Pools or Streams

[nobuzz]

In various different water conditions, high, low rising and falling where are the most productive areas to try for salmon on the fly. The pools or the runs between the pools.

Apologies if this is an overly simplistic question.

[rpsalmon]

Dear nobuzz

The most productive places to catch fish in high water will be where the temporarily resting salmon will stop. In a “pool”, and sometimes you will be hard pushed to define a pool in a given piece of water, these salmon will generally be at the tails of pools (the glides of smooth water, including the break where the smooth water starts to ruffle over the stones), the deeper dubs, any quiet patch next to the main stream, streamy water and necks of pools (to the side where the water comes in). The problem with high water is, fish can often be anywhere so any part of a river with an deflected current around a sunken rock, croy, bend in the river etc could all be a taking place. Watch for salmon jumping, it will often signal this place is a lie that has been disturbed by another fish, as such it is worth a bit of fishing time.

In low water the fish will have most probably stopped running during the day and will move at night, the places to catch them in the morning would generally be in the shallow stream at the head of the pool and the tail (glide) of the pool. Increased light/temperature usually sees fish move back into deeper water in order to conserve energy, as they are in effect what I could roughly describe as in “sleep mode” they become harder to tempt/catch. Those fish that remain in a good strong stream during low water are often easier to catch.

While catching salmon in a rising water is normally considered to be hopeless, I would fish at the tail of a pool because those fish that travel at the beginning of a rise will often stop there. In a falling water fish those places I’ve stated as fishing at high water.