While we, as anglers, curse high water, it is actually helps get the fish to move upstream. Radio tracking studies showed us that most of the upper Kennebec River and Dead River brook trout, landlocked salmon and in general all species of fish, move out of the river and drop down into the impoundment for the winter. In the spring, they’ll move back upstream as water temps improve. One factor that really helps them get this migration done is high water for an extended period of time. We’ve really noticed this in reverse during the low water springs when the river hasn’t run high. Those years the early fishing was slow, and ramped up over a period of about a month. Other years, when we saw two, three or even four weeks of spring high water, once the river came back down to normal, it’s full of fish. So, to make a long story short, high water is a good thing…..in moderation.
