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Fishing in the floods

J

Jake Allonby

Senior Member & Supporter
Hi All

New here and pretty new to barbel fishing in general.

Does anyone have advice regarding fishing in the floods?

I have been trying the usual spots at the weir pools ( Sussex Ouse ) but the fish seem to have switched off since the weathers taken a turn.

Am I best off moving up or downstream or just waiting for the river to settle? Is there anything else I need to consider?

Any help greatly appreciated!

Jake
 
I would suggest looking for areas of river that has the same flow as in normal conditions, so if you’re catching in say the middle of the river using say 2oz of lead in normal conditions, the fish will move to where they feel comfortable, this opens up the inside edge as these areas are now more favourable to the fish now having a similar flow rate to what the middle has under normal conditions, so 2oz should still be sufficient weight to hold bottom in the edge, I would avoid swirling back eddies and look for smooth water, hope this makes sense?
 
At the moment there’s a lot of water on the rivers and more to come.
In these conditions I’d be looking for areas of sanctuary where the flow of the river has been interrupted by either an obstacle or obstruction of the path to create slack or slow water. These areas are magnets for fish in flooded conditions because they are easy to reside in and the crease lines between the fast and slow water are great for collecting things that come down in the flow including natural food items.
Fish a single large bait inside of the slack as close to the crease line as possible. Stay on your toes and give each likely looking swim an hour before moving on.
If you catch then it’s worth sticking around because it’s unlikely that fish will be alone.

If your river isn’t flooded and simply is just carrying some extra water it might not be necessary to go straight for sanctuary. There’s a point where the main flow might just be a brisk walking pace and something a substantial sized lead might hold in.

If that’s the case I’d be looking for smooth uninterrupted water at a brisk walk pace and putting a bait straight in the middle of it because if it’s not too extreme, the barbel will be happily feeding in the main flow.

You’ll get an idea straight away whether it’s a sanctuary or main flow job as soon as you see your stretch of river.

Don’t dismiss worms in these conditions. They will find loads of them getting washed out the banks
 
As mentioned a big bunch of worms can be very effective….a nice steady flow of fast walking pace is good but don’t ignore faster water/main flow if it’s smooth and not boiling, barbel are built for fast water! They might not stay there for long periods but it’s worth trundling a bait through likely spots
 
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