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Brooks, Steams, and Rivers

Running water differs from still water in one important way:

It brings the food to the fish like an endless belt conveyor, while lake or pond fish have to cruise around and find theirmeals. As a result, most fish in flowing water tend to stay in or near one chosen place for days, weeks, even months, because their food travels to them.

However, most fish make short trips several times a day from their secure resting places to areas where food is more plentiful. These journeys may be only several feet and are seldom more than 100 yards.Then, too, most river fish move slightly upstream as the seas on advances, seeking temperatures more to their liking. Running water not only gets bigger as it progresses downstream; it gets warmer, too.

Most river fish stake out a territory and defend it from all smaller or weaker rivals. Despite this, fish are constantly seeking to better their lot, and steadily challenge their betters for choicer quarters. So if you catch a good trout, for example, from a deep cut under a root tang le one evening, fish it carefully on your next outing. Another good fish is almost certain to move into this choice vacancy—often within a few hours.

Fish living in running water are usually somewhat smaller than specimens of the same species that inhabit lakes and ponds. Floods and droughts reduce their food supplies. And it takes energy that would otherwise go into growth to battle the current. But river fish undergo tougher training and usually fight harder than their stillwater brethren. And perhaps even more important, there’s a special charm to flowing-water fishing that has convinced many anglers that this is the choicest fishing of all.


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