Thursday Tips: Go With the Flow

North Georgia streams still rocking along at high levels from recent rains, with more rain is in today's forecast. Therefore, it seems fitting to consider the importance of water levels for developing stream strategies.

Water levels obviously dictate important things about river access. If many rivers are too high or too low you can't reasonably wade or float them, and there are times after storms when flood-level flows clearly blow out any reasonable opportunities for fishing. Even if you remove the extremes from the equation and assume you can fish, though, looking at the level of a given stream and comparing it to recent days and to historical norms can tell you a lot about the strategies that are likely to produce.

High water, generally speaking, positions trout, smallmouths and other stream fish in hard eddies out of the strongest flow, whether those eddies are formed by boulders, drops, cuts in the bank or other features. Runs that are somewhat swift at normal levels and that typically hold feeding fish are likely to be too pushy for the fish or for good presentations and not worth your time. Good spots are sometimes tough to reach during high flows and making good presentations can be challenging. However, the fish tend to be ambush mode and willing to bite. Because fish get aggressive and feed opportunistically on stuff that gets swept past, bigger baits, brighter colors and added flash all come into play.

Extreme low flows call for totally different strategies, but that's another tip for another time.

If you want to check stream flows while you're still at home and gathering gear. The USGS current streamflow map is a tremendously valuable resource.