Pools

In fly fishing, a pool is not an ordinary section of river. A pool is not an eddy or a pocket, although it may have those within it.

In fly fishing, calling a particular stretch of flowing water a "pool" deems it worthwhile. We name our pools after people who found them, like Barnhart's or Cairn's, or we give them nicknames, like "The Bathtub." We talk about their great trout, that may have once taken us into the backing, or brag that you got to fish the so and so pool, while everybody nods in dumb nostalgia. Pools can become famous legends, names we instantly recognize for their pure fishability.

There are certain stretches of river known as "pools."

And pools can be crowded. In May and June even parking a car near some of the most well known pools is difficult. You pull up and there's already six anglers who've claimed every decent lie and three others on the bank, just watching.

Pools. There's a reason for the fame, of course, and I'm convinced it's because these pools hold lots and lots of hungry trout. The depth is just right and the temperature is just right, and the water has just the right amount of oxygen and the rocks in the riverbed are constantly churned up by anglers, causing the abundant local caddis pupae to jettison into the flow so the bigger fish can lie on the bottom with their mouths open, constantly inhaling food. Drift a larger than necessary weighted nymph over one of these beasts and you can easily entertain nine other anglers who will watch you land it, then immediately ask what you're using. Catching an immense fish in a crowded pool is always a conversation starter.

I have taken, lately, to avoiding these pools. In fact, I have sort of endeavored to find my own pools, which are a little bit off of the road, a little less frequented. Once in a while I'll find another angler wading around in a pool that I consider "mine," and often he is standing right on top of the spot where the trout usually lie, fishing into a hopeless midcurrent. Kind of feel sorry for the dope, but it's too late to give him advice so I just wave and move on to find another "pool."

I have to admit, so far, so good. I've found many. And all I had to do was wander off a bit, away from the same crowds casting to the same fish in the same famous pools, just into the woods a bit, over there, away from the road.

And I have my own nicknames for them; Just Above The Bridge Pool, Corner Pool, Construction Vehicle Parking Lot Pool, Beat 21, Horseshoe Beach, and The Grassy Knoll. Maybe someday I'll tell you where they are.