Guest Blogger Joe Dellaria delves into how to recognize the conditions leading to high fish activity as runoff begins and ends. He includes some technical aspects to help you recognize and understand how to best take advantage of these conditions. These are his words:
I keep a fishing log to track the size of the trout, where it was caught, the weather conditions, and what fly the fish took. Over the years, it has become clear that many of my larger fish (but not all) have been caught as the river level begins rising during runoff and once again as the water level begins returning towards normal. Streamer fishing can be amazing during these windows of activity.
If you want to experience these high activity windows, you have to watch the river levels carefully to be on the river during these sweet spots. The upside is you will likely have numerous opportunities to nail a big fish. The downside is these windows of activity often coincide with inclement weather. You have to be strategic about when you go and what you wear but it is well worth the effort and discomfort when you hit one of these windows of activity.
My most recent window of activity occurred during a runoff in early May this year. I was taking a friend out for his first wade trip for trout. The week before we had a heavy late April snow which was followed by rain a few days later. The river crested at slightly over 4 feet above normal. We had already picked a day for the outing so we were either going to win or lose big. I was anxious about the water being too high and went the day before to check one of my prime big fish stretches. Nothing – not a bump, follow, or slash after 2 hours of casting. By the end I was worried sick that the next day would be a bust for my friend.
I didn’t say anything to my friend and started off in a spot that has produced numerous 15–20-inch trout. I was essentially guiding him as I directed his casts for the first 30-40 minutes. Bad news, my friend saw nothing at all. Undeterred, I suggested I try a few casts with a dry-dropper as I knew this combination would work if the fish were there and feeding. It took 5 casts to produce two 13-inch browns. That meant he had the wrong streamer so we switched to a different one and moved upstream to another good section. Still no luck for my friend. As I watched him retrieving, I realized he wasn’t twitching his rod tip to get the streamer to wobble like a hurt or dying fish. I asked for his rod to show him how to do it and three twitches later a 13-inch brown took the streamer all the way down to his gullet. The fish were on and it was game time!
Over the next two and half hours we saw at least 40 good sized browns and caught 10-12 fish between 13-15-inches. I had a 20+ inch fish on for quite a while but he got off just before I was about to net him. One thing to keep in mind when you hit a time like this is that it seems like a lot of fish are missing the streamer. They most likely are not missing; they are chasing your fly out of their territory. If a trout wants your fly, you can’t retrieve it fast enough that they can’t get it. Point in case, it seemed like we had exhausted a stretch as we weren’t getting slashes or takes so I suggested he reel in so we could move up to the next stretch. We were casually chatting about the next spot as he was nearly skipping his streamer across the surface when a 14-inch brown absolutely blasted the fly. I find cases like this both exciting and frustrating. It’s exciting as the water explodes and the fish hooks itself. The frustration is, few if any self-respecting fly fisher would skip a fly across the surface deliberately to catch a fish.
The outing above is just one of many I have experienced over the years. The remainder of this blog is my attempt to help others recognize these special conditions, how to capitalize on them, and what I believe are the causes. Each of these should help you take advantage of these windows of activity.
Some time ago I wrote a series of blogs on the concept of water visibility which I define as how deep you can clearly see rocks or debris on the river bottom. The amount of ambient light and water clarity combine to produce the resulting water visibility. Below is the summary chart I provided in the earlier blog.
Water Clarity is how deep you can clearly see the bottom. It is primarily determined by how clear the water is. However, water surface disturbances also lead to decreasing the water clarity as you see in rapids and riffles or by wind rippling the water surface which reduces water clarity.
Ambient Light is how much light is shining on the water:
- Cloudless sunny skies produce high ambient light
- Cloudy days produce medium ambient light
- Night produces very low or no ambient light
Below is the summary chart I provided in the earlier blog.
* The depths given for the level of water visibility is qualitative to give a sense for how deep you can see into the water. If one desired to get really technical, a Secchi disc could be used.
One should be aware of water visibility as it influences where trout both hold and feed. Unless there is a hatch, the higher the water visibility, the deeper the fish will hold and feed. Trout are both a predator and prey. They learn not to be seen to avoid becoming dinner for another trout or other predators; those that don’t get removed from the gene pool! Below is a picture of a 14-inch trout displaying an eagle’s talon mark. He was fortunate enough to escape. I catch 1-3 fish each year with similar gashes.
My experience is that when the water visibility is low or very low, fish move into shallower feeding spots. Since the water is cloudy, they can safely be in these areas.
Probably the most profound example happened years ago and was my first encounter with a truly large fish. There was this one spot that just screamed, “There’s a large fish here!” I fished it every time I went by for an entire season – all for nought, nothing. I finally decided to bite the bullet and got up before sunrise and arrived at the spot while it was still dark. I knew the spot well so even though I couldn’t see, I had a pretty good idea of where to cast. The fly landed and wham, I felt something and set the hook. Nuts, a snag. I shook my rod a few times to see if I could jostle the fly free and all of a sudden, the snag took off. It ran past me and just kept going. I grabbed my line and pulled hard to try and turn the fish. Pow, the line sounded like the crack of a 22-rifle shot as it broke. I had never had a fish on that I couldn’t turn - rookie mistake! Truth be told, I also had a wind knot about half way up my tapered leader – that’s where the line broke. I walked over to where the fish took my fly and it was 8” deep. In the dark, the water visibility is essentially zero. The fish was in shallow to feed.
Most experienced trout fishermen know that bigger fish feed at night. This is consistent with water visibility, as at night water visibility is lowest. Larger fish can move shallower to feed for two reasons:
- In the dark there are few if any, predators the fish has to worry about
- Shallower water increases the probability of success
I also wrote a blog some time ago on the concept of escape volume. The idea is very simple. As the depth of the water decreases the number of escape routes for the prey decreases. Below is the graphic illustrating this from my previous blog.
When water visibility is low, larger fish can move into shallower water to feed more effectively. There are numerous other examples of how fish reduce escape volume to increase feeding efficiency:
Whales – work together to blow bubbles around the periphery of a school of krill to reduce the width of the school while other whales come up from under the tightened schools to scoop up the krill.
Swordfish – a school of swordfish will work to force a school of sardines to the surface of the ocean and then feed. By doing this they reduce the escape volume by half.
Salmon – use the same strategy as swordfish do for herring.
Northern – if you have ever fished for northern you know they are famous for hitting a lure as you are about to lift it out of the water. At the surface, the escape volume is reduced by half.
These windows of extreme activity combine very low water visibility and smaller escape volumes to increase a trout’s feeding efficiency. The fish that are in shallow are there for one reason, to feed! They don’t take prisoners. When they take your offering, hold on, the strike will often be forceful enough to nearly pull the rod out of your hand. This is not to say you cannot catch larger trout fishing a streamer near the bottom of a deep hole – this happens plenty.
However, if you are on the water during these windows of activity you don’t have to use heavily weights flies or full sinking lines. You can use a floating line or a sink-tip line with lighter flies. This makes for more enjoyable casting and fishing and it is a lot less strenuous on your casting shoulder.
Last year in early April we had a runoff event. The water visibility was 4-6” (very low by my classification). Seizing the opportunity, I scurried over to one of my favorite stretches and cast for over an hour without seeing anything. Undeterred, I made the 20-minute trek through a farm field to get to one of my best spots for bigger fish. When the water is that turbid, you have to be very careful getting into the river as you can’t tell how deep it is. I eased into the water to find that the water was just slightly over my waste. I stripped out some line and casually cast my black #2 Zoo Cougar 15 feet downstream to the shore and a 13” brown plowed the streamer immediately after it hit the water. I continued downstream to the tail of the hole and got an 11” brown. This was encouraging so I worked across the river to the other shore to begin fishing upstream. After an hour I had nothing else but decided to finish the head of the run as that can often be very good.
The east shore is a rock-studded run with an in cut at the downstream end that creates a dead spot. I cast to the shore behind the dead spot and made 2-3 strips when it felt like I had snagged the bottom. Fortunately, I raised my rod tip to see if I could jostle the fly off the snag and gave a couple of hearty tugs when the rod tip started dancing. With the strong current, it felt like I had Moby Dick on, but I couldn’t see the fish in the turbid water. It was quite some time before the fish ran by, and I caught my first glimpse-now I knew it was bigger than usual. I finally netted a 20” brown trout!
After gathering myself, I decided to take a few more casts. In about 15 minutes, I caught a 15” brown, had two other larger fish slash at the streamer right in front of me, and had another larger fish on, which got off. The larger fish were stacked in a spot about the size of a small bathroom. After the runoff was over and the water had cleared, I went back to look at the spot. It was about 12-14 inches deep at normal river height in the current. During runoff it was slightly over knee deep. The dead spot at normal river height was 6-8 inches deep and around 18-20” in those runoff conditions. With the low water visibility, the fish were able to hold in the shallower dead spot and scoot out into the current as the runoff brought a conveyor belt of food past them. I was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time!
Where to fish during a window of activity:
Shoreline: The fish often sit in shoreline water that just covers their back. In the best cases, the fish will take the fly as it hits the water. One time I had to shoot the fly under a tree and get it to land in front of a rock. The fly hit the water so hard it skipped up out of the water. The trout leapt out of the water but missed the fly. It took 3-4 more casts before I could get the fly into the same spot without skipping the fly. On the first strip I thought I had snagged as the fly just stopped doubling my rod over. I was getting ready to go across the river to retrieve my fly when the fish took off. It proved to be a 16” brown.
All shoreline is not equal. You want to look for submerged cover that provides a break from the current that is as close as possible to shore. It is best to try to land the fly 6-8” away from the shore. However, I have watched the wake of a fish move 6-8 feet to take the fly.
Any Submerged Obstacle: Any rock, boulder, log, or edge that is in water 1-2 feet of water provides a break from the current and an excellent ambush point. Cover all sides of the obstacle with different casts. If the spot looks really promising I wade upstream or downstream of it to cast from the opposite direction. It doesn’t happen all the time, but it happens often enough to make it worth your while to do it every now and then.
Eddies and Shoreline in Cuts: Eddies often occur when there is an in cut next to faster current. You will want to fish these thoroughly as the window of vision is reduced by the cloudy water. Smaller in cuts in slower water are too small to create an eddy but it creates a perfect holding spot for a trout. The fish will be facing upstream so you will want to place your fly just slightly upstream of the in cut. If possible, let your fly drift naturally for a few seconds before you begin stripping. Keeping your line taught without pulling the fly is important so you can set the hook immediately if there is a take.
Dead Spots in a Rapids: These are hard to see if the water is cloudy. I keep casting as I walk through rapids that look too fast to hold a fish. You might be surprised how many fish you will see doing this. However, since the water is fast, the fish often miss the fly. It is fairly unusual to have a fish go for the fly twice, but I always take a couple more casts before moving on. As you find these spots, you will want to remember them. Often, they are good on cloudy days when the water clarity is high. I have one spot where there are two dead spots at the head of a fairly rapid riffle. Almost every time I go by, I either raise or catch a fish in both spots.
The Fish Are Active, Cover Water: The strategy is to cover water as fast as you can fish it thoroughly. If nothing is happening in a good-looking spot after several casts move on. The window of activity usually lasts between 1-3 hours. Time spent casting endlessly at a good-looking spot means you are forfeiting casting at a fish that is active elsewhere on the river. You can always come back and try the spot again but it is best to move on to find active fish.
Types of Flies: Almost anything can work. Let the fish tell you what they want. I try to start with the easiest flies to cast on a floating line first. If you can get fish on unweighted Girdle Bugs, Woolly Buggers, and other streamers they are best as they are easy to cast and fairly snag proof. Being snag proof is a big advantage when you are casting close to shore. Sometimes it is necessary to use weighted streamers. If that is the case, remember you have to start stripping immediately after the fly lands to avoid snags. Another productive method is to use a sink-tip line with a spun deer hair head such as muddler minnow, zoo cougars, and the like. The sinking line will get the flies a bit further down in the water column (more on this in another blog). Sometimes that is what it takes to trigger the fish. Floating flies with a larger profile often work well. Larger Stimulators, Chernobyl Ants, Killer Beetles (I wrote a blog on these some time ago) are all good choices. You don’t have to worry about a soft landing or perfect presentation. The fish are there to feed and much of their wariness is left behind as they slash at these flies with abandon. Your fly plopping loudly into the water is basically ringing the dinner bell, “It’s time to eat!”
These are some of the flies I have had success with under runoff conditions with low water visibility. There’s no doubt many other types of flies can work. Keep trying different things until you find what is working that day. Every day is a new day. What worked yesterday may or may not work tomorrow.
Size and color can also be important. That’s why I showed the same fly pattern in other colors. I like to pick one pattern and fish 10-15 minutes. If nothing happens, I try a different color. I stick with one style and size until I try all of the colors. If none of those work, you can either go up or down in size and go through the color rotation. If that doesn’t produce action, try a different style fly. After a while, you will develop a “feel” for what might work and it will get easier to find the right style, size, and color. Sometimes the fish are off and it is best to try a different approach. It’s worth the effort. When you hit the right combination, the action can be lights out good!
Trying to hit these “Windows of Activity” is a condition specific situation. Sometimes during run off these can last 2-4 days. If that is the case, you will notice that the frequency and aggressiveness of the takes will start decreasing as the water clears. At some point, the action just stops. It feels like someone came through with a vacuum cleaner and removed all the fish. When this happens, don’t get stuck in a rut and keep casting. After an hour or so of seeing nothing where you saw fish the day before, change approaches. The “Window of Activity” has closed. I had this happen 3-4 days after the runoff I mentioned earlier this spring. I went to one of my favorite stretches where I know there are larger fish and saw absolutely nothing. I switched to a dry-dropper set-up and caught 4 fish in less than an hour going back over the same water.
It can be amazing when you hit these conditions. This is not a silver bullet technique. It only works when the water visibility is low or very low. It provides another tool for the tool box. Recognizing the conditions and using these approaches can provide a day or more of astonishing activity – and then it’s over and back to more traditional approaches. Hope this helps!