What Will Flooding Do?

[Al Agnew]

And a little scary with new trees down. On the creek I frequent most it seems more holes will fill in than gouge out, not the equilibrium you would hope for. One thing that is interesting is the displaced fish. When the water drops out after big floods I often catch nice fish in very skinny water. Its as though they lost their home and ended up in places they would not normally be found.

A lot of times, minor floods, those that just get the stream bank full or slightly out of its banks, will fill in holes, while big floods will scour out holes. Probably the minor floods just move gravel from bars into pools, filling them, while the big floods blow gravel out and pile up new gravel bars. Exception to this is something I saw in Big River between Mammoth Bridge and Browns Ford a few years ago. There was a very localized storm right over that area of the river, with little or no rain upstream, while about 9-11 inches dropped in that one area. So the river above it didn't rise at all, while all the little creeks and hollows in that area got a huge flush, dumping massive amounts of gravel and even rocks the size of basketballs into the river. The river didn't rise at all at the upper end of that stretch, while so much rain dumped into the area that the river steadily rose as you went downstream and was 8 feet above normal by the time you got to Browns Ford. But in the upper part of that stretch, there just wasn't enough water flowing in the river itself to move all that rock and gravel that got dumped into it, and when the water went down there were big new bars around the mouths of all the hollows and creeks. It was really weird. And it also showed me how much new gravel gets dumped into the rivers in floods.

[Chief Grey Bear]

A lot of times, minor floods, those that just get the stream bank full or slightly out of its banks, will fill in holes, while big floods will scour out holes. Probably the minor floods just move gravel from bars into pools, filling them, while the big floods blow gravel out and pile up new gravel bars. Exception to this is something I saw in Big River between Mammoth Bridge and Browns Ford a few years ago. There was a very localized storm right over that area of the river, with little or no rain upstream, while about 9-11 inches dropped in that one area. So the river above it didn't rise at all, while all the little creeks and hollows in that area got a huge flush, dumping massive amounts of gravel and even rocks the size of basketballs into the river. The river didn't rise at all at the upper end of that stretch, while so much rain dumped into the area that the river steadily rose as you went downstream and was 8 feet above normal by the time you got to Browns Ford. But in the upper part of that stretch, there just wasn't enough water flowing in the river itself to move all that rock and gravel that got dumped into it, and when the water went down there were big new bars around the mouths of all the hollows and creeks. It was really weird. And it also showed me how much new gravel gets dumped into the rivers in floods.

Spot on. That has happened to one of my favorite smallmouth creek over here. Flysmallie had some business over my way a few days ago and I took him to a creek that I loved to take the long rod on. I hadn't fished in a couple of years and as we all now we have had little rain in the last couple of years. Not enough to cause big floods like you are speaking of. Just little gully washers that don't have the power to do what a healthy stream needs done.

When we got on scene, I quickly noticed my first spot had filled in. Ok, move on. No good. Every hole we went to that day was filled in. There was also a smaller, wet weather creek that dumps in and it had pushed a ton of rock into the bigger stream that actually changed the main flow and created a new gravel bar.

We have had rain every day like everyone else in this area but not in the big numbers like just to the south and east. I haven't been down to look but I don't think this current flooding is enough to scour out the holes again. I hope I am wrong.

[ozark trout fisher]

It will be interesting how my creeks look after this clears out. I kind of enjoy the change that flood creates. Oftentimes, on waters I'm really familiar with, I'll get in a rut and fish the same good holes over and over again. Flooding and the resulting changes force me to try some new areas. Oftentimes that works out pretty well in all. I plan to try to hit the Current when the water drops enough, which may be a few days or a few weeks, I have no idea.

With that said, I do hope that we are about done with this rain. I live just a few miles north of the affected area but I hate hearing the reports of what is going on immediately to the south. I think the fish will be just fine (they always are) but I do feel very bad for those living in affected areas.

[Guest]

A lot of times, minor floods, those that just get the stream bank full or slightly out of its banks, will fill in holes, while big floods will scour out holes. Probably the minor floods just move gravel from bars into pools, filling them, while the big floods blow gravel out and pile up new gravel bars. Exception to this is something I saw in Big River between Mammoth Bridge and Browns Ford a few years ago. There was a very localized storm right over that area of the river, with little or no rain upstream, while about 9-11 inches dropped in that one area. So the river above it didn't rise at all, while all the little creeks and hollows in that area got a huge flush, dumping massive amounts of gravel and even rocks the size of basketballs into the river. The river didn't rise at all at the upper end of that stretch, while so much rain dumped into the area that the river steadily rose as you went downstream and was 8 feet above normal by the time you got to Browns Ford. But in the upper part of that stretch, there just wasn't enough water flowing in the river itself to move all that rock and gravel that got dumped into it, and when the water went down there were big new bars around the mouths of all the hollows and creeks. It was really weird. And it also showed me how much new gravel gets dumped into the rivers in floods.

Ive noticed those holes filled in with gravel will bore a small channel when it only floods to 1/4 or 1/2 bank full.

That stuff is so loose that steady flow will part a channel thru it.

This flood will totally transform certain areas of these creeks and rivers.