“It’s too high and dirty,” complains an angler. Six months later we hear: “It’s too low and way too clear.” Frustrated river fishermen always find excuses for slow fishing.
In a perfect world, I’d prefer my smallmouth streams at normal level and color, meaning medium flow with water tinted watermelon green. But nature rarely works that way and smallmouth veterans concede that “normal” exists mainly in the imagination.
Smallmouth rivers differ in water volume, depth, gradient, bottom composition, bank cover, and water clarity, giving each a unique personality. The shallow Susquehanna in Pennsylvania, for example, has nothing in common with the mighty Columbia of the Northwest—except that both offer outstanding smallmouth fishing.
Moreover, all free-flow rivers (or river sections) undergo changes due to precipitation or lack of it. Their volume may rise either gradually or rapidly with seasonal weather patterns, major regional storms, localized “gully washers,” or even water releases from an upstream dam. How these events change a river’s color depends largely on the local terrain and land use.
Lack of precipitation has great impact on rivers, too, as flows shrink and water color turns nearly transparent when drought threatens. I’ve asked top river smallmouth anglers from across the country to talk about locating and catching these fish under extreme conditions, while adding my perspectives from years of stream smallmouth fishing.
Dealing with High Water
According to Ken Penrod, founder of Life Outdoors Unlimited guide service on the Susquehanna River and Upper Potomac, “River bass eat no matter how low or how high the river runs. Smallmouths react to current the way humans react to strong wind—they try to get out of it. Look for highwater bass in current breaks where shoreline eddies form, because that’s where preyfish go.
“If a river rises quickly, you’re wasting your time. Head to a lake. But if it rises no more than a foot per day, bass remain catchable.”
Steve Dezurik, a guide on the Mississippi River in Minnesota, notes that highest water levels typically occur in spring there, due to snowmelt and spring rains. He also favors shoreline cover during high water and recommends fishing the back of inside turns in the river where current slackens, allowing baitfish and bass to gather.
Blaine Mengel, smallmouth guide on the Delaware River, notes divergent patterns in summer and winter. “In summer, smallmouths tend to hold in small current seams and breaks that form behind bridge pilings, rocky points, and piers when the river runs high. During winter, however, they hold in the calmest and deepest eddies, often associated with large holes, or else they move into feeder-creek mouths.”
Bruce Holt, Director of G. Loomis Rods and veteran smallmouth angler from Washington state, notes that dams can play a key role. “Major dams here on the Columbia modify flood conditions, and the river doesn’t fluctuate as drastically as in tributaries like the Umpqua, Willamette, and John Day. With snowmelt in spring, the tributaries get extremely high and swift, making fishing virtually impossible until flow drops. But the Columbia remains fishable.
