A small stream, 1/26

With the sun and warm weather today, I decided I needed to hit the stream for a bit. Due to yesterday's rain and temps in the 50's I found the stream a raging torrent, so my expectations weren't high.

[attachment=2:3slknzlm]Dam1.JPG[/attachment:3slknzlm]

Too put these flows in perspective, I usually crouch behind that boulder in all the whitewater on the far left to fish this pool:

[attachment=1:3slknzlm]Flows.JPG[/attachment:3slknzlm]

Despite the tough conditions I caught my first trout of '10 after 40 mins or so and decided to call it a day:

[attachment=0:3slknzlm]Brookie.JPG[/attachment:3slknzlm]

I'll be visiting the stream again soon if we get another nice warm day :)

Nice pics. I envy you guys who can legally get out and fish.

I can't and won't fish a blow out or the run off.

I can fish other ways, it's never been a time that I enjoy it. Our streams in AZ are so prone to this sort of high water run off because we do not get constant rain like y'all. We get the deluge, the summertime build ups are probably the most constant form of rain and the spring run off, depending what stream you fish, goes pretty quick and the streams recover fast.

What I have found is that the fish "hunker down" in their caves and being hungry may send them way down stream.

Fish behavior is cool to think about but fishing the blow out, can't do it, el passo.

By the way, nice job, I might change my mind for jewels like that.

I won't fish a "blow out," but usually when a medium sized stream has blow out conditions, I can move to the headwaters or a smaller tributary, and find willing fish in clear water.

The "run off," as opposed to a blow out, is a different matter. In the Midwest we'll have the spring run off, and later we'll have fishable high water after heavy storms. If the water is of a temperature for the fish to be on the feed, the fishing can be very good.

Some people think that blow out conditions wash the trout downstream, away from their regular habitats. A real flood will change the course of the stream and scour away a lot of invertebrates. But in the streams I fish, the trout seem to take advantage of the high water by moving upstream, and the fishing is often better after a high water event than before.

Finally, seasonal high water bring the big fish out of Lake Superior and Lake Michigan and into the streams, where fishermen on foot have a better chance for a big one.

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Originally Posted by terry

Nice pics. I envy you guys who can legally get out and fish.

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Terry it is legal in NJ to fish all year long

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Fish behavior is cool to think about but fishing the blow out, can't do it, el passo.

By the way, nice job, I might change my mind for jewels like that.

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Thanks Adam. And yeah, I don't plan on ever fishing high water like this too often. Wading is dangerous, not too mention the fishing is just not easy. My thought was I'd throw out a big highly visible morsel, in this case a black wooly bugger, which evidently worked. Usually the pool I got this guy some has a few big old brookies around 10-12 inches, it's deep, well oxygenated, and probably gets a lot of food washing down from the millpond above. I didn't encounter any on that trip. I caught that little guy in slack water near the shore, so I have a feeling the bigger fish had taken the prime spots in deeper water. Consequently they'd be much harder to catch under all that current.

I never thought about what fish do in a blow out, I would guess they shelter in deep holes outside the force of the main current, or in slack water near the banks. The survival challenges these little wild fish overcome in such a precarious and ever changing environment as a small stream are just incredible. Anchor ice, spring run-off, blow outs like you have in AZ, summer heat, low flows, you name it.

I bet it was nice just to get out.

I'm with Adam, I hate fishing high water and will avoid it at all costs. But from what I have read, trout can also just find eddies and slower water in-stream, the spots just might be in different places when compared to the lower water. And of course there will be more water overhead. They also will sometimes go to the edges of the stream/creek, but of course will avoid being too exposed from above.

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Originally Posted by Ernest

I won't fish a "blow out," but usually when a medium sized stream has blow out conditions, I can move to the headwaters or a smaller tributary, and find willing fish in clear water.

The "run off," as opposed to a blow out, is a different matter. In the Midwest we'll have the spring run off, and later we'll have fishable high water after heavy storms. If the water is of a temperature for the fish to be on the feed, the fishing can be very good.

Some people think that blow out conditions wash the trout downstream, away from their regular habitats. A real flood will change the course of the stream and scour away a lot of invertebrates. But in the streams I fish, the trout seem to take advantage of the high water by moving upstream, and the fishing is often better after a high water event than before.

Finally, seasonal high water bring the big fish out of Lake Superior and Lake Michigan and into the streams, where fishermen on foot have a better chance for a big one.

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I find this to be the case as well here in NY.

Also, this post reminds me that I need to get my VT license, as their trout season just reopened. I've been ice fishing but it'd be nice to get out and catch a beauty like this or two. Great fish in tough conditions.