Roaring River was really roaring Sunday morning.

Zone 1 is going to be much better than Zones 2 and 3 this week, with less flow. Most of our water is coming from dry hollow, which causes more flow in the lower portion of the park — and no, trout do not get washed downstream.

Good, healthy fish will try to go upstream or go to the bottom of the river where the flow is lesser and hang out there until the high water has subsided. So, fish can be caught right now.

Powerbait will be the easiest way to catch them, or other plastic baits of your choice. Good colors have been yellow, pink, fluorescent yellow and orange. The key to catching trout right now is extra weight.

You can probably get away with 4- or even 6-pound line right now. But, you will need a quarter- to a half-ounce weight right now to keep it down on the bottom where the trout can see your offering. This is a good time to get out your heavier equipment; maybe a reel with 10-pound line, you will use a sliding egg sinker or worm sinker. You will place this sinker on your heavier line and then put a small swivel on the end of that line, and to the swivel, you will add 4 pound line the appropriate hook and Powerbait or plastic bait of your choice.

This will keep you on or near the bottom and will not let your bait be washed downstream where the trout cannot get at it.

Spoons will be very effective in this water, as they sink quickly. They have a lot of flash, and they mimic a wounded or hurt minnow.

A rooster tail spinner, or any other kind of spinner, will also work in this water, but you will have to put extra weight on it and fish it very slowly.

Fly fishing would be very difficult at the moment. If you wanted to try it, a sinking line would be a great benefit right now. You can probably get away with 5X or 4X tippet, and if I was going to go down and do it myself, I would put on a large streamer, probably a black streamer, and I would fish it as slow and as deep as I could in the slowest water I could find.

I do not think we will see any dry fly fishing for at least a week. The river will clear fairly quickly when the rains quit, then we can get back to nymphing and regular sized flies very quickly.

Roaring River State Park trout-fishing tips are provided by Tim Homesley, owner of Tim’s Fly Shop, located at 23387 Hwy. 112.