Big, dark, mysterious holes

[BrookTroutLover]

We’ve all wondered. You’re working your way up through a tumbling stream deep in a valley gorge. Boulders the size of RVs. Absolutely gorgeous. And you come up on a deep deep deep hole. Waterfall at the top. No bottom in sight. Tails out 40 yards below. Could be 10 feet deep.

Are there big *** trout down there, or is it really the shallow tail out where the fish live and eat? I’ve read Tom Rosenbauer somewhere saying that most trout are happiest in 2 to 4 feet of water

I’m always tempted to lug the 6wt with a sinking line and put one of those foot-long streamers to the test.

Before I do, who has a story about what lies beneath?

 

[wildtrout2]

I've encountered numerous deep pools below falls over the years, but never caught that lunker that must live in it's depths.

 

[tjsingle]

A couple years ago, my dad and I were fishing for brook trout. We were starting to head back to the truck at that point, and decided to fish a off-shoot of the creek we skipped over on the way upstream. We came across a pool that had to have been 6-ft deep. You could not see the bottom at all. One of those pools thats deeper than it is wide. We joked that the biggest fish was probably in there, and on the last cast before we headed out, sure enough a big old brookie swiped at my dad's streamer right at the surface and returned to the depths.

That fish was easily 14-in+, which as we all know in PA is a trophy.


In Maine, 2 years ago, I was fishing a river with big dry flies. It was June, peak bug season up there. I had gotten a few nice landlocked salmon at the head of a pool, but as we worked down I fished a tailout quickly. The biggest brook trout I've ever seen comes up and eats the stimulator and breaks me off, mind you I am using 4X tippet. That fish was huge, and still haunts me.

 

[tomgamber]

Put on a big beadhead bugger and start counting down. I've always got stuff that'll sink in my box. They also make leadheads that loop between your leader and fly line to make a sinking head.

 

[Nymph-wristed]

I always have a jig streamer with a 5mm bead ready in my working box....