Central Pennsylvania Fishing

In the first article in this series on fishing for small creek smallmouth bass, I covered some really basic strategies for dealing with cold water conditions. The second water condition that you will commonly experience in the spring is high water. High water can be tough to hone in on the location of the fish and to get our bait in the strike zone long enough to induce a strike. In high water conditions, fish scatter and water clarity drops. In this article I’ll divulge some of my time tested strategies and baits for yanking them out under these conditions.

Situation 2: High Water Conditions

Most small creeks I fish for smallmouth bass resemble a water shoot during high water. Typical mid creek holding areas have just too much current to be used by smallmouth bass. The fish tend to scatter. The water clarity is typically murky to just flat out muddy. With this in mind, we will need to re-evaluate our target areas and our lure choice to be successful.

Key Locations

I always start the process by going to areas in a creek that have been particularly productive for me in the past. This is a start but in most cases the fish will have moved to a more advantageous position out of the current. We just have to use our head a little to figure out where they’ve repositioned themselves. Remember, research indicates that smallmouth bass are pretty much homebodies. The will only move as far as the need to to find comfort and food.

Look to the Banks

When a creek is high fish will look to get out of the mid creek current. They will often press right up to the bank in small pockets cause by creek side boulders, trees, or even brush that has been temporarily flooded. I’ve caught smallmouth bass in the most ridiculously small pocket of water right along the bank during high water periods. Depth though is critical. A foot of water or more is my usually rule of thumb for evaluating whether a pocket will hold smallmouth bass. Typically this type of spot produces only one or two fish at at time. I might hit four of five pockets before I pick up on fish.

Target Significant Current Breaks

Look for major rock formations, downed trees, and large boulders that create significant current breaks. These types of spots often produce multiple fish. Just this past weekend I caught five fish off of one such high water current break caused by a underwater rock formation. Pick these types of spots apart with your bait. Hit the current seem thoroughly and the slack water behind the obstruction. Most often the actively feeding fish will be right up in the current seem.

Lures and Strategies

Where we need to fish and how we want to present our bait is very different in high water situations. Big baits and dark colors are a general rule of thumb here. We will needs something large and easy to see in the stained to muddy water. Adding a little “sound” to the presentation in the way of rattles or beads is also a good idea.

Fishing the bank spots

I treat this situation like a large mouth bass fisherman would. I use flipping or pitching techniques to get my bait into the spot I want to fish. I’ve even switched from my spinning gear to my baitcast gear during extreme situations when I’m flipping into a lot of flooded brush along the bank. It just makes it easier to pull the fish out before he has a chance to entangle me.

Remember, this is a creek so I’m doing all this from the bank. I’m usually only a few feet away from the spot when I pitch to it. I’ve had fish almost right under my feet hit my bait. The primary reason the fish do not spook as easily is because the water tends to be very murky during these high water periods. I still proceed with caution as not to scare the fish.

Some common baits that I tie on are tubes, jig and pig, and even senko style baits under the right conditions. I’m using bigger baits than I usually do when I’m smallmouth fishing. Dark colors are in order like olive, dark pumkin, black, dark brown colors. I sometimes like a little mettle flake in there as well. Red or green metal flake is my favorite and most productive. I’ve also experimented with a little chartreuse and find that increases the strikes in many cases. Black tubes with chartreuse tips or green pumpkin tubes with chartreuse tips are to of my favorite. I use a senko style bait when I determine that the fish want a slower falling bait.

Fishing major current breaks

Baits that I like for fishing major current breaks are lipped crankbaits like the “wiggle wart”, and the versitile tube bait. Crankbits are great for fishing across the current breaks. I like the wiggle wart because it has rattles that help the fish zero in on the bait in murkey or stained water. Also the wide wobbling action of this particular bait really calls in those smallies! You can use you favorite crank as long is it will make some noise and displace some water.

I use the tube when a slower more deliberate presentation is needed. I like the tube bait because it comes in a wide variety of colors and because you can add weight or lessen the weight of the bait efficiently by changing out the jig head or the internal weight system your using . I’ve really partial to the Shaw Grigsby High Performance hooks withe the matching internal weights. It fairly quick to switch out weight and the wide gap of this hook allows for some awesome hook sets! I pretty much just cast the bait out and let it drift on a slack line along the current seem. I’ll also use the bait for probe the other areas of the slack water behind the obstruction.

Parting Words

The locations and techniques I’ve outlined should help you locate and find smallmouth bass in one of the most challenge spring time situations you will encounter. The next time you hit you local creek and find the water is up a bit, give some of these techniques a try. I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Related Posts

• Little Juniata River, Pennsylvania Fishing Report
• Kettle Creek smallmouth bass, fast and furious action!
• Kettle Creek fishing report
• Cold water tactics