High Water! Poor Fishing?

Now is a good time to ask the question about the effects of high water and fishing. My dad and I were talking about how all this water will mess up fishing for awhile and then started asking the question why. Neither of us knew so I pose the question

Does lots of rain and high water effect fishing? If so, how? Good, Bad?

I am not asking specifically about crappie, but fishing in general. Do they still eat the same, are they as active or more active, do they scatter, etc?

Obviously the water is murkier, and there will be more current as lakes are drawn down from dams, but still I wonder how that effects the fish.

I am no expert in fishing so I figured this would be a good place to get a lot of opinions from guys who know.

Thanks for any input...

During high water I have found that the fish tend to go into the flooded timber, grass, and weeds looking for food. Such as worms and incects

We catch more fish in the cover when the water is high and muddy. I like the old tree or brush line when its flooded.

I don't know but people were lining the banks catfishing in the Arkansas river flood waters yesterday right behind city hall where the baseball fields are. You could barely see the TOP of the backstop because the water was so deep. It would take a long cast to make it to the actual playing field. I guess if they caught any, it would be considered a " foul ball pop out" !!

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Originally Posted by swamp rat

During high water I have found that the fish tend to go into the flooded timber, grass, and weeds looking for food. Such as worms and incects

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Not only do they go into the newly flooded grass/timber, they also feed in flooded parking lots. Redworms/nightcrawlers come out of the dirt next to the lots and they crawl up onto the parking lot. The fish find it easy pickings to inhale these morsels off of the black top. As we all know, fish still eat when it is high water, high pressure, high wind, and high temperature. You find a newly flooded parking lot, and you are in business.

We were fishing over at Pocahontas last year in the Wally World parking lot, and them crappie were stacked up in the shopping cart stalls! I hung a biggun, bout 4 1/2 lber, but he got me tangled up and broke my line, so I got disgusted, and motored through the Mc Donalds drive through and came home.