River flooded near peak spawning

[retiredbosn]

The Greenbrier river has been at flood stage for a week now, still raining today.  All protected coves have fast water running through them.  One of my favorite stretches has a slot limit, and I typically catch some nice bass there.  Now with the river at flood, what will happen with the bass?  Will they be washed downstream?  Will they respawn?  I figure all the nest are silt covered now, and/or the eggs washed away.  I know whenever we get a flood like this, the bottom of the river changes, and I have to search and find the new holes, etc.  So what do you guys think, will this flood result in a failed spawn or will the bass respawn?  Thanks

[WV_Eagle]

Here's a good summary of the impact of high flows during spawning season from the Maryland DNR website. Although this is about the upper Potomac, it should apply generally to any river or stream smallmouth habitat.

Fisheries biologist John Mullican sent us some insight into how heavy river flows can affect smallmouth bass spawning success. There are many factors that come into play that can determine the success of each years spawn. River environments are less stable than lakes or impoundments and, as a result, year class strength can be highly variable from one year to the next. River smallmouth bass produce the strongest year classes during springs with average, relatively stable flows. Although bass can adapt and change nesting areas under low or high water flows, average, stable flows usually offer a greater abundance of spawning habitat.

High water events during May and June have the most impact on the spawning success of smallmouth bass. Extremely high flows (right now) will cause bass to abandon nests to seek refuge from the current and the current's scouring action can destroy nest/eggs. Many smallmouth were actively spawning when this most recent high water event occurred. Some of these bass will attempt to renest during May when conditions become more favorable. Similar flooding conditions in June can result in high mortality of the young fry. I my opinion, based on the current conditions in the Potomac, the early spawning smallmouth will be largely unsuccessful. If the later spawning bass are successful, I expect young-of-year smallmouth this summer to be below average in size.

The year class strength of Potomac River smallmouth bass has been monitored annually since 1975. Using a 30' seine nearly 100 hauls are taken at a dozen or more sites from Cumberland to Seneca during July. The abundance of young smallmouth is expressed as the geometric mean per haul. The Potomac had very stable flows during 2007 and the river produced the largest hatch ever recorded during the 33 years of monitoring. However, during the spring of 2008 a high water event occurred on May 15. The bass were smaller than average during our survey and the overall hatch was slightly below average. I expect a below average hatch this spring as well.

The link to the entire article is here: http://www.dnr.state.md.us/fisheries/fishingreport/fishingrptArchive/frarchives2009/050609freshwater.asp

Hope that helps!

[Pitchinkid]

i stayed down on the Greenbrier this past Friday and Saturday Night. Friday evening the river was up but not a whole lot. It was defintaley fishable. But saturday night after the rain that evening it was back up a bit and dark. I stayed right there before you go across the bridge towards Talcot or the golf course. Theres a bar right there called the Green Valley Bar. I stayed about 100 yards from it on the lower end.Fished a tournament at Bluestone. I think there 5.2 gates open that Friday morning. New was in pretty good shape.