By Mike Fitzgerald, Contributor at Wild Nexus
When I started trout fishing in the rivers and streams nearest my home, I was a gung-ho teenager who figured I’d just fish and figure out the rest later. Dumb luck was a friend, and ignorance was a constant companion. Neither served me well, which probably goes without saying, and mostly because I didn’t really understand the literature and technical lingo that the anglers who did know what they were doing would use in conversation.
I’m glad that I learned sooner rather than later, and as soon as I did, my catch rate climbed drastically. Like anything in the outdoor world, there are different terms for different things regarding rivers and streams, but for the sake of keeping things simple in this article, I’ll use the ones that are most commonly referred to by the vast majority of anglers, if for no other reason than to stem off confusion.
Seams.
A seam is very important in the world of angling rivers and streams. If you’ve ever stood on a creek where a rock or boulder breaks up the current behind it, then you probably noticed that there are two spots behind either side of the rock where the slow, broken current meets the fast, regular current. This is a seam. These are important to any predatory fish because they allow a fish to rest in the relative laziness of the slow current while they wait for prey to float by in the fast current, at which time the fish will intercept the easy meal. In cooler streams, these are likely places to find brown and rainbow trout, but warm water species like smallmouth bass and walleye also like to use them, especially when river currents are strong.
Riffles
Riffles are formed by the deposits of rocky gravel and are generally very shallow. They can vary in length, but in a general sense, a riffle is usually created where deeper water exits into a section of gradient. Riffles are important because they tend to add extra oxygen into the water that fish need to survive, but they can also be important feeding areas where aquatic insects are displaced and flushed down into the mouths of hungry fish, like trout.
Pools
Between riffles, you will often find deeper, slower sections of water that really look like they should hold fish. These are called pools, though depending on your location, locals might refer to them as “holes” or “tubs” as well. On many rivers and creeks, the biggest fish will often use the deepest holes as their lairs because they can be several feet deep.
Often, a pool will be deep enough that you can’t quite see the bottom, even with polarized sunglasses, so there can be a lot going on underneath the surface that you may not be privy to. If you get snagged up, remember where it was, retie, and do what you can to avoid that spot. When fishing a pool, stand at the back of it and cast upstream at a forty five degree angle to the other shore. After every cast is done, take three steps up and continue to do this until you’ve covered the entire pool effectively.
Logjams
Most logjams are created from two different occurrences. One flood waters push a lot of debris downriver, including trees and logs. These get clogged up at pinch points like a bend in the river or stream and begin to collect more debris until several yards are choked. The other way this occurs is when the streambank erodes, and several trees fall across to the other side, where, eventually, they become the pinch point and prevent all that gnarly flotsam from passing by. What really matters is that these can completely reshape that stretch of the river for the fish that live in them, and anglers ought to take note of this. Fish a logjam methodically. Bass and trout absolutely love to call this type of structure home.
Eddies
This is where the current gets trapped and begins to swirl a little bit. They can be tiny little things, or they can be absolutely massive, depending on the size of the body of water. Eddies are a shore related occurrence and can provide sanctuary for gamefish on rivers where the current is agonizingly strong. The contradicting currents can pose a problem for anglers, but generally speaking, an eddy is a fishy place to be.
Flats
A flat is a section of water where the bottom structure and depth remain the same for a long distance. This is usually a result of several different things all working together, such as current speed, gradient, bottom type, and length. Seldom does a flat occur when the river or stream is prone to having several bends within close proximity to each other, but in a general sense, these areas seem to occur in the wide open. Do they hold fish? Well, it depends on the species that are found in each individual body of water, but what I will say is that you won’t know what’s living there until you cast a line through it.