One of the rivers I fish has a few reasonable sized weir pools. All of them are approachable from downstream but not from above. I'm pretty sure that they will contain trout (the rest of the river does) but cannot work out a suitable method to fish them. I've tried a few things, heavy bugs, streamers, sinking lines etc. but so far no luck.
Does anybody have any tips for a productive method to approach these features?

Cheers

Andy

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Only ever fished a weir pool once and got absolutly thrashed by two kids who were fishing V small nymphs under a Bung. Out of snobbery i kept fishing small dries for one small brown trout were as the youngster fishing the Bung had about 30 trout each and plenty of Chub

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Allan
Only dead fish go with the flow.

Hi Andy,

Have you tried running a dry fly over it. I usually find a sedge (Elk Hair Caddis) in size 14, then 16 if they ignore that, will bring up what can be brought up.

If this doesn't bring a rise, go sub-surface with a gold-ribbed hare's ear nymph, a pheasant tail nymph or a pink shrimp. If this doesn't tempt them, they cant be tempted. (Try various weights to cover different depths.)

Wouldn't worry about a sinking line for the river - weir pool or not - weighted nymphs should get deep enough quick enough.

Not tried a dry. Will certainly give it a go. My main approach so far has been to try to imitate a bait fish (plenty of fry in the river this time of year) and running a weighted fly through giving it as much life as possible. This is based on the assumption that there may be a big carnivorous trout lurking... This approach has paid dividends on a few of the scour pools at the tail ends of runs of riffles elsewhere on the river, however this has always been fishing downstream so it's pretty easy to suspend the fly.

Cheers

Andy

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Andy

On some of the chalkstreams I fish I sometimes encounter hatch-pools which are similar to wier pools. The mistake I used to make was to cast a heavy nymph into the main flow and dead drift it back towards me as you would in a normal part of the river. This was rarely, if ever, successful and I think that it was a combination of difficulty of bite detection in the fast flow, but also the fast water not letting the fly sink deep enough.

The method that was shown to me and which works well is to essentially fish the back-eddys. At the sides of the main flow there will usually be big back-eddys where the flow heads back towards the weir. Get a very heavy nymph like a cased caddis and cast it in the back-eddy in the direction of the weir. Although you are casting in an upstream direction, you are essentially fishing downstream because the back-eddy current is heading in the opposite direction of the main flow. Once you've cast the fly into the back-eddy, you will feel the pull of the current. At this point feed out line and let the fly get carried towards the weir and it will sink as it does so. Then stop the line which will start to tighten and the fly will start to lift in the flow and it's at this stage that you can get a take. You can just hold the fly in the current for a while and often a fish will nail it, but you should also try twitching the fly back and you will get takes on the retrieve.

Try it - it works for me.

Good question Andy.

There is a deep weir pool at Wherwell and most anglers there try their luck so to speak and so do I from time to time. No one seems to do very well there but just occasionally the pool switches on and the residents can be outwitted with heavy nymphs. Not an exact science I am afraid but it may help. If I remember rightly royvs has gad a couple from the pool I am referring to.

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[COLOR="Blue"]"A fish seen is a fish nearly caught"[/COLOR]

Get an upstream worm chucked over them . Seriously if rules allow and the fly isn't working on them give it a go. Can take a while to get the technique but once you do it's a killer .

HOWEVER since this is a fly forum I'd better suggest something else . I've found that trundling a heavy peeping caddis though a wierpool will often pick up the better fish when a light nymph or dry fly aren't working - also if there's any bonus grayling about (likely in a spot such as that) it'll nail them too.

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Alwyn is talking some sense there. Very few fish spend more than a few seconds in the main flow - but usually you'll have a back eddy that feeds back around and to the head of the pool. That's where the food is going. I'd stick on a heavily weighted nymph and drop it in - just dead drift in the eddies (you may need to feed line). Even the smallest weir pools, natural or artificial, have these spots. Can be just a couple of feet wide and that's where the fish are.

My local water has several big weir pools...and every one is different , I fish the pools a fair bit right through the season. I have come to the conclusion that you have to split the pool up and fish each section seperately. Taking into consideration strength of flow and water depth . The width of the pool has a lot of bearing to..

These are a couple of the factors I have found when fishing the pools locally..

Side Eddies: at the sides of any pool there are usually back eddies fish will sit in these and rise to dries and also take nymphs , But usually the fish are sat tight up to the edge, On pools with walls for sides the fish can be literally inches from the edge, Also the fish are usually facing downstream so presentation is tricky...
An approach from directly downstream and putting the fly inches from the edge can have good results.

Main pool : Where the main water flows down the pool the fish typically will sit mid pool on the crease on the edge of the current. Somtimes there may be two or more such flows . I find that this is the most consistent area for success, But bear in mind that the fish will move up and down the pool in tune with increased or decreased flow. Also you may find fish sitting facing downstream again in one of the back currents.
I think the best thing you can do is get on the bank and sit and have a study of the water . Weir pools are worth the effort

Andy,

very interesting question as I share the same frustration while fishing the weir at home.
Very fast water and can only be fished upstream and I just can't get anything down quick enough!
There are quality fish in the pools as I see them trying to jump the weir on a very regular basis.....
My experience has told me they sit very deep in the pools most of the time and a neighbour (coarse fisherman) who fishes from time to time pulls them out by the bag full up to 4lb (brownies) using a swim feeder set up.My challenge is to catch them on the fly.
Alwyn's advice is spot on but is not working for me thus far as the current and flow are just far too strong.
I need something considerably heavier to get through the current into deeper water and that doesn't include a very heavy swim feeder full of bait.
Best of luck in the meanwhile,
D.