Holding water

This will be the first in a series of posts on holding water. It is so crucial to fish the right kind of water on the Truckee, or on any river for that matter. Theirs an old saying in fly fishing that 90% of fish hold in 10% of the river. You will have more success on the T if you fish the most likely holding water. In this photo you can see a patch of slow water created by a rock with two seams on each side. The water in that slow patch has a negative current flow meaning the water is actually circling around going upstream. Fish can sit in there and expend very little energy waiting for food to come by on both of those seams. Put on plenty of split shot to get to the bottom of that seam. Fish it hard, it might take a while for your flies to hit the right spot. I got two descent size Rainbows out of that spot this morning, but it took about 10 drifts and plenty of shot.