Wikibooks: River Fishing/Parts

• Format: Book
• Language: English
• Subjects: Minnows; The Minnows
• Online Access: https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/River_Fishing/Parts

We can better understand where to fish by examining the different areas within a river. These areas are created by the current eroding the valley floor. Because these are features are characteristics of the water flow in a river we call these hydrological features. = General hydrological features = First we begin with a River that is spreading out onto a shallow section called a flat . Past floods has created a bed of sand and the rivers spreads widely over the sandy bottom. At some point the gradient (the fall of the river valley over distance) forces the water to cut into that downstream section of the sand bed. As sand is washed away the river flows through the gravel forming a riffle . The downward motion of the river gives the river greater eroding power and downstream of this current is bent into a focused powerful flow against a group of large boulders forming a rapid . The river now flows hard into the left bank creating a hole of maximal depth called a pool . Having eroded the left bank the water has lost much of its energy and will deposit some of the eroded material in a long tail of light current. This is sometimes called a run . Often this progression will repeat itself with the tail of run spreading out into a shallow flat . We can understand fishing In a river better when we consider what kinds of habitat each of these areas offers. = Flat = The flat offers a habitat best suited to invertebrates that flourish in a silty to muddy bottom. With minimal current and a minimum depth small invertebrates dominate the ecology. These kinds of animals often burrow in the mud or offer flat profiles as to avoid being swept into deeper water. Occasionally small fish and crawfish will make forays into these areas but exposure to the thin water can be dangerous birds patrol the shallow flats. Bigger waters offer deeper flats (which encourage greater use by the minnows) but even in these habitats the lack of hiding places limits the population of animals utilizing this habitat. Game fish are rarely successfully ...