How high/flood water can change habitat for years

Dead conifers turned red after being killed by high water

About five years ago the lake level was in a flood stage for most of the summer due to extreme precipitation. The lake was probably four feet higher than our normal high water mark. The resulting flooding around the shoreline killed a lot of trees. These will stay standing for awhile but eventually will topple over into the lake and create great fish habitat.
You can sometimes find huge clouds of minnows around trees in the water. And, of course, where there are minnows, there are gamefish.
I know of one angler who was casting a small Mepps spinner when he came across a newly fallen tree in the water. He promptly caught a small pike there. Then another, then another, then another. He carefully kept his boat away from the tree so as not to scare off the fish. He kept catching pike and it seemed each one got a little bigger. Finally he got a nice pike in the slot size. At that point he had caught 16 fish from the same tree. The fishing spree ended when he hung his spinner up in the tree and had to move in to get it loose.
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