water level changes

[fishing4smallies]

I fish near a dam on a smaller river i have been crushing smallies on tubes but last week we got a lot of rain, the water level went up over a foot. the rise in water seems to hold a lot of small fish but im not catching any of the quality fish i was before.

Any suggestions?

[roadwarrior]

May 1 -2 we had between 13 and 18" of rain

throughout much of the Mid South. Pickwick

rose 9'. The fishing was fabulous! Most fish

either moved up to maintain 10-20' depth or

held near the first break off points, rip-rap

and gravel bars.

Our guys caught big bass, both green and

brown, including three PBs! Our average catch

was around 30-40 fish, but some boats reported

100+. More details are posted on the Roadtrip

thread if you are interested.

8-)

[Chris W]

As long as the water is still rising bass usually move shallow with it. When it starts falling I have always had good luck fishing where the bank usually starts under normal water level. And from there they slowly move back out to where they were before as the water starts to return to normal.