A couple of weeks back I fished three consecutive evenings (on my local river Severn) in steady rain - not torrential, but the sort that will thoroughly soak you. Needless to say, the river didn't rise so much as a millimetre! Yesterday, I spent a few hours bank clearing and preparing some pegs that I hope to fish when/if we are lucky enough to get a reasonable lift in river levels. Beneath the undergrowth the riverbank was bone dry. The ground is like blotting paper and personally I think we'll need some serious rain before we see any drastic changes in river levels. As we all know, October, with some lovely fresh floodwater going down the river is a recipe for good barbel sport - unfortunately November is looming and before we know it, frosts will arrive and it'll be time for the old thermal gear again and it'll be the end of the 'easy' fishing that we've enjoyed this past summer - hang on a minute, I must have been thinking of last year - now that was a proper summer with all that lovely rain!
