Water Releases Means Better Fishing By Gary Howey
As a guide and tournament fishermen, there were a lot of things that made fishing tough, including cold fronts, heavy winds, no wind and high temperatures.
We were always looking for something that might give us the edge when it came to catching fish.
Before heading for the river or lake, there was always one thing we made sure to check out and that was to look in the local newspaper to see what the water levels and discharges would be for the body of water we were fishing.
When a release was scheduled, especially a major release, we wanted to be on the water as it was a sure bet when a release was scheduled or a change in the amount of water would be coming down the river and baring any natural disaster, fishing would start to pick up and the next week or so, could be some of the best fishing of the season.
The heavier the release the better the fishing would be, but even a small change in the discharge could trigger the fish.
I wish I’d figured this out years before as it would have saved me a lot of time and made many of my trips much more successful.
It’s really not rocket science, more like common sense, one thing that others and I sometime don’t use enough of.
Water releases can and will trigger fish, especially below a dam or spillway.
Let’s look at the overall picture to see why fishing would pick up below these areas.
First of all, you have a huge volume of deep water being held back behind the dam or spillway and cruising, holding and hiding in that water are fish of all sizes and species as well as other aquatic life.
When the gates are opened up the water is drawn forcibly through the turbines or gates, drawing huge quantities of water and the residents of that water down stream.
The force of the water being drawn through, forces gamefish, baitfish and other aquatic life through the turbines, over the dam, pushing heavy current down stream.
The influx of water is the ringing of the dinner bell to the fish located directly down stream, as they’ll quickly move up, taking advantage of the injured and wounded critters being washed downstream.
The bite won’t be quite as good when the influx is through the turbines as it will when the gates are open as this is when a lot of game fish are flushed through the gates and over the spillway, adding new fresh fish to those inhabiting the downstream area.
With large releases, the downstream current will pick up, drawing fish up stream towards the release to take advantage of the influx of new nutrients coming into the river.
Increases in flows can also help to improve the fishing several miles down stream as once the water reaches the exposed sandbars in these areas, over topping them, insects, worms and other aquatic life left high and dry when the water level dropped are now washed off the downstream end of the bar.
Smallmouth bass, walleye, sauger, catfish and other species of fish will move up along the backside of the sandbar where the water is washing over and fed washed off the bar.
Livebait rigs are your best bait when fishing rising water levels. Jigs, Lindy rigs, slip bobber rigs and spinners tipped with minnows, leeches or crawlers can be deadly when fished at these times.
Rising water levels can trigger lethargic fish into feeding and when the water is coming up, you can bet the fish will head up stream to take advantage of the new food source that’s coming downstream.