When a sudden rise in water level occurs after several months of dry weather, anglers can count on the bass moving shallow. It’s amazing how quickly things can change. One week southern cattle ranchers are praying for rain to nurture parched hay meadows, and the next they’re begging for someone to plug the faucet so they can wage war on marching packs of Army worms before they strip their precious grass stems clean. The 6-15 inches of welcomed rain that drenched eastern Texas in mid-September brought changes for bass anglers well. The cool rains in combination with multiple days of dense cloud cover caused surface temps on most reservoirs to drop as much as 8-10 degrees, naturally putting largemouths in more of a chasing mood.

Though most lakes did catch some water, none of the area impoundments experienced the major league rise some wishful thinkers had hoped would occur as the result of the substantial rainfall totals. That’s mainly because the rains were slow soakers dragged out over a period of five days, unlike the torrential downpours that hammered the Texas Coast and caused flash flooding as far north as Houston.

The only time I saw water running off occurred on Day 5 of the rain, just as final remnants of Tropical Storm Francis passed over my home. The rest of the time it fell sweet and slow – the ideal remedy for a summer-long drought that had the bass on the verge of sporting flea collars on lakes all around the region. But don’t rule out a major rise in water level just yet, bass busters. There’s a guy named Georges spinning tight circles in the tropics as we speak. And if the storm happens to take the same direction and pack even half the pack the punch Francis did, many reservoirs are going to get a major league facelift.

Again, I’ll use eastern Texas as an example. If a similar stage has been set on lakes in you’re home region, listen up.

After a solid week of soaking rains, the ground in many areas of East Texas is totally saturated. Hence, any measurable rainfall received across the region over the next couple of weeks is probably going to transform into runoff that’ll dump into rivers, creeks and a maze of tiny drainage. So, where would the rush of water go? You guessed it. Straight into our watersheds.

Major lakes like Sam Rayburn, Toledo Bend, Fork, Lake O’ The Pines and Livingston – all of which were still 3-7 feet below normal as of Sept. 23 – could fill up within a matter of days if the right storm system passes through. In the event that happens, bass anglers can count on it bringing rash changes in terms of productive fishing patterns.

Any time a sudden rise in water level occurs you can pretty much bet the bass are going to go to it. When a lake rises after being down for as long as ours have, literally hundreds of acres of new grass growth will be flooded. The flooded vegetation attracts the bait fish, which in turn attracts the bass. Bass will move with the water as it rises. They’ll move into the newly flooded cover immediately, not a few days or a week later like some anglers think.

The downside of fishing rising water is that it drastically increases the dimensions of the bass’ home boundaries, therefore making it more difficult to locate concentrations of fish. The key to finding bass in rising water is to cover lots of water. I’ll always begin my search shallow, usually with something like a 3/8-ounce chartreuse/white Stanley spinnerbait, a shallow running crankbait or maybe even a Texas-rigged Zoom worm. Only after I’m convinced that I’ve worked an area thoroughly will I move on to another.

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