This hole is a head scratcher.
You are looking downstream in the photo.
It is mid september.
Lots of leaves on the surface.
The water dumps over a slight ledge all the long the grass line on the right.
The far left is a rock face that “chairs” to a deep slot. All rock.
The upstream approach is tight.
The water is slow.
A jumping nymph presentation? Works on trout too.
One thing that jumps out at me is that there is a clear line of leaves starting just above the center of picture in an s-curve off to the center right. If the leaves are piling up there, chances are insects are as well. If you can drop a wet fly or unweighted nymph to the edge of it and just let it sit there (which I know can be hard to do) you very well come up with something. At least it’s the first thing I’d try.
Cant really tell from the pic…but if there is a dropoff or ( structure) below the surface…Id drop something like an elkhair caddis on top of the structure and let it float downstream all the way to that scum line…giving it an occasional twitch.
Spinner
I have come back to this post 3x and I am stumped. Why in the world are you fishing there? I have seen your photos (all very nice by the way) and I would go back to one of those places and fish.
Seriously, well I was serious but if I had to wet a line I would again go wet, egg sucking leach egg patterns and nymphs and a minnow pattern along the drop off pulling up stream. Dynamite with a 5 second fuse would be tempting though not very sporting.
Love the posts by the way.
Regards,
Sean
I caught a really nice brookie in there near the end of season and had a trout follow the hooked one to shore and hang about 12 feet off shore . The really nice brookie I caught was 15/16 inches and the brookie hanging off shore was a male brookie about 4-5 inches bigger. When I unhooked the beauty she swam out to the other and they both disappeared in to this leafy mess.
Wooley Bugger with a little weight.
Strip and bang.
Is that the same section of stream that is in the “Pishtech” game?
I’d start close, just out from the near bank where the stump/snag appears out to the little promontory. That conveniently puts me at one end of teh previously mentioned S-curve of debris. There appear to be several striations of leaves flowing parallel to the current. I would watch those as well to see what they indicate about currents in the pool. I would end up working the far bank and trying to drift a nymph (under a dry or highly visible emerger as a strike indicator) as close to it as I could. I would also work the front of the S-curve before working the central channel between the S-curve and the denser flotsam that probably indicates shallower water. The edge of the flotsam would not be ignored.
I think that I would probably do this after standing back and really enjoying the view and the place for a bit. It’s much to good a place to rush. This hole seems to have a cozy charm that entices one to take the briskness of the Autmun day there with the promise of warm memories by the fire for many Winters to come.
I may not be a masterful fly fisher, but I love it nonetheless.
Ed