Originally posted by: davesett2000 on 8/2/2005 7:27:38 AM

Hi all <!--graemlin::)-->

A couple of years ago I had asked the Admins to consider a River Fishing Forum as there a good number of people who enjoy fishing rivers and still others looking to learn.

I never heard back from them. <!--graemlin::(-->

And there aren't really many good books about the subject. 2 that I have are "River Fishing - A Happy World" by Dan Gapen Sr. and "Fishing Rivers and Streams" by Dick Sternberg. Either of these can be found reasonably priced (used), and I whole-heartedly recommend BOTH of them.

Another good book I have with MANY diagrams etc... is titled "The Orvis Guide to Reading Trout Streams" by Tom Rosenbauer.

So EYE'M starting this Topic in an effort for us to discuss and share what we know with others. <!--graemlin:;)-->

As a general rule, fish are smaller sized in rivers than in lakes, at least partially due to the fact that they must fight the current, and in doing so use much more energy than the lake fish. But it's also been said that pound for pound that river fish are stronger than their lake brothers for that same very reason.

A distinct advantage that river fisherman have over the lake guyz is that fish in the river don't have as much time to check out whether something is edible or not...as the "bait" will soon be carried past them by the current, and chasing after it expells a LOT of extra energy. This equates to the fish being more likely to actually bite the bait than to let it go by.

I'm going to start off with a little self-drawn map of a rather basic river-bend fishing hole. MOST rivers have bends in them, and you can find SOME type of hole there EVERY time <!--graemlin::cool:-->



I realize that it's a pretty funky drawing, but I hope you can get the general idea of the layout of THIS particular fishing hole. Also realize that while no 2 riverbend holes are the same, they each do share a few common characteristics.

1. The deepest part of the hole will be somewhere between the outside edge of the bend and the center of the bend.

2. The fastest current through the hole will be at the outside edge of the bend.

3. There will be some "slack-water" area at the inside edge of the bend.

4. And as a rule, the steeper the bank on the outside of the bend, the deeper the hole is.

5. The LARGER the river, the LESS pronounced the hole is defined as larger rivers usually have slower current than medium / small ones.

There can also be ANY combination of the 4 basic bottom types...rock, gravel, sand or muck.

Also too there can be various combinations of cover, such as weeds, trees in the water OR overhanging, undercut banks, crevices between larger rocks...even a boat dock depending on the size of the river.

I will be adding to this in the days to come, and also welcome quality info from others. <!--graemlin::cool:-->

90% of this Topic NEVER made it in the transfer :(

ya but they archived the SONG game and the OR game! somthin` had to go!  BASS~TURDS!

i bet we reread the same stuff we all talkd about in this topic in the mag one day, and i will be piss'd !!!! same with the spot on spot & cover

did anyone  have any of it saved?

Yeah, I grew up lake fishing and do pretty good with it. I find river fishing much more difficult, it's a whole different world. I need to learn more about it. Smalliecatcher has taught me the most about river fishing and he has done that by taking me out on the river (being the great guy he is). I guess I know enough from that to catch smallmouths on a river, but I need to learn more about river walleye fishing. A thread on river fishing would be a great thing for me.

Be Fishers of People. You catch, He Cleans. Life Member since 2/17/92 One of the "Illinoiz Boyz" "When the Power of Love Overcomes the Love of Power, The World Will Know Peace" - Jimi Hendrix "War without end, random murders, missing wives, child abuse and continuing corruption do not shake my faith in a Higher Power...... they unsettle my faith in mankind."

  I'm doing the research now Ray for that river Walleye fishing. I have a spot picked out that we can boat or fish from shore between Portage and the Dells. Once we figure out a date and place maybe we should put it out as a mini-meet. There are probably others in the group that would like to catch some Walleye.

Oh boy oh boy oh boy.

I can see I'm going to be busy doing some fishing this year.   Most of it with fellow members. I think this is going to be a great year.  

KMAN, i'm not sure till you fish it or i have heard good things about it, my river is a big creek (you could wade most of it and throw a lure accross most of it to) and then it floods out for a few months and you gotta find those impondmens and ox bows where the fish can rest from the massive flows plus it's to fast to be on, surfs up!

 if i look'd at a big river like the mississipi i would be lost?sometimes alot of water is a bad thing for me! to many targets to little time... this happens at the back end of lakes too!

but diffrent rivers hold diffrent fish, up in the high counrty here trout rule down past the last dam there is bass striper trout cats and all types of perch...

what is your river/s like around you? is it cold fast and clear, or slow and murkie? or inbetween?  where are you ?

if you search the river name i'm sure you could find something out, if there are charters or fishing reports that would be good to know, also search a map to see if there are any parks on the river or boat ramps...dont over look any bridge that pases over the river to most have some sort of river acsess, be wear of the trolls tho` or homeless people 

are news paper give the flow of the river but is realy hard to deturimin what is safe till you do it alot,  i do have a web site that list almost any river flow and snow packs for CA. i'm sure most states or rivers and the dams  have some sort of web site to git this info from? let me know and i'll try to help you out if you want! later

the best thing about river fishin  TO ME is you can keep moving to new spots with out noise, the bad is exactly that  too...lol 

I might just start this over from scratch.

In the meantime, I have all of the original thread in a Word document...along with the pics.

Send me an email if you'd like a copy of it.

I'd have to do some major restructuring of it to restart it here.

Hi Jim!

Look for bends, fallen timber, Strong structure changes, and bridges. Most of the walleye I catch in irrigation ditches which is still a type of river are 90% of the time sitting right on the edge of a strong structure break, Like from dumped concrete back to a mud bottom, or under a Tree sitting right on the edge in shallow water, my brother in law and myself caught 2 master anglers last summer in less then 2 feet of water this way. I do not tend to fish for much else other then walleye anymore besides some perch when I get the money for gas to get that far north in Nebraska to actually catch some. Do not have any good places to pick up any pike or muskie there are a few places just not good fisheries for it. Otherwise I would probably be hooked on perch and pike.

Here's a great article I found recently...with a couple of diagrams done by Dave Whitlock none the less....and good explanations of each

http://gorp.away.com/gorp/publisher...s_ba10.htm

Although the article focuses on smallmouths with flies....the SPOTS in the diagrams will hold fish of SOME kind in most ANY river....and that's the most learning of the 2 diagrams

If you read the article....and have questions...post them up here...so that all of us river-rats can answer

I consider myself somewhat of an expert on Northeast rivers so if there is a question on any of them ask away.

http://bassfishingstories.webs.com" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://bassfishingstories.webs.com

I have always tried to fish the rivers near home.It is a Slightly Different Word. For all of you thinking about it ,Give it a try You may have to think a little harder about lure selection. But, once you get  it the fishing will be fun.River fish will hit the currents when hooked and will fight like hell.IT IS JUST SOME GOOD S@#T!!!

Good Luck. You will learn alot by just doing it. remember that the fish tend to look upsteam and it is a good bet to cast upstream. Enjoy.