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Deep Holes
My favorite creek usually runs from maybe 2-5 foot on average. Very easy to fish with a wooly bugger or such. There are however some DEEP holes. How deep? I dunno, not goin in to find out. :D
I have pulled a fish or two out once or twice by just letting the wb (olive beadhead # 10) sink and drift aimlessly around... but I have no control at all of what is happening down in the depths.
How should I be fishing deep holes? (I know they hold the bigger rainbows)
Mike
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Hi Mike,
A lot of streams here in New Zealand have strong currents, and short, deep holes. This makes it difficult to get the fly to where the fish are, which is often hugging the bottom. What is often resorted to here are heavily weighted nymphs. Perhaps the most popular is the bead head hare & copper, size 10 probably. Basically, it's just dubbed hare's mask with a heavy copper wire rib, over a weighted body and with a bead head (usually gold). Sometimes a small, unweighted nymph, like a pheasant tail size 16, is tied to the bend of the heavier nymph. Anyway, cast above the hole, drift the heavy nymph through (under an indicator, or just keep a taught line) and see how that works for you. Be prepared to lose lots of nymphs on the bottom or tree roots, etc.
- Jeff
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Contrary to what you might believe, trout, or at least feeding trout, do not hold way down in these deep holes, or if they are in deep holes, they are suspended above the bottom.
In either case, if you're looking for the biggest fish, and ones that are in feeding positions, you'll more often than not find them in the shallower water as contrasted to deep pools. Just where to find these fish could be the subject of another thread.
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you have to adjust your setup accordingly. if your leader setup is for the 2-5 feet, then you need to change it so it can now reach 8-10 feet, or however deep these holes are. you also have to increase the sink rate of your fly/flies so they get to the depth of the hole quick enough they are in front of fish before the setup passes out of the hole. also realize that you won't be able to effectively fish the shallower water until you change back.
different setups will allow you to fish the hole differently too. if you make it really heavy, you can fish the drop off but that may be too heavy to effectively fish the rest of the hole. if you lighten up just enough, you can fish the rest of the hole effectively but won't have a good presentation for any fish that might be hanging right at the bottom of the drop.
if you are using nymphs, you can adjust your indicator so your setup will pass through the hole at different depths.
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Good advice thus far from everyone. My experience may be a little different. I was fishing in Cherokee last year and one of the primary runs I fished was deep. I was using a medium thingamabobber as a strike indicator, had two splitshot (#4 I believe) and then a fly my friend called a depth charge ( a nymph tied on a #10 curved hook with a 3.0mm and a 2.5mm tungsten bead) as the lead fly. I used a smallish soft hackle for a dropper. Some fish came off the large fly, most fish came off the soft hackle. In this particular place, you had to get the fly down. From strike indicator to soft hackle there was approximately 10 feet in between the two. I never got a hit until the fly was close to the bottom. The current was pretty strong, and it would take about 6 seconds for the flies to get in the strike zone, which, if I was lucky, lasted about 6 seconds. I may have gone about this the wrong way, but it worked for me. Others were fishing very similarly. I don't necessarily like fishing this way the entire day because casting, or slinging, just isn't that much fun. I did, however, catch the biggest trout(s) of my life the three days I fished.
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I'll be in honest, I usually pass up the really deep pools as I consider these the province of spin fishers.
However, when I can be bothered to change fly and leader, I'll go with a streamer, or a heavily weighted WB in crawdad colors. I'll even go with a 10' weighted polyleader.
Fish these things like a farm pond.
If there's current to the side of the pool, put a nymph on the edge between the slow and fast water and drift it. Trout will come out of the pool to hit the nymph.
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there's a small stream that I fish regularly which has a couple of holes in the 10-15" depth range. Around Christmas I was fishing one of them and having no luck until I finally got to 6 (!) split shot above a rust wb and pt nymph. Once I got enough weight on it was game on. The fish were laying down there deep and it took a bunch of weight to get to them. I used a 3/4" thingamabobber to hold the monstrosity up. The thingamabobber was about 2 feet up my flyline. Casts were just flops upstream to the top of the hole. Just my limited experience.
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A good option for a deep hole is to use a either a full sink line or long sink tip line with a streamer. If it is too much of a hassle to do that, try using a ten foot fast sinking poly sinker with either a streamer or weighted fly. If you fish a streamer, try fishing it fast and erratically to get a reaction strike.
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Ok, you all have made me open my eyes. I am an absolute novice. I have never changed my leader for any real reason... I wasn't aware of the different lengths...sinking floating, ect. I guess I have been using a typical floating, and a beaded wb gets deep enough for my needs most of the time. Headed to the fly shop today, guess I have questions to ask.
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Long rod, long leader, lots of lead, small nymph(s) or streamer. Basically you want to high-stick it. I'd stay away from all the sinking lines, sink tips, sinking leaders, etc. Two reasons: 1) They're not suitable for the rest of the stream, so you're packing in an extra spool and changing spools twice every time you come to a deep hole, and 2) the increased surface area of such lines means the current and drag has a more noticeable effect. Since you aren't trying to fish it at much of a distance, leave that stuff at home, and instead use a 9-12 foot fluoro leader with your fly of choice and lead (or your favorite non-lead substitute) about 12-18" above the fly, spaced out about one piece per inch from 12 to 18" That will add a lot of weight while minimizing the "hinge" tendency of such a rig. I wouldn't bother with any sort of indicator either. Maaaaybe once you know exactly how deep it is, but probably not even then. Ideally, the last 18" of your tippet (from the first piece of shot to the fly) should be hugging bottom, and the rest of the leader near-vertical, in order to minimize the effect of the drag from varying currents throughout the water column.
If the water is that deep and dark, you can pretty much fish right over top of it, just try not to throw a shadow on the water.