FLY FISHING
High Water Trout By Chuck Stranahan
The water on my home river , the Bitterroot in Western Montana , is rising . Given our heavy snowpack this year it will soon be at flood stage , then will settle rapidly into fishable shape again . I ’ ll probably be on it when others are still saying “ Too high .”
Anglers who know how generally do well during high water . And they usually have long stretches all to themselves . It happened again this year during the pre-runoff period . When the river got too high to float , when rafts were pushed downstream by a midcurrent flume and there was too little time to cast to the banks , the river was all but abandoned . “ Blown out ,” most of the local anglers said .
Sculpins wash loose and are easy prey for big fish during high water . Patterns such as this can score well .
Until it was blown out ( according to them ), they did well stripping buggers or drifting big heavy nymphs . When those methods quit producing , all but the diehards quit . A few of the diehards scored . Big-time .
Up to a point , during high water , trout will hold deep in familiar runs . While they ’ re there , fishing big stuff across the bottom is productive . As the water rises , at a certain point , this method all-of-a-sudden fails . Things are still OK on one day , and on the next , after the water has come up a little more , nothing works . It seems that , all of a sudden , the fish moved out .
That ’ s exactly what happened . High water pushed them out . And as water levels rise , temperatures drop . Trout are sensitive to that .
When water is high and temps are marginal , the windows of opportunity are narrow . A window of opportunity may exist for only a couple of hours during the pleasant part of a day , on the heels of a storm , or during a light , warm rain . You have to be there when the time is right . Finding fish , and not spooking them , is equally critical .
During fishable high water , be it pre-runoff or post-runoff or a midsummer gullywasher of a storm , trout move around . They won ’ t hang in a roaring torrent , one that was a quiet pocket a few days ago . They leave . They find new lies , temporarily , and while they ’ re in them , they ’ re skittish .
Just because you find a trout in the same familiar lie several times during midsummer is no guarantee that he ’ ll be there when the water is high . The flow of current around him increases and carries its own brand of chill factor . He ’ ll move out for a while , and move back to his old lie when things are more comfortable there again .
Trout move around more than we think they do . They will move from the depth of a far bank to the shallower inside , or from the middle of a riffle to its lower edges , as water levels increase . As temps drop , they ’ ll move away from swifter holding currents , where the water is moving at about three to four feet per second , into water moving barely a foot per second . This business of current speed is important , but overlooked by many anglers . It is critical . It is easy to measure . Put a cast on the water , point your rod tip at your fly , hold it stationary as the fly drifts , and begin counting : “ One-thousand , two-thousand , three …” Guess at how far your fly has moved each second . I find that simply guessing involves its own brand of downstream vertigo , and what looks like three FPS current is often turns out to be more like six , if I check using the point-and-count method .
Very often high water trout will cruise and hold in water barely deep enough to cover a dorsal fin . Continued on page 21 .
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