglect seeing what you see and hearing what you hear from a healthy dose of just doing it. Experiment and when you catch a fish, analyze all the variables of presentation and location and manner of drift.

Soon pattern will develop, and on some days, different patterns. You cannot write the script until you are on the stream experimenting. Observe and Adapt!

 

[dryflyguy]

When I "read" the water - I simply look for rises. If none are to be found in that section of stream, I move up or downstream a bit. If I still find no risers, I move to another stream. Repeat
Keeps things quite simple really

 

[whheff]

Great video. Thanks

 

[Hook_Jaw]

nice video

 

[Chaz]

Great video, lots of hints a tips.

 

[pcray1231]

When I "read" the water - I simply look for rises. If none are to be found in that section of stream, I move up or downstream a bit. If I still find no risers, I move to another stream. Repeat
Keeps things quite simple really.

I don't consider myself "bad" at reading water.

But really, one of the keys to getting to know a stream well, and being able to nymph it, is often being there at a time when fish are rising.

If you want to really learn a stream, resist the temptation to pound a pod of risers, and instead, take a walk!!!! Doesn't matter if guys are fishing, you're just walking by. Mentally note all the spots that have risers. You will note good looking runs with nothing going on, and marginal looking spots with fish.

Guess what? When that hatch ends, and they ain't rising, there are still fish in those same places.

As another hint, if you actually do want to catch them on dries, well, if there are fish rising everywhere it's pretty easy. But pay close attention to shallower edges, back eddies, and the like. In less "robust" conditions, people miss a whole lot of rises because they're looking for that obvious ring. On those edges a rise can be difficult to see. Just a beak sticks up, almost no real ring on the water.

 

[Hook_Jaw]

You can just look at it and see where they are If you know how to fish.

 

[pcray1231]

To a degree. And like I said, reading water is a skill. It's not if you know or don't know. Everyone's on a spectrum. Nomatter who you are, somebody is better than you at it, and somebody is worse.

But yeah, being there when fish are rising often teaches me things about where exactly they lay. Sometimes it confirms what my "water reading" said. Which is still good, cause it adds confidence. Sometimes it highlights spots that I wouldn't have thought too much about.

 

[ryansheehan]

pcray1231 wrote:
To a degree. And like I said, reading water is a skill. It's not if you know or don't know. Everyone's on a spectrum. Nomatter who you are, somebody is better than you at it, and somebody is worse.

But yeah, being there when fish are rising often teaches me things about where exactly they lay. Sometimes it confirms what my "water reading" said. Which is still good, cause it adds confidence. Sometimes it highlights spots that I wouldn't have thought too much about.

Point well taken, however remember that where stocked fish locate and wild fish locate are often quite different. There are times when I see stockers in certain places rising and I know-ish, that wild fish would be elsewhere. Just some food for thought.

 

[pcray1231]

That's true too. I spend very little time on stocked streams.

 

[ryansheehan]

In teaching a buddy to fish I took him to a few delayed harvest streams to get his feet wet. Really became apparent to me as we took it up a notch and visited some wild and wonderful streams. It was good for him to have success but it didn't do him any favors when it comes to reading water, it was almost like starting over.

 

[foxtrapper1972]

The exceptions to the rules are the ones I am most interested in. I know of a certain large wild Brown who is never where I think it should be. I keep going back and each time it is in the most unlikely place in the pool. (The other small fish are all in the likely holding places). Every time I approach this smallish pool it is like a gambling game. Do i cast to the one or two likely places? (probably not). Okay now which of the ridiculously unlikely ten other places do I make a cast to? One or maybe two casts and the pool is spooked. He or she is a very large and tricky fish. We have even looked at each other from three feet away, man to fish, on a few occasions but we have never shaken hands yet.

 

[Swattie87]

Is that on a small stream fox? I see that behavior a lot more on pools on small streams. Most of the time the best fish is still in the primo lie probably, but sometimes the fish can truly be anywhere.

A good example that has tricked me repeatedly is the first decent pool up from the mouth on Cedar Run (Pine Creek trib). On that first straighaway before it makes its first hard bend to the left. Flow comes down pretty hard and fast down the left center of the pool ultimately tailing out to a shallowish run still left of center. Extreme left hand side of the pool is very shallow, skinny water. Huge, Mini Cooper size, undercut rock at the head on the right forces the flow left and makes the whole right side of the pool a big, slow, thigh deep, eddy behind it. Slab rock bottom on the eddy side, usually covered to some degree in sticks, leaves, and other small debris. Cobble to basketball sized rock in the main current line. The places you’d most likely expect to find the “pool boss” in this hole, in relative order of likelihood, I think are:

1. Under, or just next to the undercut rock, near the head, just to the right of the main flow.
2. Further down the pool, still on the right, sitting in the water in between the main flow and the eddy.
3. In the center of the main flow, pretty far down once it slows to more of a run, relatively near the tail.
4. In the small pocket left of the main flow at the very head.

I’ve fished the hole 3 times now, all with the same approach…First cast to the head, over the undercut portion of the rock, just to the right of the main flow. With a drift down the right side of the main current where the fast water meets the eddy I figure I can hit #1 and #2 on this list pretty good with this one cast…decent shot at getting a look from a fish in spot #3 too. Second cast to the small pocket left of center at the head, with a drift basically down the main current line after that. I’ve never caught a fish in this hole. All 3 times after walking up though I found a 14-16” range Brown sitting out in the open in the eddy over top of the debris, facing downstream! Assume he’s picking off easy food that gets stuck in the eddy. Next time I’m plopping a dry in the eddy on the first cast!

 

[sarce]

Foxtrapper, I've had the same thing happen. I tangled with a 17" brown on a MD stream this spring in high water, he threw the hook. Every time I've gone back to that pool in the evenings in low water, the damn fish is sitting along the bank toward the tailout with its dorsal out of the water. Brush around the pool makes it 100% impossible to approach that spot, except in high water, which has been scarce this year.

 

[foxtrapper1972]

Yeah it a small stream. The pool is the size of two Mini Coopers at least and 5 ft deep in places.

This is happening to me lately in 3 different streams. And these bigger pool bosses seem to be facing toward the bank in an eddy as you mention. But never in the predictable spots. I go back with a new strategy a week later and the fish are in a new unlikely spot. Keeps things interesting though.

 

[pcray1231]

fox, I've never got the bug myself, but have a few buddies (both spin and fly) who got seriously into chasing big browns in small streams.

You gotta figure out what, and when, they are eating. That's what tells you where they are.

Generally the when is at night. These guys chase them at night. Yeah, they'll go in with a rod in hand and throw a few casts before turning the light on. But don't leave without doing so! Usually they have a failed trip or two before figuring it out. Typically they'll turn the light on and find the fish in an unexpected spot, like a shallow tail out, or in the riffle above. Then come in a few nights later and target that spot.

About the only time they fish during the day is in high muddy conditions, as these mostly nocturnal fish will get active in brown water.

I was one of their "informers". If I fished a small stream and came across a pool that was strangely absent of all life, including minnows and smaller trout, they wanted to know about it. Especially if there was an overhang. And I'd often get a cell phone pic a few days or weeks later with a monster pulled out of there, or at least a nighttime photo of big fish visible by flashlight in a tailout or something.

I would not be surprised in the least if these fish in different spots that you are seeing are actually different fish. It's pretty common that in holes like these you find a pod of 3, 4, or 5 fish like that. During the day, when not feeding, they'll try to be tucked up under a ledge or something. But there can be competition for holding spots in lower water, and the fish you are seeing might actually be the non-dominant ones kicked out of the prime lies!!! Or, if it is in the fall, they could be spawning on the shallows as well, or looking to. It's not impossible, but unless you see them actually do so I have my doubts if they are feeding out there in clear water during the day.

That's all assuming their resident fish, and not coming up from bigger water below, though. If they are travelling fish, well, yeah, they'll move a lot. There are plenty of steelhead books that describe where fish will hold in different "moods" during travel. It fits for river/lake run fish outside the great lakes, too.

 

[foxtrapper1972]

Good stuff, Thanks.

 

[Swattie87]

In contrast to my Cedar Run example, there’s a culvert pool on a local small stream that has produced two very nice Browns for me…one 14” and one 18”. The set up on this one is the left side of the culvert footer is undercut. Current comes down the left side of the culvert and partially flows into the undercut. The current tongue tails out down the left center of the pool. Pretty severe back eddy on the right. EVERY time I’ve caught or seen a good fish in this hole, it’s darted out from the undercut of the footer at the head of the pool on the left, exactly where you’d expect it to be. I caught the 14”er in Winter 2014 and the 18”er in the Spring of 2015, different fish from picture comparison. Fished it once earlier this Fall and had a look from what appeared to be a 12” range fish that also came out from the undercut. I suspect the 18”er from Spring 2015 is now gone. Prior to catching that first 14”er in 2014 I had three or four run ins with another 16-18” range fish in the two years prior that I never caught. I think this situation with the pool boss in the primo lie every time is generally more typical of reading water on small streams. I’ve caught smaller fish from the right side of the current tongue in this pool, but every big one has been in the same primo spot.