high and muddy

[groove790]

Where do the fish go when the water is high and muddy? It's not like they pack a suitcase and go on vacation. What are the tricks to finding the fish after a heavy rain? I fished a hole yesterday that had about 7 small mouth in it a few days ago when the water was clear. Yesterday there was nothing. I tried every big and little streamer I had in my box, as well as a couple hoppers and some bright san juans. Do they not feed when it is muddy?

 

[jayL]

I have found that they feed excessively when the water is rising, and slow down when it's falling.

They move to spots that give refuge from the current. Look close to the banks.

 

[trowpa]

jayL wrote:
I have found that they feed excessively when the water is rising, and slow down when it's falling.
.

The explanation i've heard for this is that there is an awful lot of "junk" washed into the water to eat as the water rises (terrestrials, more nymphs washed loose from rocks, etc) and the fish gorge themselves. By the time the water is falling, they are done with the feast.

 

[surveyor06]

Fishing staind water is one thing, but brown heavy mudded water is not condusive to catching fish atleast in my experience. I heard somewhere that muddy water burns the gills of fish. I dont know if this is fact. But when its really muddy, I try black wooly buggers and if they dont work, I go home.

 

[troutslammer]

closer to the banks , tribs close by and right hugging and i mean hugging the bottom to get out of the sand and silt in the water that irritates their gills

 

[onlymidges]

Fish go to the bottom or to the banks when the water is muddy. The fish also do feed more when the water is rising and still eat if the water is muddy but not as much. When the water starts to rise start using streamer. When the water get stained to where you can't see the bottom start casting to the banks ( hoppers, ants, beetles ) or add weight and fish the bottom slow. In smaller streams use buggers and larger bodies of water use big streamer like zonkers, slumpbusters, and so on and bigger size bugger. Make sure the streamers have a lot of flash in them. Them more flash in the flies helps the fish see them in muddy water and the fish will key in on the flash.
I tie streamers just for muddy water fishing and the flies I tie have 3 to 4 times more flash than it calls for in the pattern. Also use lighter colored streamers light white, light olive and gray. Try coloered beads on the streamers as well.
Hope this helps -- Tight Lines... Jr

 

[pcray1231]

I tie streamers just for muddy water fishing and the flies I tie have 3 to 4 times more flash than it calls for in the pattern. Also use lighter colored streamers light white, light olive and gray.

For these conditions, I do better with black, no flash. Black shows up better in mudded water.

 

[jayL]

Yeah, it's pretty well accepted that you want to fish dark, monochromatic flies in low vis conditions. The idea is that you want the strongest possible silhouette.