Question: What are your recommendations on fly fishing higher water levels?
Answer: Lead boots and an extremely long snorkel would be a help 
High water on the White does make for some good fishing. The downside is it makes for tough wading, and water depth and speed change considerably. Each generator adds roughly a foot of water to the river.Up to 2 units there is still some decent spots to wade, if you are careful, but you are going to have to be particular about your technique. Above two units and above really requires a boat and someone to drive it.
The big issue is getting to the fish in their high water feeding lanes _ trout move according to the water flow to different places to fulfil their needs of shelter from the current but in close proximity to where food is concentrated. As a basic rule there is generally a strip of slow water along the banks, likely places for trout to hold, waiting to slip to the faster current to pick off food items. Then its a matter of getting your fly down to the right depth and the right speed.
Dead drifting nymphs, or using sinking lines and streamers both are productive.
Above: Marc Poulos’s client Ric with a 21″ brown caught under generation. Marc Poulos pic.
With sinking lines and streamers its a question of matching the sink speed of your line and fly, intermediates for low water and perhaps up to 1 unit, moving to a type 2, type 4 and type 6 as the number of generators increases. We prefer full sink lines to sink tips for their better casting performance, the fact they sink better, and we feel they help out on hook sets. Woolly buggers are standard but moving to bead head, cone head or lead eye streamers can help to reach and fish deeper and faster water. We carry buggers, Tungsten Slump Busters, Autumn Splendors, a range of sculpin and crawdad patterns and some bigger baitfish profiles for this style of fishing.
Dead drifting with a boat, like the Supreme river boats all our guides use, is an extremely efficient way to fish high water. Not that some of our guides like Marc Chad and Steve, aren’t fans of or do trips with drift boats, but the motor-powered Supremes allow you to work the most productive water repeatedly.
Whether or not you have a guide, hire a boat yourself, or indeed whether you are in a drift boat or a river boat, the guy on the controls is the most important part of your fishing success. Matching the boat speed to speed of drift is critical to keeping your flies at depth and behaving in the right way.
Leader set up for high water is different too, simple leaders 5x or 4x help flies sink faster. Carry a variety of split shot from 6s to BB and big indicators to balance the weight. You might need to be 9′ or more between indicator and shot depending on the flow.
While some fly fishers abhore jigs there is no doubt these can be immensely productive, like Kev’s Pink Lady or the popular marabou jigs, these patterns not only catch fish in their own right but can be used in the place of shot to carry more “correct” imitative patterns to depth.
Bigger Midges, like our Wotton Super Midges, Tungsten Mountain River Midges, Cadion Midges can also be very
productive, we are running these in size 14s, or even some 12s on the Cadion Midges. Again these can be used to sink a lighter more natural pattern.
Otherwise try San Juan Worms, hot pink has been a killer pattern all year, big Y2Ks, egg patterns etc.
It takes a slightly different mindset to fish out of a boat, you are in close proximity to another fly fisher, the upstream fly fisher watches the casting of the guy downstream. Never cast at the same time _ unless you like aerial macrame.
At Right: Brandon Boivin with a nice brown from 4 units of water.
