Has high-water affected fishing?

[DeepDiver75]

What do you think all these recent high water conditions has done to the fishing? After a high water event like last week does the fishing go right back to normal as the water levels drop or does the extremely high water adversely affect the fishing in the river for a while (or for that matter does it help the fishing). Just looking for some opinions.

[gonefishin]

Personally I think in the long run it helps the fishing. It brings a lot of highly oxygenated water, a lot of food and helps flush buildup out of the rivers.

[KCfisher]

I'm no scientist and have only been fishing the Niangua for 5-6 years, but I think it is really good for the river in general. I remember fishing a late spring/early summer about 2 years ago after a really wet late winter/early spring and I have never seen more nymphs/scuds beneath the rocks as I did during that time. The fishing was great that spring and, in particular, soft hackles were just excellent. Now remember this comes from a novice, but this was also the first (and only so far) spring where I actually saw rising fish and caught a nice little brown on a dry fly on the Niangua. These things together make me think that river benefits down the road from some high flows.

In the short term, I don't know if I am a good enough fisher to capitalize on the acute changes in water level like I know several on this site can. I can tell you that I was on the Niangua in the middle of the last rain we got and the water was up quite abit from how I know it for this time of year and cloudy. I had very little luck nymphing, but after switching to big streamers had a really great day of fishing. Aggressive takes on big swinging streamers anywhere the current was broken by depth or riffles. My two cents.