Some people will go sampling come hellgrammites or high water. Lately my problem has been the latter. (I have problems with the former too, but i usually just dump them from my net without getting my hands near their pincers),

All the rain has limited my sampling opportunities alot and has left the water levels high. So far my options have been either "try what cover i can sample in swollen rivers" which usually leaves me skunked. Or try to sample smaller streams which are more navigable (which has been hit or miss).

Can anyone give any hints on how to deal with high water levels? Sampling undercut banks and flooded vegetation (the few cover i can reach with these water levels) doesn't seem to be working.

High water might open up some areas for sampling that weren't previously submerged. My grandfather's house when I was a kid had a flood plain that would only have water on it during high rains. The first few days the flow was too great to go near it, but after a while as the water started receding it was glass flat and safer for an adult to venture into. They used to canoe on it, I hear, treating it like a temporary lake. Maybe you can sit back for a few days while the water is dangerous, and once it starts to recede, go out with a net and see if there are any fish stranded in pools like the river version of a tide pool.

Maybe you can sit back for a few days while the water is dangerous, and once it starts to recede, go out with a net and see if there are any fish stranded in pools like the river version of a tide pool.

I did that a few years ago during a low water period with occasional raid that turned riverside puddles into fish traps, but how it is raining dayly the last few weeks I haven't had it recede much yet.