To know a river...

For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven:

I've been noticing that a lot of folks have been struggling with their river fishing the last month or so because of the weather. We have been caught in an alternating cycle of hot weather broken by spells of intense storms. Like everyone else I'm a bit tired of the muddy water and rain but I have been plugging along catching some pretty nice smallmouth actually. While it may not be as aesthetically pleasing fishing muddy water and uncomfortable fishing in the heat actually both can make the job of catching a big smallmouth easier. You see the whole key to catching a trophy smallmouth is finding one. They got that big by avoiding be caught. Pretty obvious statement I guess but more important than most stream fishermen realise. I'll repeat, They got that big by avoiding be caught. So when the river is perfect for fishing, low and clear, comfortable to wade or float, well in another captain obvious statement, that's when the vast majority of fishing pressure happens. Most people fish when the weather and water conditions are the nicest. It takes a decade at least for a stream smallmouth to approach trophy size. He has to avoid being harvested for a decade. I feel most do it in one of two ways, they either reside in the least fished stretches of river or the employ feeding strategies in heavily fished waters that differ from most smallmouth and are thus less vulnerable to fishing. In fact one of my favorite places is very heavily fished and is fished at least once a day every day during fishing season. But there is a lot of food and a couple unique feeding stations I've never seen anyone else fish those.
But let's say it's a blazing hot ninety degree day. Horrible fishing conditions right? Well extremely uncomfortable conditions but in truth great not horrible conditions! Great conditions??? Maybe the heat has gotten to me you are thinking. Nope I feel the two best times to stream smallmouth fish are late fall when they concentrate close to their wintering holes and right in the middle of summer on the very hottest days. You remember a minute ago I said the whole key to catching a trophy smallmouth is finding one. Well when it's blazing hot I know where a big smallmouth is going to be. In my rivers and streams he is going to find a little pocket of calm water he can hold in right smack dab in the middle of the fastest water in his section of river. It doesn't have to be big, twenty inches long by four or five inches across is all he needs. I feel confident in stating that ninety percent of the fishermen never fish these spots. They might even think they do, throwing around the edges of swift riffles and hitting the obvious eddies next to fast water. But they never really dissect the very fastest water, the stuff you can't even stand up in without being swept away. Most of the time they don't have the tools with them for the job either. Waist deep raging water will wash away a car much less a 1/8 ounce jighead or a squarebill crankbait. Once it gets really hot I'm often fishing the lowest stream levels of the year with 1/2 ounce or 3/8 ounce jigheads! Because that's what it takes to find that little pocket of calm water behind that concrete block lying on the streambed in that bit of raging current. A heavy jighead and fished on a short line to lessen the effect of the current on the line. You can usually in most smallmouth streams be able to wade pretty close to fastest water if you are careful. The fastest water is often a sluice of fast water or a seam and while it may be raging it usually only covers a small area. The raging water will also let you wade much closer to the fish than you can anywhere else on the stream. I actually catch several fish right under the rod tip every summer and I'd be willing to bet they average right at "Fish Ohio" size.
What muddy water will do for you this time of year is cover your sins. You can use bigger baits, heavier baits, and wade even closer to the fish without spooking them. In other words fish that fast water even more effectively.
Don't view hot weather or muddy water as a setback but rather an opportunity. An opportunity to fish different locations and fish differently than you normally do.
In fact the key to any kind of stream fishing is not getting into the rut of going to your favorite stretch and fishing it the same way every time. I'd guess if you looked at my computers history over a years time one of the most visited sites would be here, https://water.weather.gov/ahps2/index.php?wfo=ILN. That's the National Weather Services interactive map that lets you check the river levels all over the state. Many of the locations also not only show you the current level but predict fairly accurately the level over the coming week.
If you know the river, know the level, and know the weather going forward, over time you should be able to visualize what the river is going to look like that day and develop a feeling for "Well, I should be here today, it's going to fish well in these conditions." I don't have a "best spot". Instead I try and fish where my gut tells me is going to be the best spot for that day. I think that is far and away the most useful skill astream fiherman can possess. Sometimes it's the same spot I caught them the day before, sometimes it's miles away, sometimes it's not even the same stream. The key is knowing your river (or rivers) well enough to fish the right spot for the days conditions. Unfortunately unless someone just tells you their spots, nothing is going to replace time spent on the water, learning the water. Once the spawn is over smallmouth bass in streams settle into a very limited home range and never leave it till time to head to their wintering holes. You cannot generalize and say the Muskingum is this or the Darby or Great Miami is that. This piece might be one way or that piece might be another. And in different levels and with different weather they will be different than that.
To know the river you are going to have to be on it when it's low, when it's high, when it's muddy and when it's clear. There are things, techniques and tackle and ideas about catching fish that can shorten your learning curve by years but the bad news (actually the good news) is nothing is going to take the place of time spent on the river. Don't look at different conditions than you are used to as obstacles but instead as opportunities to learn your river.