When you need to bump the bottom—say, white bass in Spring-time creeks—what strategies or tactics do you have to avoid some snags or have a chance to recover rigs? Rocks (I'd guess) had me retying almost as much fishing the other day, even though I was running mostly hook-up flies.

Wading?

A stick or staff for recovery?

Use a lighter fly or faster retrieve to swim the fly higher. If you can get close enough to the hangup, you can use your rod tip to gently dislodge the fly (crushing the barb helps). Just be careful; I’ve never broken a rod tip doing this, but jt’s certainly a possibility. For white bass you might try tying your flies on light wire hooks and using a heavy tippet to straighten the hook, but I’d have trouble trusting most hooks after that much bending.

Sometimes you can roll cast over the snag and your line will pull the fly out.

What COFF said + you can let that line settle behind the snag on the water and give it a swift jerk.