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Fishing the Rise (Guest Article)
How to behave when the river rises
by Dave Motes

In these droughty years, it seems that the last concern of the river angler is high water--we all feel the pressure of skinny flows coming. These pressures are sharpened by dire predictions from the weather people, dire reports from the grain belt, and dire memories from last summer of hauling boats over ledges we'd never even seen before. But right now the USGS Gauge Page tells me that the Potomac at Point of Rocks is a hair over 4 feet and 14000 cfs--last year's low was about 1.2--and there's a steady strong pulse of water in the Potomac as high as Paw Paw, over 100 miles and fifty hours upstream. This is the third slug of high but fishable water we've seen this year, and unlike the jet-jockeys on the Susky we don't consider high water prime fishing. We like summer pool, with its grass beds and gin-clear water, with its wading-level bathwater, with its aggressive smallies traveling to nail topwater lures and finesse plastics, with its patterns of shade and channel cover. How do we react to high, dingy water?

I identify three specific strategies for high summer water: Catch the Rise, Probe Deep, and Provoke 'Em.

There is a fourth--Ignore It--which is often adopted by the general angler. It sometimes works. Last month I spoke to a regular on our stretch. He was hitting fish pretty well in warm, low, clear water. A week later I saw him again, using the same technique in the same areas--when he was in 18 inches more of stained water that was nearly 5 degrees cooler. He complained that the action was slow. Remember that fishing is, or should be, an exploratory process. Try new things, but keep trying the old ones, so you don't stick with moderate success when much greater success is only an experiment away. This angler accepted that the technique that worked a week ago was the best possible approach and settled for much less success this day--when we were doing quite well on a very different lure. Catching the Rise is the best way to turn a problem into an opportunity. Our rivers are volatile--they rise sharply and fall sharply. If you hit the river and find it dirtying up and rising, don't despair. Rising water provides a window of opportunity to catch big smallmouth. If you use river gauges or have a good sense of how your river behaves, you should take advantage of a rise, not avoid it.

On a rise, most river fish change their behavior. Large smallmouth tend to go on a feeding binge as rising water disorients baitfish and breaks loose nymphs and other bases of the food chain (fishing last week in water over 6 at Point of Rocks, we caught 3 smallies 18" or larger--very good summer fishing). If the rise is sharp enough smallmouth tend to move to bank-oriented cover, and may be found in slack or even dead water areas because those areas will offer the best protection if the water continues to rise. They will often be found in the small areas of cover along banks, especially where a steep bank has some rock cover. When the Potomac flood of September, 1996 began to recede, many thousands of gamefish were stranded in the C&O canal--a perfect refuge from the higher waters but a trap as levels fell. When I catch the river on a rise, I fish several obvious bank-related pools and the good cover around them, on the theory that fish might move toward, but not necessarily into, those locations.

As I fish my way down the river I'll use two strategies to try to understand the pattern fish are using: Probe Deep and Provoke. Provoke is the first choice, because it's easy to check and when it works, it really works. My lure of choice for provocation is the full-sized spinnerbait in chartreuse, preferably with a two-tone or mottled finish and with a gold blade--willow-leaf if water clarity is good, colorado if water clarity has deteriorated already. Other provokers are big crankbaits, big grubs with clothespin spinners attached, and in-line spinners. I will direct my clients to cast far and fish fast at first--burning the lure across the top of likely holds to provoke nervous fish into striking. It is this technique that has produced the best fish in a rising water situation. Spinnerbaits won't catch great numbers of smallmouth but they will catch large ones. Second casts in prime holes should be "slow rolled" or settled deeper. Tail-out areas of pools are also worth a cast--the more actively feeding fish are often positioned at the edges of the cover while the sulkier fish are tight to it. One definite fact about spinnerbaiting smallies: casts that land in the pocket catch far fewer fish than casts that pass beyond the pocket and come cranking steadily through it, and long casts catch most fish. Therefore accurate casting is critical. Note: more spinnerbaits are lost by throw-offs than any other way, especially after catching a good fish. Large bass will rub you over ledges when hooked. Couple that with the adrenaline surge from taking a good fish and you have an overlusty next cast, the line parts, and the spinnerbait lands in the next county with more hang-time than an NFL punt. Check for frays often and retie after every good fish.

Bass and walleyes will feed with surprising effectiveness in stained and even muddy water. If you are dealt a muddy river hand, don't give up too soon. Remember also that black and dark colors are often more attractive in muddy water--high-visibility to the angler isn't always the best bet. A variation on the Provoke 'em technique is used on sulky summer fish which are often found after or during a slight rise in levels, perhaps from a thunderstorm: a buzzbait fished long and steadily.

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"One definite fact about spinnerbaiting smallies: casts that land in the pocket catch far fewer fish than casts that pass beyond the pocket and come cranking steadily through it, and long casts catch most fish."

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After, or sometimes while, I am provoking rising-water fish, I'll also Probe them. This is on the theory that rising water creates a good deep-feeding situation for the smallmouth's preferred forage, the crayfish. As levels rise, all manner of stuff is washed downriver. Dirty water to us is nutritious water for the food chain, so everybody bellies up to the smorgasbord. Under this theory fish are busy working more limited areas for food, and probably using more search and less ambush tactic. In this situation larger fish are going to gravitate to the best possible crayfish forage zones--near-current holds with good bottom--and they will keep their focus downward. Midwater lures such as spinnerbaits, grubs, and finesse plastics won't attract their attention, and may be too much work if they do. The best probing lure is the tube, which is deadly on smallmouth in most situations. Tubes are tough to fish and tougher in deeper, faster water. They are especially tough to fish in dirty water when they must be worked carefully in correct relation to the bottom, but still have lots of "fall," which is the point of the retrieve when they are most effective. This takes a delicate touch and care. Lures should be kept close to the angler--twenty or thirty feet at most. Too far and the lure takes a snaggy angle; too close and the fish will be shied off by the boat. The lift and drop to bump the bottom must be accomplished without too much wash, or the lure will settle into the very nooks and crannies that make the bottom attractive to crawdads and, therefore, bass.

Jig-and-pig works well, too, though not as well as it works in the early season. Heavy fiber weedguards can reduce hangups some but you will still donate a lot of lures to the river god, and the weedguard will cost you some fish (even more if you don't trim the weedguard tips where they were burned and fused together.) Hula grubs are good, and offer a large, moving profile. Grubs will also work, and take lots of walleyes. Colors: for clearer water, brown, sand, or other lighter tones; when the water dirties up, darker colors with purple or black predominating. Generally, purple is my color of choice in stained water. The profile of a rise is important also. The front of the rise--especially the first few hours--is your window for big fish. Once the river has topped out, fishing can be tough and probing deeply is probably the best bet. On a sharp fall, the action will be either hot or cold, and that's a place for using both techniques. Remember that falling water will clear quickly and conditions will change as the day goes on. Slowly falling conditions will contain a transition as fish resume their normal positions in the river; the fall is also where fish often take a respite from their hot feeding activity.

Generally speaking, rising rivers aren't the best fishing situation--but they're not a waste of time either. Stay safe, beware of changing conditions, make no assumptions, and go fishing.