Where to brook trout like to hang out...I know that rainbows prefer faster water and browns like slower water (over-simplified)...but where do brookies hang out?
Scenerio=small stream- not a big river.
Where to Brook Trout Like To Hold?
Where to brook trout like to hang out...I know that rainbows prefer faster water and browns like slower water (over-simplified)...but where do brookies hang out?
Scenerio=small stream- not a big river.
mm, ...
Small stream or big river, ... they (imho) will hold in the same places.
Think like a fish! ...
... from an old article...
Too many fly fishers are under the assumption that any stretch of water that normally holds fish is a pool (especially in eastern Canada). I like to be a bit more explicit and speak of riffles, runs, slicks and pools. Mountain creeks such as in the Rockies have their very own types so we won?t get into that. Each water type has its own characteristics, potential, and tactics. For the sake of conversation, let?s describe the 4 general types of water that I?m able to differentiate. Remember, I?m not much of an authority on this subject, so let?s just go with my descriptions for the sake of discussion.
Water Types:
? Riffles:
To me, the riffle looks and sounds like its name, approximately 1 - 2 feet deep, constant current, nice gravel bottom with some nice ?boulders? etc sprinkled about. What?s nice about riffles is their capacity to produce bugs. The gravel bottom has lots of ?living space? for insects to live. (I?ll let the other members of this site get into the types of insects and other organisms which thrive in this type of water.) Wading is fun.
Note: We have a lot of fun wading through riffles if we can ?get out there?. I like to keep my clients up on top of boulders etc to minimize our impact on the river bottom. Try not to go stomping around too much on the ?living spaces? of these very rich sites.
? Runs:
This type of water (to me) is essentially a riffle with more current and depth (down to a couple of feet, depending on the current). Because of these two characteristics, the material found here is of larger size. The gravel bottom is composed of larger sized ?rocks?. Living spaces are fewer, but still there. Obstacles are more imposing and wading is VERY difficult.
? Slicks:
This is really my interpretation, but for me a slick is a run so deep that the surface is only occasionally influenced by the subsurface characteristics. We?ll only see an occasional up welling to indicate a large obstacle for instance.
? Pools:
Once a slick gets so deep that the current can back eddy (horizontally as well as vertically), I?m into a pool. Pools have a distinct head, body and tail.
We can?t really start looking at the morphology of a type of water without getting into a bit of ?fish? biology/psychology and stream ecology, so I think this thread will have to run on two fronts at the same time. After all, we don?t try to read water for the fun of it. The object is to possibly divulge where the fish are and to figure out what to present and how to present it to them. How do we go about this?
The first trick that many clients forget about while looking at a run (that is, if they don?t go stomping into the pool before looking) is that they only ?look? at the water. I like to try to imagine what is under the surface. You can only do this by analyzing the surface by noting the water movement, the currents, and finally by visualizing what lies underneath. *(Polarized sunglasses help too). Each of these signs helps indicate to me where a fish could be or even where fish probably won?t be, which leads us to our next section.
Where wouldn?t a fish be? Think about it, what do fish look for in a station (or lie I suppose we say in the US)? If I were a fish, I?d either be looking for food or looking for an easy place to relax which provides me with shelter from predators. Let?s look at three different qualities of each station.
Looking for food in a river would be much too hard on an energy budget to roam around in a run looking for food. It appears that foraging fish (not Atlantic Salmon) prefer to position themselves in a sheltered position waiting for food to drift/swim by. These ?feeding? stations are often the first points of reference that fly fishermen learn to recognize.
Feeding stations in a riffle are few and far between. Why? Well, remember there isn?t a lot of water depth in a riffle. A fish holding in a riffle is pretty vulnerable to predation. The surface of a riffle is broken, but the depth isn?t there. A fish holding in a riffle REALLY wants to eat. (Good for us!).
When we get into a run, the water is deeper and fish could be more inclined to hold longer in a specific area. Proportionally, in a run versus a riffle, the stations are larger and can hold a LARGER fish. It is also once we start getting water depths of runs that real hydraulic effects can start to be found. That is, a fish doesn?t need to hold BEHIND an obstacle, it can hold along side a boulder or even in front of it. (Picture a Nascar driver holding on the ?compression wave? of the car behind him.) This also means that a fish can use the bottom as well as the banks to find ?effects? that will help it to hold on station.
Slicks to me come in two variants, alive or dead. A dead slick is too barren without cover and too much current without bottom features. We often see people fishing dead slicks because they don?t take the time to spool up, walk along the bank and scout out the section.
Live slicks have enough obstacles to hide some fish, but I often find targets to be very wary in these waters. Pools are the sections of water that typically hold the largest fish. Happily, I have also found that in situations where the current is less, larger fish will ?tolerate? schooling. As mentioned earlier, pools have a distinct head, body, and tail. I have found that the bruisers can hold just back of the head and often just up from the tail. I really don?t like wet tips and lead so I rarely prospect the body of a pool (even though I?m sure that I pass up some nice opportunities).
Sorry about the long answer, ... but you asked quite a question
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Christopher Chin, Jonquiere Quebec
[url=http://flyanglersonline.com/travel/quebec06fishin/:05c5e]2006 FishIn Ste-Marguerite River[/url:05c5e]
[url=http://pages.videotron.com/fcch/:05c5e]Fishing the Ste-Marguerite[/url:05c5e]
Christopher Chin
The bigger a brookie gets it's likely the blacker-deeper the water would be.
Mike
Sit on the bank for a day or two, watch the water, read the water...you will be amazed at how much you can learn without putting a fly on the water. I went out yesterday and watched in amazement as a hatch started up and the fish began to take. It was startling to see the rise before me...it was almost 3 hours before I realized I had a rod and tackle in the truck and strung it up for a fine evening of dry fly fishing.
"As i peered over the bank a good trout backed like a phahtom into obscurity"
Romilly Feddon "Golden Days" (1919)
Behind this beaver dam.
When you arise in the morning, think of what a
precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think,
to enjoy, to love.
- Marcus Aurelius
Someone said earlier look for them in the cover and I would have to agree. You can pull big brookies out of 3-4 inches of water if there is appropriate cover. The bigger fish will hold at the bottom of the deeper pools although later in the season I have caught 16 inchers in tiny little brooks around small log jams and such. Skitter dry flies around cover. That is fun!
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