Advice on fishing a rising river, bringing down weed, leaves etc

[William Taylor]

Hi William,

The float stop is to stop the debris that is hitting your from line sliding all the way down to your lead/hook link. I always use a float stop above my lead in all situations, something I've done for years and it certainly helps. You still get wiped out by the amount of debris but I've found the stop reduces this. Sometimes moving the stop down towards the lead you can create a semi fixed bolt rig. I sometimes have the stop an inch away from the lead and swivel with has turned those plucks and pulls into wraparounds. Try it and good luck.
Cheers Ian.

Thanks Ian.

That's really helpful, I shall give it a go tomorrow.

Cheers mate.

 

[Clive Shipman]

Used 2' to 6' above the lead stopping debris slipping down the line.
I would say that the conventional advice fishing points slacks looking for smooth surface areas are all excellent ideas. But in my findings on a few occasions barbel will be as you say in the eye of the storm. Out in the fiercest of flows the are built for it and on small rivers I've caught it a really fast flowing areas.

 

[Mike Thompson]

Hi William,
As an ex "hole in the ground" angler, I know where you are coming from, but the guys on here are really good at sorting you out.
The first couple of days of the first Autumn high water always carry lots of debris, but then it gets much less of a problem.

 

[Dave Taylor]

Good luck William,... it's always worth spending a bit of time observing the flows before fishing when there is crud coming down the river. As has been said, stress-free swims that shelter the rod tip from the main flow is a start. You can still fish in the main flow but your line will be entering the water away from debris.
This time of year filamentous algae will be also rolling along the riverbed like tumbleweed so some sort of adjustable stop above the lead will help with that and other bits of weed etc. I use a gripper stop nearly all the time, often with a 12gram olilvette above as an adjustable backlead.
Keep the tip close to the surface and fish as close in as possible then wait for the fireworks! The less line you have in the river the less chance it will resemble a washing line after 10 minutes.

 

[Marco Tokarski]

the most important advice on fishing a rising river is safety first.you must have some idea of the area you are fishing,how safe the peg is,how fast the river is rising,what the weather is going to be like during the session,ect,there is no fish worth endangering yourself or others for,regardes Marco

 

[Paul Richardson]

I have just returned from a week fishing the Wye in flood and it was interesting/challenging to say the least. Pretty much all the tactics mentioned by members were employed. Definitely fishing with a backlead , with the tip very low and the rod pointing at the lead( downstream & upstream) on a crease was the least hassle with regard to weed and it did reward my fishing partner with 3 doubles and several upper singles. However the exact same tactic just didn't work for me and I eventually found fish in the middle of the river, needing 6oz feeders to hold bottom but still getting bowled out every 15-20 minutes by weed on the mainline.Hard work but interesting.

 

[Mark Thompson]

How do you know float stop prevents weed from collecting around lead when fishing ?

 

[Dave Taylor]

How do you know float stop prevents weed from collecting around lead when fishing ?

Hi Mark,... as mentioned, I often have a small backlead above stop which prevents any weed that has worked its way down the line from reaching the lead and hooklink. All very apparent when reeling in. A gripper stop on its own works almost as well.

 

[Mark Thompson]

Hi Dave
I have a problem with this theory as when you reel in on a river carrying extra water and debris invariable the line swings around and your last piece of line comes out from downstream, thus sweeping any debris down the line to the stop,
Whilst fishing upstream debris surely is washed away from lead, towards the bow.
When fishing straight out a bow will form in the line and debris will form in the most downstream point of that.
If actually fishing downstream then yes I can see debris can catch on line and slide down towards the lead.
With first two scenarios only upon reeling in does the debris slide down line to the lead or stop.

 

[Dave Taylor]

Very good points there Mark. I wonder though if perhaps the only problem with upstreaming in those conditions is you might have more line in the river which would be overwhelmed quicker. In clear conditions I have watched numerous bits of weed go down the line and build up behind the backlead on those annoying days when the swans are pecking away upstream for instance,.but a sizeable bit will form a bow as you rightly say, especially if fishing out from the nearbank downstream.
I shall definitely give your theory a try this Autumn though.

 

[Paul Hayes]

I prefer the upstream, rod low option with quite a big bow in my line. Three years ago I took Graham Elliot on a the upper Trent with lots of weed coming down. We both fished rods low with a bow in the line. Whilst the guy who came to fish near us was getting wiped out every five minutes we were able to keep the bait in the water for half an hour. Neither Graham or myself used a back lead or anything else.
One thing to note though using this method most of the bites will be drop backs rather than the rod lunging over.