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But a complex stream, of course, is vastly different. It has an uneven floor, varying widths, and a rock-strewn bottom. And these things are of extreme importance to your fish because they tend to form slow-water areas. Water flowing around a rock, for example, will tend to assume a streamlined shape, leaving a dead-water envelope around the rock not unlike the appearance of a cross cut of an airplane wing, or a teardrop. That is why, even in fast water, insects can cling to a rock and algae can grow on it. This dead-water envelope means that there is a quiet-water area ahead of the boulder, a narrow one along either side, and a larger tail-like one in back of the rock. Multiply this rock by thousands, for every rock on the stream's floor, and the angler will begin to understand part of the reason for the uneven flow of water in any stream and for the vast numberless quiet-water pockets that exist even in the swiftest of streams. Besides boulders, of course, there are ledges, uneven bottoms and sides, undercut banks, roots, grasses and submerged logs.
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