2. Major ripple lines peeling off points or inside bends can house good populations of tailwater trout.

3. Big eddies and sloughs(usually the mouths of high-water channels) can hold cruising trout. They will feed at the current's edge or follow big foam lanes, where floating insects amass.

4. Some major ripple lines tail out into expansive and wadable flats of gravel and weed beds. Many trout are scattered through such areas and make for good stalking during a hatch.

5. Gravel bars are often part of island systems. Trout hold in their dropoffs and wherever depressions in the streambed give trout cover from the current. Midriver gravel bars without islands are common, too.

7. Big-river trout like the intimacy of smaller side channels, where currents are reduced and habitats are favorable.

8. The water all around islands holds the promise of trout, including the tailout above, ripple lines down both sides, and converging currents below.

9. The converging currents at the ends of the islands feature gravel-bar dropoffs, troughs, and big eddies. Varying populations of trout can be found here, both rising and deep-nymphing.

10. A variety of troughs and midriver pockets hold schools of trout. These might not be visible and take a great deal of experience to come to know. Many guides capitalize on such hidden hot spots when drifting, using deep-nymph, strike-indicator rigs.