I’m standing in a riffle, in ankle deep, crystal clear water thirty or forty feet  back from where a pool ends.   I throw as long a cast as I can upstream and my tiny torpedo lure lands with a splash right on the slick smooth water.   As I try to take up slack, a wake appears heading towards my lure.  In a heartbeat, a nice smallie grabs it and the battle is on.  I am able to get him into the rapids and after a few moments I grasp a 15-incher by the lip.  The next two casts produce a repeat of the first.  Three nice fish on a top water lure out of water just inches deep.  What is going on here?  I am fishing a lift area.  What is a lift area?  Well, just like the name implies it is the area of a river where the bottom lifts up or gets shallower.  Usually found at the back and/or downstream section of a pool, it just happens to be one of the most overlooked productive areas of the river.  Lifts are formed when the strong river currents  that scour out  the river bed strike harder rock or gravel.   Unable to move the harder substrate, the river is forced to go up and over the top, and thus producing a lift.  The water upstream from the lift is temporarily slowed or stalled as it would be when striking a miniature dam.  The area below the lift becomes a riffle.  

There are a lot of different types of lifts, and this is just a simple, general description.  The key is that the bottom goes from deep to shallow over a hard substrate.  This hard bottom contains a multitude of crayfish, insects, and bottom dwelling creatures, and the bottleneck effect from deep to shallow gives a smallmouth the advantage over any minnows that venture so far back onto a lift.  A smallmouth positioning itself on a lift area has a great view of the surface, as it is quite smooth.  Any insects or frogs are easy pickings.  With all this food available it is easy to see why smallmouths would hang there.  

So why don’t more people fish lifts?  Most fishermen tend to concentrate on the rapids and pools that occur below them,  thinking that the lift area is just too shallow to hold any decent fish.  Often they will fish rapids  and pools while standing right in the lift area.  Indeed, if not approached with caution, casting from a long distance away and many times from your knees, you will never realize the fishing potential of these areas. Frequently the the biggest fish will stage on the shallow lift area at the back of a pool.  By the time the average guy walks right up to the back of a lift these big fish have already fled and are on high alert.   He throws a few casts up towards the riffles and catches what he thinks is a pretty nice fish for a small creek, not realizing that he has missed the lunkers that were lurking on the lift just moments earlier.  I know this routine well because it describes the way I fished for years, standing where I should have been fishing.  

Besides a long distance, cautious approach, knowing what areas on a lift to focus on will increase your catches.  Any big rocks or wood are worth extra attention.  Anywhere there is a pocket, cut, or slot along the shore where a smallmouth can station itself looking out on the lift to wait for food is a guaranteed hot spot.  Deeper channels on the lift are also good spots to hit.  But the absence of an object to focus on need not bother you.  Thorough fan casting will locate bottom hugging smallies seemingly unrelated to structure.  Because they are on the lift to feed, if you can get your lure close without spooking them the rest is easy.

In the warmest of weather, when oxygen becomes a high priority, focus on the areas of the lift that have the most current.  In colder weather, look for fish to continue using lift areas.  I have had several good days catching fish in 45 degree clear water on floating rapallas. 

Presenting lures on a lift is the best part.  This is one of my favorite top water areas because it is so consistently productive.  Remember to approach quietly and work from long range.  After trying a top water I will go to a floating rapalla or an in-line spinner, two lures that imitate minnows.  If I still haven’t contacted fish I will work even deeper down the lift and throw a jig or a crankbait.  It takes a little time to work the deeper water out in front of a lift, but you’ll be glad you did.  Many fishermen half-heartedly work  the very back of a lift and then push on, leaving lots of fish undisturbed that are stationed deeper, further upstream on the lift.  Use your eyes, lures, and feet to map the bottom of the river.  No two lifts will be the same.  Some drop off quickly and others are fairly shallow for a long time and then drop off.  Still others drop off deep only to shallow up and drop again – double lifts.  In the summertime, warm water wading is a good way to find these areas.  You’ll spook the fish the first time through but make note of something on the shore to jog your memory next time so you can catch them.  Lifts can also be worked from an upstream position by casting down and letting your lure swing across the lift.  This approach covers a lot of water and is useful in cold water when you can’t wade out in the river.  

Once you’ve mastered fishing a basic lift above the rapids you can be on the lookout for other areas where the bottom lifts up.  Areas just upstream from rock bars or points, although they don’t go all the way across the river, are hard and rocky and hold smallmouths.  Most fishermen focus on the current cut and eddy that forms below these points, but totally ignore the fish that station themselves on the upstream side.  Anywhere boils appear in the main channel of a river system seemingly out of  nowhere indicates that something is down below deflecting water towards the surface.  This can be a single object or an underwater island or lift and is worth checking out.   The slick water above dams is one of the most productive lift areas I know.  There will be hordes of fishermen working below the dam while you have the lift area above it all to yourself.

If you are interested in some extra insight into lifts I’d suggest reading Dan Gapin’s books Fishing for Walleye and Fishing for Smallmouths.  Dan is from the old school of river fishermen.  But his diagrams and descriptions are unbeatable.  For more information you can contact the Gapen company at (763) 263-3558.

Study up on lifts so you can identify them, cast from a distance, work the water thoroughly from shallow to deep.  And soon you’ll catch all those fish the other guys are just passing by.