Fishing in high & murky water

**Nymphmeister** · 02-28-2009, 09:44 PM

A lot of you may have gone fishing today, and you probably had to deal with high & murky or even muddy water, unless you were fishing a spring creek. I've seen lots of anglers fail or do poorly because they didn't adapt to the conditions when this happens. There are some basic truisms that can help you find success under these seemingly tough conditions.

First off, think about things from the trout's perspective. With visibility reduced, they are far less spooky as their predators have a hard time seeing them, so they feel more comfortable lying in shallow water if they want to. And they will often be in the shallow water near the bank to get out of the heavier current. Look for current seams near the shorelines, and fish the break between fast & slow current.

There is another reason to fish shallower water, and it has to do with visibility. If they can only see 18" in off color water, it will be hard for them to see your fly if they lay in deeper water where the light penetration is poor. However, in a shallower spot, the light penetrates to the bottom and they have a shot at seeing your fly. Some days, especially when the water is truly dirty, shallow spots are the ONLY ones where you can catch a trout on a nymph, cause it's the only area where the fish can see your flies.

Make sure you use flies that have a higher probability of being seen. Some nymphs I've had good success with in high, dirty water: Princes, Stoneflies (Golden, Black, Rubberlegs, etc.), San Juan Worms, Vladi Worms, Green Weenies, Glo Bugs (or other egg patterns), and Bitch Creeks. These are just some of my personal favorites, they are certainly other flies that work. I sometimes find the addition of a gold bead helps, probably due to the reflected flash attracting their attention to the fly- remember there is also a lot of debris drifting along with your flies, and you have to get them to notice your fly & perceive it as potential food. Usually I upsize my patterns too, bumping them up at least 1 or 2 sizes- #6-10 Prince (one of the best on freestone streams), #4-6 Stoneflies (Golden, Black, Rubberlegs, Bitch Creek, etc.), #10 Green Weenie, etc. You may also want to use gaudier colors than normal- for example, instead of a red or natural brown San Juan Worm, go with a fluorescent color, or for egg flies go from a natural pastel shade to a bright/fluorescent one. Pink San Juan Worms are especially deadly on rainbow trout. A "hot spot" incorporated into your flies (in the form of a little fluorescent dubbing, a collar/head of fluorescent thread, a fluorescent beadhead, etc.), ala the Europeans, can also enhance fly visibility & effectiveness.

Because trout cannot see as far, it's important that you make more casts in each spot. One foot away from the trout may be too far, so take your time and saturate the good spots with extra casts to insure they have the opportunity to see & take your fly. I typically cover less water when it's high & murky, partly because there are less good holding areas under these conditions, and partly because it usually takes more casts to get them to notice it. When you do find a good spot, you will sometimes find a lot of trout have moved into it if you are lucky.

I usually bump up my tippet size, because I can- at least one "X" size, maybe even two. Tippet visibility isn't an issue, you are using bigger flies, and it will save you lots of flies & land you more big fish. In fact, I often hook bigger fish when the water is off color, especially in smaller streams. I think they feel more comfortable feeding, lots of food gets knocked loose/washed in, and it easier for you to approach them and harder for them to detect the fraud in your imitations. And usually these kind of conditions keeps the other anglers away, further making the fish more relaxed and giving you the option of fishing pretty much wherever you want.

If you are fishing one of the super-duper ultra fertile tailwaters (such as the Big Horn in MT, Green River in UT, White River system in Arkansas, etc.), go to a San Juan Worm type fly, it's deadly in the higher water, presumably because the higher flows knock the natural aquatic worms loose. And on my home river, the Housatonic in CT, a fertile freestoner that flows through some limestone, a bigger Prince is the high/murky water go-to nymph, with a big Golden Stonefly a very close second.

I could give you many interesting stories about fishing in high, murky water, I'll give you just a couple. The first time I fished the Little Lehigh River in PA, they had received 4+ inches of rain 2 days before, and it was up and had about 18" of visibility, even though it's a spring creek. I'd always heard how it was known as a small fly fishery, where 7x and flies size 20 and smaller were the ticket to success, even with nymphs. The killer rig for me that day? #10 Red San Juan Worm with a #14 Glo Bug dropper, both on 3x tippet! Caught lots of trout while I saw others getting zero, and I even nailed a nice holdover, 20" plus 'Bow. On the Farmington River in CT last Spring, I ventured out after a big rain, and the flow was high (1,000cfs) and murky. A guide friend of mine floated by in his raft, and he & his clients had been skunked after a half day, and they were motoring downstream to get a burger and drown their sorrows over a few beers. From past experience there, I knew what to do & where to go, so I rigged up with a #10 Green Weenie, a Glo Bug, and a Golden Stonefly, and looked for some "soft water" where the trout could find a break from the heavier flows. Despite the gaudy appearance of the fly, the Green Weenie was the "Fly of the Day", vacuuming up the trout- rainbows, browns, recent stockers, multi-year holdovers, small ones, big ones. And I had the river to myself. Got a perverse kick out of catching all those nice fish on such a silly looking fly in a river with a reputation as technical fishery requiring small flies & light tippets.

**Nymphmeister** · 02-28-2009, 10:03 PM

One more thought. A classic mistake I see many anglers make under these conditions is to step right into the water, wade out a little, and then start fishing. Wrong!!! If the water near the bank has at least a little current, even if it is quite shallow, make a few casts while standing on the bank, and then fish your way out to the main current. So often trout slide into the shallows to get out of the heavier current, holding comfortably in a foot of murky water right off the bank, and the unknowing angler steps in, never realizing they just spooked the potential fish of the day right out of there.

I used to fish an extremely popular Opening Day spot on the Farmington River every season. One year the flow was super high and pretty murky, and many anglers were struggling to catch fish, despite it being a heavily stocked location. Due to the high water level & strong current, I was standing way back & catching trout by throwing into spots I would be standing in under normal water conditions, literally about 5 feet past my rod tip. The local next to me couldn't believe that the "out of towner" was kicking his butt on his home river. Once I explained where the trout where & why, he stepped back a little, shortened his casts, and started hooking fish, shaking his head & muttering to himself that he couldn't believe he had to take advice from me to catch fish. Funny stuff.

I also remember a day when the Housatonic River was "unfishable" due to very high, very murky water. One of the best Housy regulars I know stopped in the fly shop, and revealed that he & his son had caught quite a few fish, including some truly large ones. The secret? Not so much the flies (although he did say a Prince was about the best nymph, and a big 4" streamer was the other hot fly), but rather staying near the bank. He said EVERY trout came from within 1-5 feet of the bank, and when he went out beyond that he was fisheless. I'm pretty sure that due to the river being literally muddy with less than 1 foot of visibility, the shallow water was the only area where the trout had a chance to see there flies.

So don't tromp through the bankside shallows until you fish them! Be like the French, the world's most successful competition fly fisherman, and don't put your feet anywhere you fly hasn't been first. Good advice for any water conditions.

**Davyfly** · 03-01-2009, 10:14 PM

Good post here,

I will go for SJWs and DW Dynamite worms every time of different colors if nymphing is the deal.
Streamers can also work well at times worked close to shore lines, and so also would you believe lager dry flies at times, particularly for Browns.
They love colored water and will often loose a degree of caution in these conditions.

DW

**Nymphmeister** · 03-01-2009, 11:27 PM

When I was down your way Davy, I hit the White, Norfork & Little Red. Fished in everything from super low to pretty high, and fly selection was a no-brainer when the flows were up- SJW's with maybe an egg fly

trailer. In low flow it was either scuds (Norfork) or sowbugs (Little Red). The pink SJW's were KILLER on the rainbows, but not as much on the browns, the red seemed to work better for them, along with the natural worm brown color. I want to get the tubing to tie the Dynamite Worms, they have a nice sparkle & translucence to them. Looks killer for high & murky water.

On the Housatonic, it's usually hard to beat a big Prince most days if the flow is up & colored.

**jovalle** · 03-02-2009, 11:03 AM

I can echo the thoughts on the Housatonic, I'd add a big BH hare's ear works as well as a prince, particularly with a little ice dub mixed in. About two years ago while still learning the river I was fishing in high spring water and had no success in my usual haunts. Walking up the bank to another hole in water that is normally not productive, I managed to spook about half a dozen good sized fish that were holding a foot or two off the shore in very shallow water. I rigged up a woolly bugger and hit the banks and suddenly was into fish. The river continues to mystify me at points, but I figure with each passing day you discover a bit more and add to the volume of knowledge...

**AaronJasper** · 03-02-2009, 08:30 PM

I had a very interesting day this past weekend. I was fishing a stream with lots of wild browns. The water was up and muddy to the point where it was nearly brown. I stepped into a run where I have a good handle on where the fish were. I took one fish quickly then I didn't hook any for some time. I tried the various lies within the run quite methodically. Something told me to turn around and whip a cast at the shore. There was a slight depression there. I threw the flies over there and before the flies sunk I was tight into an 18 inch brown.... the largest of the day. The strange thing was that the water velocity did not change much at all. The only difference was that the water as very murky. I could not catch a fish in water deeper than 2 feet. It was strange. The runs looked perfect but all of the fish were on the edge of the stream. I would be that this was because the light penetrated through the water and allowed the trout sufficient time to see potential food items coming their way.

The next day I went to the same stream. The water had cleared and the fish were back to their normal lies. I made lots of casts into water where they would have been the previous day and took a few fish. However, the majority of the fish were back into the same water that they were in the previous week.

These fish exhibited some interesting behavior in the fact that the water was not high but only stained and this made them change positions in the stream. As a matter of fact even with the slight flow increase the water was still slightly lower than the week before. There are two factors that I think made the fish move. The first would be the color change and the second is that there was quite a bit of suspended debris and the fish wanted to seek refuge because getting bombarded all day from leaves, etc can't be much fun.