Fishing Forum

A few days ago I noticed the water levels on the South Fork at Lorenzo had dropped a little. That was before the rain hit. I decided to go out and do some fishing this evening and the water level was as high as it can be. In fact, if anyone has seen it recently, it looks like the mississippi river in some parts [crazy] . I caught 4 fish, an 18" cutthroat and some smaller browns right around dusk.

I have a rookie question concerning higher water levels. When the water levels get high and the water gets fast, where do the fish go?

Will fish find calmer waters and stay away from the current? Will the fish tend to go deeper? Or do the fish just spread themselves out as far as the river is wide? Will fish go with the flow and move down river?

thoughts on this are appreciated---
[signature]

from my personal experiance trout(this includes steelhead.) move closer to the banks this is where the water is not as violant and they are not gonna get hit by a bunch of debri also when the water gets this hi night crawlers get washed into the water so they will sit right next to the bank and dig on worms.
[signature]

So a few weeks ago, after the flush, the BOR claimed the SF is at and will remain at summer flows for the rest of the summer and will only increase for irrigation demands because there is enough room in Jackson lake and Palies to handle all of the run off. Now were pushing 20,000 cfs and still rising. Thats higher then the flush. Looks like someone did some miss calulations. Reminds me of last year when they were releasing minimal flows late into spring and Palies was near full pool, then the run off started and they had to open the flood gates and the river was blown out well into July. I'm sure they have a hard job to do but....................[mad]
[signature]

I don't think they did any "miss calculations". It is just hard to predict mother nature and no one expected 2 months of rain. They also are trying to be conservative and save as much water as possible because of the drought. This helps all species of fish and the fishermen. Nothing good comes from empty reservoirs and rivers in the middle of August.

By the way, the last time the Flood Gates were open on Palies was 1997. That was only the second time since the damn was built that they have ever been open.
[signature]