• (senseid) A natural water stream that flows into a larger river or other body of water.
• A nation, state, or other entity that pays tribute.

 

is the definition I found when googling what this exactly is.

I live in Iowa and I don't think many of my lakes if any have this would this sound about right?

We don't have a river that flows into a lake and I'm guessing a taller hill area wouldn't count after a rain so do some of the smaller lakes just not have these, OR am I misunderstanding the term?

 

I only ask this question because in the books I'm reading it talks like this is a very common thing

You have them in your reservoirs. They are the smaller feeder creeks running into the larger reservoir proper. You might think of them as the “coves” off the main body. Here is Rathbun showing several down on the lower end of the lake.

 

Just now, Team9nine said:

You have them in your reservoirs. They are the smaller feeder creeks running into the larger reservoir proper. You might think of them as the “coves” off the main body. Here is Rathbun showing several down on the lower end of the lake.

Natural lakes have them too.

 

Six Mile Creek starts in the lake in the bottom-right - top-right, it empties into Lake Minnetonka, Halsted Bay which is the the western most end of the lake.

 

 

And at the east end, a dam separates Lake Minnetonka, Grays Bay from the Minnehaha Creek, which passes through a number of other lakes before finally emptying into the Mississippi...so it's a tributary of the Mighty Miss.

Any creek, stream or river, big or small, permanent or temporary, that flows into the body of water in question is a tributary. I don't think the tariff thing applies...  

14 hours ago, Team9nine said:

You have them in your reservoirs. They are the smaller feeder creeks running into the larger reservoir proper. You might think of them as the “coves” off the main body. Here is Rathbun showing several down on the lower end of the lake.

 

so even the smaller coves on the bottom are consider a Tributary creek? 

25 minutes ago, GoneFishingLTN said:

so even the smaller coves on the bottom are consider a Tributary creek? 

Technically, yes, though the larger ones are usually what come to mind first. There are also regional differences in terms. In some places, the smaller ones might be referred to as ‘cuts’, ‘guts’, ‘draws’, ‘hollows’, ‘drains’ or ‘feeder creeks’ depending on size, topography and whether they are permanent or temporary flows.

41 minutes ago, GoneFishingLTN said:

so even the smaller coves on the bottom are consider a Tributary creek? 

Everything other than the ocean could technically be called a tributary. A tributary is water that flows into a larger body of water, which if you think about it is all water. The TN river is 650 miles long so it has lots of tributaries (Holston river, French broad river, clinch river, Emory river, and hundreds of creeks). Then again, the TN river is a tributary of the Ohio river and both of those would be considered a tributary of the Mississippi River. Moral of the story: water rolls downhill! 

16 minutes ago, Team9nine said:

Technically, yes, though the larger ones are usually what come to mind first. There are also regional differences in terms. In some places, the smaller ones might be referred to as ‘cuts’, ‘guts’, ‘draws’, ‘hollows’, ‘drains’ or ‘feeder creeks’ depending on size, topography and whether they are permanent or temporary flows.

Thank you for taking the time, this is hard for me since I have to teach myself and I feel like maps etc are the big secret in people sharing even basic info

A tributary can be just rain runoff or snowmelt...and do not flow directly into the ocean.