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Fishing the floods - Is it worth it?

C

Clive Kenyon

Guest
I have never really subscribed to the fascination that some have for fishing flood water. On the few occassions I have been frustrated enough to venture out and fish the brown water I have had little success and to be honest, I have never felt confident of catching.

After eighteen days of rain however and little respite forecast I'm getting the itch to at least have a try. So I'm after some tips from anyone who successfully fishes the floods. I have two swims in mind. The river Vienne runs very fast, clear and shallow in normal times. Now it is around 1.5 metres up and as brown as Bisto. It holds barbel, carp and catfish.

Towards the near bank there is an old forge built on a granite island that has a mill race running down the near side. Usually this mill race is a trickle but at the moment it is racing through. There are two areas where the current is diverted leaving slow running pools that will be around 4 feet deep. One is basically a flooded area of grass over gravel that we will be picnicing on when the weather gets better and the other is where the current runs hard against a wall slowing it down and the main flow races past on the far side. Both swims are basically at the rod end.

What would your suggestions be for rigs and bait?

p.s. There is no close season in France.

Edit; A picture is worth a thousand words, so here is a link to a video of the stretch of river described at minus 17 C, and plus 1.5 metres

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNsFSxW-YO4
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Think it may all depend on the river,fished the wye for the first time 3 years ago and it was up a few feet and very coloured,fishing close in i had the best barbel fishing ive ever had,when the river dropped and cleared up the fishing became very hard,but have never done much good on the severn when its been in flood.
 
Never liked fishing a flood, but certainly when the river fines down. The clip shows a torrent of a river, I wouldn't feel very confident of catching anything in conditions so extreme, and I doubt neither would anyone else really.

But look for tributaries off the main River fish will seek refuge from the main flow, other than that look for near bank flood rafts that break up the flow, use big smelly baits, and of course lob worms are an excellent flood bait.
If you can get meatballs in France they are also good

Looks a great River, one of my biggest regrets is not having fished a French River as yet, driven over a few though.

Ces't la vie :)
 
theres a good dvd with stu morgan and guy rob if i remember correctly up close and personal or words to that effect, all about winter fishing, theres some good bits about fishing in floods, if your after a flood water barbel definately worth a watch
cheers
jerry
 
Neil Smart said:
Never liked fishing a flood, but certainly when the river fines down. The clip shows a torrent of a river, I wouldn't feel very confident of catching anything in conditions so extreme, and I doubt neither would anyone else really.

But look for tributaries off the main River fish will seek refuge from the main flow, other than that look for near bank flood rafts that break up the flow, use big smelly baits, and of course lob worms are an excellent flood bait.
If you can get meatballs in France they are also good

Looks a great River, one of my biggest regrets is not having fished a French River as yet, driven over a few though.

Ces't la vie :)
Click to expand...

Thanks.

There are two areas of the mill race that are sheltered from the main current. The other area is directly behind the island, but that would mean a 50 metre chuck across the main flow. I'm reasonably happy with the location of swims to try. Whay I'd like to know is how to go about it? For example, do you use a large pr small smelly bait and plonk it down for an hour or so or roam trying different swims for a few minutes at the most? How would you feed? This is what I'm unsure about having never really set out to fish floodwater.
 
I'd take a flooded river every time!
It's hard going on a normal river (mainly fish the wharfe) with catches of one or two fish if your lucky. Add 2mtr of floodwater and I was averaging 3 fish a session.
I tend to fish large lumps of garlic meat with no free offerings. Drop the bait into a steady area, about walking pace, give it 10/20mins then move on. I love high water because it transformes the river and you often catch in places you wouldn't with normal levels. I always try to fish as close in as possible though, just makes life a lot easier!
 
Hi Clive,

I think it's all down to each individuals take on what goes on underwater...or in a barbels brain (to that last...not a lot :p) My personal theory is that barbel are, by design, quite capable of holding station in virtually any flow, and so do not have a pressing need to take shelter in floods, unlike some fish. However, it is much more comfortable for anglers to fish in a slack in times of flood, and being a desperately lazy angler, that's good enough for me :D

My excuse for this is that evolution may have taught barbel that food does come to rest in slack areas, so it may well be that they do go there to actively seek it out. That being the case, a single smelly bait has a decent chance of being taken, and little or no feeding needs to be done. Big or small bait? Don't think it matters to the barbel, so use what you fancy.

Good luck holding position in your far swim :p

Cheers, Dave.
 
I think upon the same lines as you Dave and in times of flood catch lots of fish on my local river Wye from mid river.
 
Iv been for a long drive this weekend all the way up the tidal Trent Iv never fished it in the flood as last year was my first season but I wish it was open season now I'd love to have ago in these conditions it's in even Collingham weir was totally submerged!!!
 
Thanks for the suggestions. :)

I managed a couple of hours between heavy showers this afternoon. First swim was given the best part of an hour with a small piece of luncheon meat and half an hour with worm to no avail. Second swim, the slow water along the wall of the mill race was better. Three bites on worm, one resulted in a briefly hooked fish before it left the hook in tree roots (how do the do that?) :mad:

The bites were sharp taps on the rod end rather than a pull round. Couldn't get a bite on meat, though to be fair it is virgin water. Looks like I'll be digging some more worms tomorrow.

Dave, regards that far swim behind the island; I wouldn't be able to fish it anyway. I would have to cross to the forge island to be able to cast to the tree island. At normal levels i can paddle there. Not today though. :D
 
Clive Kenyon said:
Thanks for the suggestions. :)

I managed a couple of hours between heavy showers this afternoon. First swim was given the best part of an hour with a small piece of luncheon meat and half an hour with worm to no avail. Second swim, the slow water along the wall of the mill race was better. Three bites on worm, one resulted in a briefly hooked fish before it left the hook in tree roots (how do the do that?) :mad:

The bites were sharp taps on the rod end rather than a pull round. Couldn't get a bite on meat, though to be fair it is virgin water. Looks like I'll be digging some more worms tomorrow.

Dave, regards that far swim behind the island; I wouldn't be able to fish it anyway. I would have to cross to the forge island to be able to cast to the tree island. At normal levels i can paddle there. Not today though. :D
Click to expand...

At least you got some action although the fish did disgorge the hook on a branch, and that is weird just how they do that, and the times that has happened to me almost certainly Carp have been the culprits.
I wouldn't bother with loose feeding as the free offerings will be long gone and worst still so will the fish after it. I like worms in a swollen river as they are naturally washed into the river, and fishing them in undercuts can be rewarding.
Keeping on the move is the mantra, keeping the rod tip down and feeling for the bottom and bites, anyway this has got me very frustrated Clive as we are bound by the rules that we can't coarse fish our rivers at the moment, and they are brim full, since God knows when.
Keep us posted on your progress.:)
 
Yes, it is a neat trick. I was targeting a 12lb+ barbel in the Dearne and the swim was a real hell hole. Hook and haul was the only way to get the 'Duchess' out, but she snagged me four times. One second I had a healthy fish on the end, a second later I was playing a root.

The Vienne is a whole new ball game. It screams 'barbel' yet many kilometres of it are not fished at all. It is real virgin water. I'm really fancying a smooth 'V' stretch of river between two islands and just upstream of a long stretch of rapids. Once the levels get back to normal I'll start baiting it up with hemp and maize. That will be some weeks yet though.
 
My experience in floods is that generally you get takes pretty quickly, or not at all. The fish are not so wary, they can't see the rigs so clearly and from the fish's point of view, it's grab it while you can. Assuming that there is not too much debris, the flow will bring the lead round to where the fish are. Obviously depends on the size of lead that you are using. From a personal point of view, I aim to fish off the main current rather than a pool of complete slack water. Worms tend to get snaffled pretty quickly by chub. You should have no problem finding "Smelly French Garlic Spam", which would probably be my bait of choice. Anyway, loads of advice on this topic from lots of good anglers, myself excepted. And to round off, fish relatively light and be prepared to move.
 
as mention above, mr barbel is more than capable of holding in flood water, as they will hold the bottom of the river, were the channels are, as most of the pressure is on the surface and up layers, smelly baits are a must, and a roving approach is best bet. also depends on which river you fish on, and the strech ure tackling,
 
:)If your getting fast taps/knocks but missing the bites, try using a slightly smaller bait so the fish can take it easier, but as said above, it may be chub. Are you putting the bait straight on the hook or hair rigging ? it can make a difference. If using a hair, try making it a bit shorter. Only my suggestions. :) Good Luck.
 
It's all food for thought.

Yesterday was a bit tight time wise to experiment but it looks like we have more of the same weather for a while yet. This river is a whole new ball game to me and I don't yet fully know what is is it. I doubt that chub are responsible for the bites though. and I reckon that reducing resistance in the tip might be the answer to hooking them. I have a few rods set up on top of cupboards in the hallway and I'd picked a 1.5lb TC Avon rod and centrepin to venture out with. I'll fit a slightly softer quiver tip top to it for next time.

I'm down to my last tin of Smelly French Garlic Spam. They don't sell it over here funnily enough. I'll have to do some home brewed garlic meat or use chorizo sausage. On the plus side, there is a hopper with several tonnes of maize, an industrial mill and a 2 tonne bag of soya flour on site so making groundbait isn't a big problem.
 
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