When the water shot up 8 feet in four days at Beaver Lake,
Reyes stayed right where he had located a few bedding fish
during practice – on the old shoreline.
“I was fishing in the mouth of a major creek and didn’t
lose any clarity or water temperature on the old shoreline,” he
says. “I think those fish actually liked having that kind of
additional security on top of them. Why do they need to
move any farther up into bushes?”
In contrast, the water where Johnny McCombs won the
Beaver Lake event was being impacted by incoming mud.
Water on the old shoreline along his stretches was turning col-
ors, forcing him to move in behind tree lines and up onto
lawns into bands of clearer water that hadn’t been stained by
the runoff coming down the river.
In the case of fast, rising water, clarity and stability are the
keys. If the water stability is compromised, which usually
happens with fast rises on rivers or riverine impoundments,
then it’s probably time to head fo r the flooded cover.
lure Considerations
When trying to decipher where fish are in a rising or
high-water situation, several specific lures can aid in
the process.
When fishing the old shoreline, football jigs, swing-
head jigs and Carolina rigs are fantastic choices for
dragging around on bottom. It’s also wise to keep a lure
or two on the deck for targeting fish suspended in
trees or bushes around the old shoreline. Wacky-
rigged Yamamoto Senkos and swimbaits should fill the
bill for this.
However, when it’s time to move up into the flooded
cover to look around, typical flipping baits such as jigs,
tubes and creatures are obvious choices. In addition,
Mark Rose says topwaters – especially buzzbaits and
frogs – are critical for probing flooded cover.
“Fish that move up in that stuff really like to suspend
right up in the top layer of the water column, in the mid-
dle of bushes, around floating debris, and near vines
and junk hanging in the water,” Rose offers. “So be pre-
pared with something you can skim the surface with.
Also, a spinnerbait is still a solid pick in those conditions.”
The Long-Term Rise
Extended high-water events, such as when a lake refills
after a prolonged drought, pose even trickier conditions for
anglers to deal with.
Most pros agree that after water first stabilizes on new
ground, some fish will move up into the newly flooded cover
for a brief period of time – two weeks at the most, usually.
When new water inundates dry ground for the first time, it
produces a unique feeding opportunity as crawfish, worms,
larvae and bugs scurry for new ground. But once that initial
feed is over, bass tend to retreat out of the woods as the sub-
merged vegetative biomass begins to rot.
At Lake Travis, the water had been sitting up in new
growth that had sprouted up during the drought for nearly a
year. Rose notes this was a key component in his decision to
stay out and fish the old shoreline at Travis.
“I went up in that flooded stuff a couple times during
practice because that’s where the fish should have been,”
Rose says. “But I didn’t like it up there. To me the water had
been up in the woods too long, and everything was sort of
rotting. The water had a funny color to it, and there was algae
clinging to everything. I’m not a biologist, but I don’t think
bass like to be in that kind of funky water when they could be
out somewhere where the water looks better and the bottom
is cleaner.”
Suggs concurs that the “souring effect” Rose describes is a
real condition that fish avoid.
“The same thing happens when sinking brush,” Suggs
says. “A fresh, leafy green brush pile is awesome for the first
week or two it’s in the water. But once the leaves start decom-
posing, it ‘sours,’ and fish won’t use it again until six months
later when all the leaves are gone. Now imagine a whole for-
est flooded with that kind of decay going on. Those fish are
headed out, most likely to the old shoreline to find some bet-
ter water and better feeding conditions.
“When the water has been in the woods for a long time,
anglers can get in trouble trying to force that bite in flooded
cover,” Suggs adds. “Remember, just because it’s flooded,
doesn’t always mean it’s good.”
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However, a sudden rise on the lower end of a clear-water
impoundment is more likely to leave the fish right about
where they were.
FLWFISHING.COM I APRIL 2018