I’ve heard some on the Mississippi say rising water turns the cat bite on, but I’ve heard some cat guys in the Mankato area on the Minnesota say they rising water turns off the bite. Myself, I’m not convinced either way. What’s your opinion?
Changing conditions is never good in my experience. Give me 5 days of stable conditions any day.
MN river usually is impacted by a more dramatic rise than say the mississippi which I think is why the difference. Also, a 1 foot rise in a creek has a lot more impact than a 1 foot rise in a big river. Same as comparing a the river level change in comparing the MN to the Miss.
I like rising water, but typically the MN river rises too fast and moves the fish so much that some would say the fish shut down. With the MN river, it falls much slower than it rises too, so you find more consistency on the MN with falling waters vs rising water.
when the river is rising typically fish are up along the banks looking for lunch that might be dropping in, what’s what my old man says anyways..
Although I don’t fish the MN the above post makes perfect sense. I’m a rising water lover!
I have found the same in rising water ur fish push shallow.
I’m not so sure about flatheads moving shallow in rising or high fast water. (I could be wrong…admittedly)
Last year, all the larger fish that came into my boat was from about 18 feet of water on the main channel in water I wouldn’t have ever fished but by accident one night.
Way too fast water with the main channel hitting it.
Again, I’m talking the Mississippi River and Flatheads.
I think them not biting is a myth either way. You’ll catch fish sometimes when you go against all conventional wisdom, and you’ll get skunked sometimes when fishing “perfectly”.
The changing conditions thing I think is simply just because the fish find food in different places depending on the water activity.. They’re still out there and they are still eating, just might be in a different place. People tend to have their favorite spots they fish when conditions are normal, so when things change and the fish move, they think the fish simply aren’t biting.
Channels will be more abundant around inlets and smaller bodies of water flowing into the larger ones say, when the river is rising, since the concentration of food coming from the stream into the river will be ten fold (numbers might be exagerated!) since they are more or less getting food from the equivalent of the entirety of the stream/inlets length plus that of the river.
So I’d recommend if your normal spot is dead when the weathers changing, try a few spots that you might not have otherwise.. Make a science project out of it!
Articles from scientific standpoints on feeding habits of fish and such have helped me find fish far more than conventional angler knowledge, I know that for sure!
Nice post Josh! I like your ideas!
Rising = good
Falling = not as good
Quote:
Rising = good
Falling = not as good
….The other way around for those Great Tasteing EYES. 
……….rrr
On the big river, the rise generally takes a very short time, and the fall can take weeks. You’re going to fish in falling water conditions much more than in rising, and the fish are going to eat in falling water conditions. While I do think rising water is typically good, I certainly wouldn’t cancel any trips because the water’s falling!
I can’t think of any GOOD reason to cancel a trip…there are reasons, just not any good ones. 
Rising water probably gets a bad rap from those who were catching them before it started rising and then they went back to the exact same spot. They were expecting them to be there and the bite to be good, but the fish just moved.
I think I have caught fish in both. High water, low water I think you can always catch fish, you just may have to do something a little different. Some spots I fish don’t get too affected by water levels either way where as others seem to be better with dropping water levels (especially when if gets real low) because of more current. Other times when it is rising I just anchor up closer to the current break as opposed to being right in the heart of what I’m fishing.
No reason to stop fishing either way, just change what your doing a bit. We need to change with the conditions.
Quote:
Quote:
Rising = good
Falling = not as good
….The other way around for those Great Tasteing EYES.
I will second that!! Believe the same goes for cats myself. The falling water concentrates bait and fish of all kinds.
Yeah, it can stop rising anytime now. 
Rising water makes new feeding areas and more food available by washing thier food supply out of the ground and concentrates it and baitfish in certain areas, Boy was that a lung full, whew!
I need to worry about catching fish in the first place before I worry about rising or falling water.
Nice old thread here with conditions lately.
Hopefully get into something later with info.
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
