Look Hard and You Can Find Spots to Fish During High Water

I use stream flow charts religiously to determine what my local rivers are doing. Lately the graphs have been off the charts high almost across the board. However, there's hope. Here are a couple of things to try when water is high:

1. Find spring creek tributaries. Sometimes even tiny little spring creeks that don't hold a lot of fish will have fish move into them during high water. I'm remembering a 21 inch brown a client caught in a few years back that proved out this hypothesis. Spring creeks stay clear unless water is pushed into them from the main river or from some other type of runoff.

2. Look for braids and side channels. These areas hold fish and get overlooked. In high water they often hold even more fish and can even provide great dry fly fishing.

3. Fish right against the banks. Fish often get pushed right to the banks by high water. Many times fishing within inches of the bank will produce fish you hadn't imagined could be there.

High water is no time to put away the fly rod. Fish are concentrated and healthy. If you figure out some of the spots that hold fish you can still have a great day on the water.