Fishing Chocolate

[Dejon Hamann]

Lee's success at the blown out Olympiad got me to thinking, again, about fishing chocolate/blown out rivers.  Instead of using big gaudy streamers he produced with subtle nymphs.  As Lee mentioned below Nationals this year was completely blown out for the first day.  One poignant memory for me was my Upper Spring Creek beat.  There were actually whole trees and dead ducks floating by in completely chocolate stained raging flood water.  Despite this fact, I found a few back eddies where trout were rising.  Despite my best efforts I could not entice them.

Do you have any tips/secrets for fishing blown out rivers?  More specifically tactics that vary from the: "throw 2 big flashy streamers on a heavy sink tip and work em' slow."

It was the Nationals all over again. The water started dropping by afternoon but still very discolored. The small wild opportunistic fish were the only thing I could find in the pocket water. I threw streamers all morning but fished a tandem nymph rig in the afternoon after a teammate had a strike on the nymph. I caught them on natural soft hackle pattern with very little flash. I need to fish high water more and experiment with that. I always go to the flashy stuff in nasty water and it rarely produces anyway.

[Domenick Swentosky]

I'm surprised that nobody has touched this thread.  I think it's a good one, Dejon.  Maybe it's because nobody has any better answers though.

All I can relay is my own experience:
I like high water.  First, it keeps most guys at home and that's more water for me to fish with less risk of being front ended.  Second, it often brings out big fish.  When I have a day of fishing scheduled I just don't cancel.  There's almost always somewhere to fish that isn't over the banks and even if everything is blown out, I'd still rather be out there walking the banks than sitting at home wishing for something different.

I know that comp fishing is the same -- you fish what you're given. 

I've fished a lot of high and muddy water.  I just don't know that there is a better solution than going with streamers.  I don't think they need to be big though, nor do i think they need to be flashy.   
My best color in muddy water is black. 

When it's actually muddy, I will usually fish structure like logs next to the bank and I'll often try to just let them hold or dance a little in a small area.  Fishing only what I consider to be prime habitat, I try to keep myself from chucking the pair of streamers out into the current and I'm usually fishing some pretty shallow stuff.  I sometimes trail a juicy, furry nymph behind the point streamer and I've had that produce well on occasions.

Just as soon as visibility improves even slightly, I like to switch up to a pair of nymphs or a small streamer as the point and then a nymph dropper.  Usually Green Weenies and slumpbusters get me a few fish and an IPW can do wonders in that kind of water.

I'm anxious to hear what others do, because though what I've listed works best for me, it ain't much when the river is actually muddy and blown out.

Enjoy the day.
Domenick

[Todd Oishi]

Two words instantly comes to mind... Vladi's Worm!

Earthworms and aquatic worms (Oligochaete) often become exposed and available to trout as they are swept into the river's current as a result of heavy rainfall, which causes flooding of their habitat and the erosion of the stream-bank...

[Mark Hanes]

Todd you beat me to it. 

In my area there are a lot of Cased Caddis for October caddis.  They are the ones that are usually called to as stick worms. I have had good luck with really big and heavy Cased caddis patterns on size 6 and 8 streamer hooks during high water.  These cases are usually in the shallow edges of the streams so i know they are present where the trout often end up going to in high water.   

i have always had better luck nymphing the edges slowly during high water with big nymphs or even nymphing with bugger patterns.

[Chris Puchniak]

I've always had very mixed results on chocolate water - sometimes fantastic, sometimes pathetic.  So I might not have a lot of useful info for this (if I knew more, I likely wouldn't have such mixed results!).  But my success has come with streamers fished right on the bottom (and usually Fl. Chartreuse, Fl. Red, or black) - but if I am not right on the bottom, or hugging the undercut bank or seam, I'm usually not getting much.

[Rashed Abdullah]

Todd you beat me to it. 

In my area there are a lot of Cased Caddis for October caddis.  They are the ones that are usually called to as stick worms. I have had good luck with really big and heavy Cased caddis patterns on size 6 and 8 streamer hooks during high water.  These cases are usually in the shallow edges of the streams so i know they are present where the trout often end up going to in high water.   

i have always had better luck nymphing the edges slowly during high water with big nymphs or even nymphing with bugger patterns.

Mark,

I agree with you. I always fish the slow shallow seams durring muddy water. I find the most active feeding trout in 8 to 20 inches of water along the banks at this time. I use a downstream aproach. I check the nymph ever so often so to immitate a nymph stuggle to get to the surface. This imparts some motion to the fly to get the trouts attention as the fly rises above the stream bed on its way up to the surface.

R

[Chris Smith]

I tried a number of approaches at the Olympiad.

I started out with a heavy anchor (large caddis larvae) and a San Jaun dropper.  

Later, I switched the caddis for a Vladi and put my go-to fly on as the dropper.

After that, I threw a heavy anchor with a streamer below (note to self, tie heavier streamers or rig up a rod with a sinking line).

Then I dry-droppered the edges, with the go to fly dangling below.

After that,  I  randomly tried combinations of the above, with a Surveyor and Czech nymph thrown in.  The one fish I hooked, and lost, was on the Czech.

I saw one or two fish rise in four hours.  Never did the thought of throwing a soft hackle cross my mind.

It will next time!

But in retrospect, I think I should have just pounded a few pockets, where I knew there were fish, until I caught one...even if I didn't move 10 yards in 4 hours.


  

[Mike Norton]

my only time fishing high water like this I used heavy sinking fly but that to me didnt even seem enough but i did catch a couple on the edges....good topic by the way

Mike

[Chris Lee]

I think there are some conditions that it is almost impossible to catch anything. That's the way I felt in the morning at the Olympiad. It was like the afternoon on Day 1 in PA. People rarely fish in those conditions so most don't have experience dealing with it. I don't and probably won't seek out those conditions to try and learn it. When thrown into the situation in a tournament we try to adjust and make it happen. It is very frustrating spending 3 hrs watching trash float by knowing your not going to get a strike.

I am down with the Vladi worm but it has rarely produced for me in those conditions and is a low confidence fly for me. Purple, chartreuse, and white streamers are my go to's, dead drifted and stripped.

That soft hackle was very natural with good movement. I think the water cleared just enough to perk up the wild fish.

[Jed Hamberger]

When I went up to check out the Clarion it was blown chocolate water like you guys are all talking about. I found fish moving to wherever they could to get out of the main stem of the river, browns are predators, and are going to want to expend the least amount of energy to achieve a meal. The fish I found were in eddies and small backwaters of the river that turned into good water when the water was up and stained, I nymphed helgramites and big stones in fast to moderate fast water and produced fish. The bigger the uglier the better. The swing was clutch for me when it was high and muddy, as long as I could get it down to the bottom prior to the swing. My approach was anything I could do to move as much water as possible.

Jed

[Bill Steudler]

I see everyone talking about vladi worms, streamers, and huge stone fly patterns.  Which are extremely effective in high water situations.  But I am not so sure if covering water with the biggest flies you could ever find in your box in the exact answer.  I have noticed in streams that have unbelievable populations of fish such as the Central Pa streams (Fishing Creek, Penns Creek, Little J, and Spring Creek, etc.) There aren't that many places for the fish to go when the water is up and significantly blown out.  So instead of covering water and burning up your beat and killing yourself to wade across the stream.  Why not find a good looking eddy/seam and plant yourself on it.  I feel like in blown out water it is not a matter of if the fish are eating or not.  A Trout is a predator, it will be opportunistic.  The biggest challenge to the fish is visibility.  So with that being said, in most quality streams anything that looks "fishy" should hold fish.  Rather than burning up water with 5 or 10 casts into every back eddy and seam you can find why not spend some quality time on one area working it thoroughly?  Because there is not shot in the world that a fish is getting a quality look at your fly on every single cast you make.  I have put some time in thinking about this and using this method when I fish.  For example, when fishing creek blows out it is tough, a lot tougher than usual.  I have found that walking the banks looking for a good seam or eddy and then planting yourself on it will usually produce.  Regardless of methods of fishing you use, big nymphs or streamers.  Any thoughts? 

[Dejon Hamann]

Dam kid!  That's money.  I agree completely.  And I've been thinking what you've described was Daniels key to success at Nationals.  You have to change the way you look at attacking a stream when it's chocolate.  Not verbatim, but this is what Daniels told me when he got on the bus (right after BFC and winning nationals): "i just knew where a few trout would be, so I sat there and just swirled a streamer around 30, 40, 60 times until they saw it."

[Mark Hanes]

Well put guys.  You really would only have a couple of spots that fit this type of water in most beats.  With the tactics posted here you should be able to pull a couple fish anyway and atleast avoid blanking.