Water heaps please our eyes, while for fish they are a source of oxygen and food. Rapid current and fish in the holes under the waterfall – Gerd will tell you, how to master the water element and successfully fish.
The stream roared right outside our house. As a young boy, I was fascinated by all the water rapids on this little river, and in particular large stream trouts and perches living in holes under waterfalls and weirs damming the water. I caught these fish either with a brass spinner or with the bottom method.
I dug the worms out of the compost heap at the back of the park pavilion. This was my only experience with water sills, until, when over 25 years ago I started fishing for barbel in the Danube. Since then I have fished countless holes under natural or artificial dams in many different rivers. Water thresholds are my favorite fisheries, because fish always gather in the holes below. Often there are also nice surprises. Small weirs and mill waterfalls are usually very picturesque and peaceful. Big dams and waterfalls sometimes feel terrible, places impossible to catch, especially when the water accelerates rapidly before the dam's threshold, cascades down, and then explodes with white foam and water dust. Masses of water "shoot" straight ahead, to soon split into two currents, which usually turn back and flow towards the waterfall. Many anglers deliberately avoid larger drops in the water, because they don't know very much, how you can fish in such places. The old truth says, however, that you should never judge anything by first impressions. Usually everything looks very different under water than on the surface.
How the float behaves?
If we want to learn to "feel" into holes under waterfalls, we must first get to know some of them from the practical side, that is, try to fish in them. The float will sometimes drift with the surface current, sometimes, however, it will move towards the waterfall. The bottom sinker will lie completely still in the rushing current, while in a different place, looking very similar, will roll on the bottom. The holes under the water thresholds change constantly. High water constantly raises or carries all kinds of "debris", creates sandbanks or washes the bottom. So we cannot be too surprised, that suddenly a float or a bottom sinker behaves very differently than when fishing at the same spot some time ago. You can fish practically anywhere in the depressions under the damming water, even there, where the foamy white water falls down (The "inhibitory" properties of water make, that at the bottom it is quite quiet there). Brzany, fish as if designed to be in the current of water, they really like to gather directly under the waterfall, from there to make excursions from time to time in search of food. The water current is always strongest in the middle of the dam. But even in the middle of the river, the current above the bottom is much weaker, than near the surface. Barbells and chubs like to feed in such a place. Sideways currents are a favorite gathering place for all species of fish. Roach, jelce, curse, brzany, perch, bream and pike clearly prefer slow swimming, almost standing water. The hump at the bottom at the border of a rushing mainstream and a slow reverse current is often occupied by chubs, although, of course, you can also catch a barbel there. The mouth of the hole under the waterfall is the site, where all species of fish feed from time to time. The roach is most likely to stick to the beginning of the outflow, on the other hand, daces prefer a place located a little lower, with shallower and much faster flowing water. The holes under the water thresholds are full of obstacles. The "floating material" carried by the current of the water circulates for so long in the "cauldron" under the waterfall, until it is completely wet and sinks to the bottom over time. The litter brought by the water is of course a considerable difficulty during fishing, because they lose a lot of lures and leaders with hooks. On the other hand, however, bottom-lying obstacles have the advantage, that they attract the barbel with magical power. Thanks to that, these fish are very easy to locate. After finding underwater snags, we can be sure, that there are barbel also in that place. If someone usually fishes with a line of strength 3 kg. When fishing below water thresholds, he should opt for a line of strength 3,5 or even 4 kg. I know a damming up of water, below which such obstacles lie at the bottom, that the angler has nothing else to do, how to fish with a line of over strength 5 kg. If someone uses a line of strength to fish for barbel with a float 2 kg, When fishing at a waterfall, I advise you to choose a line of strength 2,5 or even 3 kg.