Under Pressure

Floating a river to find unfished pools can increase the odds of connecting with a player during the dog days of summer.

  Having success when fishing for late summer Atlantic Salmon is always a coin flip depending on conditions.
Pressured fish that are staging closer to their spawning grounds in low, warm water, is usually not a recipe for success.
Sometimes we are forced to face these conditions and must make the best of it.
My buddy Nunzio and I planned a float in late August, down a stretch of river that has limited access by road. Our hope was that the limited access to a couple of excellent pools would have fish that did not see as many fishermen as the more accessible pools do. It was a good plan and we were excited.
Unfortunately, I had to cancel on the trip last minute. I called my buddy Lorenzo and asked if he could take my place since I fealt horrible about leaving Nunzio hanging last minute. A little convincing about floating down a salmon river to unfished pools and he was in.
They decided to fish a popular pool close to the road, before they set off. It always had fish, but also sees the most pressure. They got there early and found 2 others fishing. They decided to step in and do one rotation anyway since there were fish showing. Many fish, but no takers. Which is mostly the case in these pressured pools in late summer.
 They finally stuck to our original plan and set out on their pontoons to the pools we hoped had some players. The first destination was a gorgeous long pool after a big bend in the river. The tail out was narrow but it had perfect speed, depth, and lots of boulders for salmon to lie near!

 Nunzio came down the pool first and bumped a fish immediately! Soon after, a nice grilse was landed on a Sunburst Spey.
Lorenzo, then fished the same spot and rose a good salmon a couple of times on a Grizzly King. He finally hooked the fish on a Picasse.
A beauty of a fish.

Lorenzo with a beautiful buck

It was a successful trip in tough conditions. Finding fish that were not stressed by the constant harassment of fishermen, was key in their success. It always is in anytime or in any conditions during a full fishing season, but moreso in late summer.
Despite the tough conditions, fly choice, water temperature, and levels were non factors during this particular outing.

When the boys got home with the stories and pictures of their success, it fueled my eagerness to get to those same pools as soon as I could. Maybe I too would get lucky!
Only time I had was a Saturday before the season ended. Conditions were still tough, but if I had a chance, it would be on those unpressured pools. I set up my pontoon and set out to where the boys had their action a couple weeks prior. As I floated down the rapid at the top of the long pool, I was extremely surprised to see two other fishermen casting dry flies, working their way upstream. They were just as surprised to see me there.  They had to have walked for quite some time to get there.
I beached the pontoon and sat and watched.
A salmon leapt in the middle of the pool where I was sitting and about 50 feet above the fishermen. I respectfully waited until they made they're way up the pool. They spent quite some time casting to the only showing salmon and in my opinion, were wading far too deep in the flat mirror like pool.  They finally got to the top of the pool and switched to wet flies and began working downstream. The pool was very long and there was bout 60 yards between us, so i began in the frog water in the middle of the pool and before the pool sped up toward the tailout. I would have preferred to rest the pool for a while, but these guys seemed a little rude and looked like they wanted the pool to themselves despite it having room for all.  I sped through the frog water and where the fish jumped with a silk wing Black Doctor. I finally slowed down at the tailout and made each cast count until I hooked a little grilse. It was a beautifully colored fish.
Here's a video...

That was it for that pool. It was getting hammered and the fish that were in there were wise to us. Well to the two other fishermen at least.

Late summer, low water conditions are tough, but they can be overcome by looking for unpressured pools holding salmon that have not been cast over, day in and out.
Make the most of that coin flip!

Some silk wing doctors