“It’s too high and dirty,” complains an angler. Six months later we hear: “It’s too low and way too clear.” Frustrated river fishermen always find excuses for slow fishing.

In a perfect world, I’d prefer my smallmouth streams at normal level and color, meaning medium flow with water tinted watermelon green. But nature rarely works that way and smallmouth veterans concede that “normal” exists mainly in the imagination.

Smallmouth rivers differ in water volume, depth, gradient, bottom composition, bank cover, and water clarity, giving each a unique personality. The shallow Susquehanna in Pennsylvania, for example, has nothing in common with the mighty Columbia of the Northwest—except that both offer outstanding smallmouth fishing.

Moreover, all free-flow rivers (or river sections) undergo changes due to precipitation or lack of it. Their volume may rise either gradually or rapidly with seasonal weather patterns, major regional storms, localized “gully washers,” or even water releases from an upstream dam. How these events change a river’s color depends largely on the local terrain and land use.

Lack of precipitation has great impact on rivers, too, as flows shrink and water color turns nearly transparent when drought threatens. I’ve asked top river smallmouth anglers from across the country to talk about locating and catching these fish under extreme conditions, while adding my perspectives from years of stream smallmouth fishing.

Dealing with High Water

According to Ken Penrod, founder of Life Outdoors Unlimited guide service on the Susquehanna River and Upper Potomac, “River bass eat no matter how low or how high the river runs. Smallmouths react to current the way humans react to strong wind—they try to get out of it. Look for highwater bass in current breaks where shoreline eddies form, because that’s where preyfish go.

“If a river rises quickly, you’re wasting your time. Head to a lake. But if it rises no more than a foot per day, bass remain catchable.”

Steve Dezurik, a guide on the Mississippi River in Minnesota, notes that highest water levels typically occur in spring there, due to snowmelt and spring rains. He also favors shoreline cover during high water and recommends fishing the back of inside turns in the river where current slackens, allowing baitfish and bass to gather.

Blaine Mengel, smallmouth guide on the Delaware River, notes divergent patterns in summer and winter. “In summer, smallmouths tend to hold in small current seams and breaks that form behind bridge pilings, rocky points, and piers when the river runs high. During winter, however, they hold in the calmest and deepest eddies, often associated with large holes, or else they move into feeder-creek mouths.”

Bruce Holt, Director of G. Loomis Rods and veteran smallmouth angler from Washington state, notes that dams can play a key role. “Major dams here on the Columbia modify flood conditions, and the river doesn’t fluctuate as drastically as in tributaries like the Umpqua, Willamette, and John Day. With snowmelt in spring, the tributaries get extremely high and swift, making fishing virtually impossible until flow drops. But the Columbia remains fishable.

“We look for major current breaks like wing dams, underwater points, islands, brushy flats, or any sharp shoreline feature. Anything that gives fish a place to settle and wait for food is a possible holding site.”

Here on the Allegheny River in Pennsylvania, heavy summer rains quickly raise water levels and turn the river muddy. The key is to find tributaries that bring clearer water, typically those with rocky substrates. As muddy water in the main river gradually lightens to a dingy tan, look for fish by shoreline boulders, deadfalls, and partially submerged willow bushes, all of which break current.

From late fall through winter in northeastern rivers, smallmouths avoid current. They may move into deep midriver pools, though I prefer to target them in shoreline current seams and pocket eddies. Bass there seem more in a feeding mood, more aggressive when water temperatures fall into the 40°F range.

High Water Presentation Picks

While the experts pointed out different holding locations for high-water bass in various regions, avoidance of current struck a constant chord. Similarly, two of four anglers mentioned tube baits for working current breaks and holes, a choice that jives with what I’ve seen in eastern rivers and elsewhere.

The tube seems to have universal smallie appeal, and, matched with jigheads or slipsinkers of different weights, can be fished effectively in nearly any flow conditions or depths.

Mengel and Holt also picked spinnerbaits and crankbaits as prime high-water lures to attract bass in that murky environment where vision is limited, due to the vibration and flash they create. “Cast them into or upstream of the current break and work them through,” Holt recommends. “Especially in spring, smallmouths feed up and hit lures worked over their heads in current. In murky water, try a chartreuse-bladed spinnerbait. Once you locate a group of fish, switch to softbaits and slow down. I’ve found a 4-inch lizard on a split-shot rig deadly. Just drag it along in quiet pockets.”

Steve Dezurik has an alternative pick for high, dingy water in spring: a black hair jig. “A 3/8-ounce Jimmy D River Bug is deadly under those conditions. It has a feather trailer for action and can be worked at any speed.”

Dealing with Low Water

“During extremely low water on the Susquehanna and Potomac, locating bass is as easy as finding the holes,” says Penrod. “While the deepest holes attract more suckers and carp, I like ones where the bottom is just a bit too deep to see when wearing polarized sunglasses. The edge of the hole is the key area for bass. During low water, smallmouths hunt on the shallow flats adjacent to a hole, but they like to have deeper water to retreat to.

“Low water conditions are most prevalent in summer when dissolved oxygen levels can be a concern. The best holes often are just downstream of a riffle or drop where turbulent water brings added oxygen.”

On the Upper Mississippi, DeZurik has noted another pattern. “With water temperature high, bass metabolism is cranked up and they feed in current areas. But the best areas have big rocks nearby, where fish sometimes pull out of current. The lower the river gets, the more bass move to midriver holes or pools. If a hole gets uncomfortably shallow, they move to deeper ones.”

“Here on the Delaware,” Mengel notes, “smallies favor tail-out areas of pools or runs, where current speed increases and water depth shallows up just before a riffle or rapid during summertime low water. They feed on flats in low-light conditions.

“When low, clear water occurs during winter, though,” Mengel says, “bass hold in the deepest parts of wintering holes. They feed either along drop-offs or on transition areas between their holding areas and the bank, usually in 5 to 8 feet of water.“

Holt adds that in clear water, smallmouths can be spooky but still aggressive. “Early morning and evening are top times to fish the clearer water in summer.”

On the free-flowing Allegheny, I’ve found that during extremely low water, some bass pull into holes with current, instead of slack muck-bottom holes. But the most active smallies are found in small current breaks created by rocks or logs in fast-moving water such as chutes, deep riffles, churning rapids, and elevation drops. You find the most aggressive fish in spots with strong current.

Low Water Presentation Picks

“Extremely low water demands experimentation,” Penrod says. “My top choices include a weightless 6-inch Case Magic Stick on a 3/0 widegap hook; a 4-inch Mizmo Tube on a 1/8-ounce weedless head; a white buzzbait; a Big Mouth Spinnerbait; or a Luhr Jensen Speed Trap crankbait. If they fail, tie on a bait hook and float a live hellgrammite or stone cat through a hole.”

During summer’s lowest flows, I rely on three presentations: The slow burn of a 3/8-ounce buzzbait worked around mini-breaks in areas with fast current; the erratic splash-and-dart action of a Houdini Shad soft jerkbait for active fish on flats with current; and the deadstick drift of a weightless 4-inch Ozark smoke YUM Dinger through current holes. Dezurik, on the other hand, finds swim jigs effective for smallies in low water during summer, backing that up with a 3/8-ounce buzzbait or a Pop-R.

River fishing is exciting, the environment ever-changing, with new water arriving every second. While extreme changes can throw off a game plan, you can make great catches under conditions that send other anglers retreating to slackwater lakes—or, worse yet, back to the house. See you on the river.

*Darl Black, Cochranton, Pennsylvania, is an avid smallmouth angler and veteran outdoor writer who often contributes to In-Fisherman publications.