with the lack of rain and he low river levels alot of the pools hav become quite still and shallow. because of this the fish seem quite wary. ive been getting a few fish but relative to the amount of fish rising its pretty poor. ive been using a stealthy approach, alot of crawling on my knees, staying out of the water and casting long distance. leader wise i'm using a 14ft tapered leader with only 2 knots to reduce drag, and a well degreased leader. what ive noticed is i pick off a few of the back fish in a pod, but that is it. the fish in the middle/ head of the pool proving much more difficult. any more tips on how i could improve my approach..

From the conditions you describe, I'd say you were doing rather well to pick up a few fish. Only thing I can suggest is to use as long and fine a leader as you can manage - mind you on a lot of streams I fish 14ft would be at the limit anyway.

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cheers, its a pretty open little stream, runs through grassland so no real trouble in the back cast. mite try a finer leader alright

The theory goes that flies hatch at the top of the pool in rougher water and the duns float down the glides, while this is in true in part i suspect we all see flies hatching mid pool.
Like lighthouse said i dont know if there is anything to add.
What i would try in such situations (who knows if it would work)) is try something that floats in the surface (like an f fly) or even an emerger with its **** in the water closer to the head of the pool. You could also try going larger or smaller, failing that launch a woolly ******!

been having a think about this today while tying and i feel my best bet is to wade into position as stealthly as possibly and wait until the fish regain some confidence and start feeding again.. hopefully will improve my luck

cheers

'An hour in the gloamin's worth ten in the day'

Unless you're a genius, you aren't going to catch every fish in the pool. For every fish you catch you may be lining and scaring others which aren't actively feeding; these fish may be charging up and down the pool causing those fish upstream which didn't know about you to go on high alert. (I say this because this season I've started to fish a clear limestone river so I can see this happening; on my normal peat-stained river I never knew this was happening, but from what I know now pretty sure it must have been.)
So, how to catch this fish at the head of the pool ... once in a while walk around a pool and fish it with a downstream dry fly. You've already told us you are stealthy and can present a fly at a reasonable distance: do these same things.
You probably won't catch any fish by the time you get to the tail of the pool, but you've already caught these last time fishing it upstream.

For what its worth, what works for me on glides is a size 20 Griffiths Gnat. Because the tippet is so fine and difficult to sink on glides, i use a short dropper 3-4 inch, with a size 22 simple buzzer 12" from the dry, washing line style, this helps to sink the tippet quickly below the surface without sinking the gnat. Never had a fish on the dropper BTW, so maybe another tiny pattern may work better.

Glides seem to be predominantly midge stretches on rivers i fish. The streamier stuff is a different matter.

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"Angling may be said to be so like mathematics in that it can never be fully understood" - Izaak Walton

Thats the best answer.


Gary (nicho )

bamboo rod maker.

fished the area again last night. concentrated on the riffles early until about 10 o clock taking planty of smaller fish on little olive emergers. around 10 i gave the glides a go, one pool in particular there was a pod of good fish rising where the flow began to ease. fishing a 16 foot leader with a 0.10 tippet and a size 22 midge. managed to get into position with out too much disturbance to the pool. pick off 3 fish all about 9 inches before they stopped feeding which i was pretty pleased with, especially when the 3rd fish ran through the area they had been rising. the longer leader and waiting until the sun had set seemed to make a big difference.