1. Troutnut Forum
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2. Fly Fishing
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3. OPENING DAY!!!

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Ya definitely easier to use bait fishing rivers when they are high, Im from the Upper Peninsula and didn't make it out yesterday either, we had gotten 10 inches of snow monday and it all melted late in the week, along with a rainstorm friday night. The steelhead rivers around here were packed as well. Lotta summer left to fish.

I like fishing when the water is up, as long as it's coloration isn't too dark.

Under the conditions you described (water up, but not off-color) I'd definitely be out. I don't know whether the fish gravitate toward the big, deep pools or not, but I can say that under the described conditions, I've caught fish in damned near every kind of lie you can think of. In high water I've caught many fish in places that, under normal conditions, wouldn't even be underwater.

I remember one time getting to Spring Creek (in State College) on a day when the water was high, but the color was still good - nobody else around, just me. I remember this day well because I was super eager that day to try out a fly that had taken me FOREVER to tie (I tied it at Shawn's house, and I bet he remembers that day too - I was SOOOOO frustrated at how the fly turned out). Still, as bad as the fly was (in my mind) I wanted to try it out anyway. As I looked at the not-so-normal high water conditions I thought "Hmmm...if I try this fly and don't catch anything, I'll never know if the futility was the result of the crappy fly or because of the water conditions, so I better try some 'proven' flies here first".

I tied on a tandem of "proven" flies, and started catching fish right away; after about 6 fish in 10-15 minutes I figured it was time to tie on my ugly fly and give it a whirl.

As I worked my way up a familiar section of stream, I saw a nice eddy behind a rock (the rock was totally submerged, but you could see the disruption in the surface where the water flowed over the top of it, so the tip of the rock was ALMOST out of the water); I thought "Man, that looks like a good lie, but I don't remember that rock being there", then it hit me - under "normal" water conditions, that rock was almost totally out of the water, with barely a trickle of water going past it - that was why that spot looked so strange to me on that particular day. Anyhow, I caught four fish from that eddy.

Later that day I caught the largest stream fish that I've ever actually brought to hand (and I caught it on the ugly fly, imagine that); when I finally did get him to hand I was about 150 yards downstream from where I'd hooked him - when I hooked him he got into the current, got by me, and kept streaking downstream, and I just started chasing him, with my reel singing like crazy - it was awesome. The whole time I was worried I was going to take a tumble and fill my waders because the water was REALLY flowing, but I somehow managed to keep my feet under me the whole time. Later that summer when Shawn and I were fishing that stretch I tried to show him where that fish was sitting when I hooked him, but I couldn't really, because under normal conditions that particular lie was almost nonexistent.

Moral of the story: get out there - you never know what might happen.

Try swinging wooly buggers and nymphing with bigger than usual flies. A big fuzzy cigar shaped and unribbed hare's ear, called a Walt's Worm around here, almost always produces for me in higher water. It can be tied on a streamer hook, with or without a bead, and dead drifted on the bottom. I've also seen guys do well on San Juan worms in high water. Fish the edges more, and seams near the edges. If the water has a little color even better; it really emboldens the fish.

At least you were out there. What I wouldn't give to be somewhere right now where I could go trout fishing at the drop of a hat...