• You need to be a registered member of Barbel Fishing World to post on these forums. Some of the forums are hidden from non-members. Please refer to the instructions on the ‘Register’ page for details of how to join the new incarnation of BFW...

Flood Conditions...

K

Kevin Miller

Member
hey guys, any tips on fishing rivers in flood, I'm sure been asked many times before! .. also meat on hair versus straight hooked?
 
Paul Bullinger said:
Hi Kevin. You will get heaps of great info from the guys on this site who have lots more experience than me. However, this year I fished the Wye in flood. I fished hair rigged meat, 18" hook link, 3oz lead and here's the thing...I was casting just a rod length out! Find a slack and fish in it. Worked for me!! Tight lines
Click to expand...
Thanks Paul & yep I'm sure I will.. funnily enough I also fished the Wye a few weeks ago,, River was up dramatically over night by at least 2 mtrs.. had a few Barbel on straight hooked meat
 
Paul Bullinger said:
Hi Kevin. You will get heaps of great info from the guys on this site who have lots more experience than me. However, this year I fished the Wye in flood. I fished hair rigged meat, 18" hook link, 3oz lead and here's the thing...I was casting just a rod length out! Find a slack and fish in it. Worked for me!! Tight lines
Click to expand...
Travel light and rove around fishing the slack water, short hook link, big lump of smelly meat straight onto the hook and be prepared for some violent takes. Good luck.
 
Yeah absolutely.. safety first. 100%

Flood water fishing for me is really exciting because you can hit the motherload by casting in the right place.

Barbel feed very confident in these conditions right through the day but more importantly they do this from areas of comfort and sanctuary. Finding them is never easier than in a swollen river.

The difficulty around flood water fishing is keeping a lead in the same place. Crap coming down the river builds up on your lines and the sheer pressure of water alone means you need heavy powerful gear to put heavy loads out.

So first off for me (everyone else might have different methods) I always fish upstream. I always fish a much heavier lead than I need to, to hold and I’ll always release at least 2 full rod lengths of line after the cast to create a nice big bow in the line. Always a full free running lead when up streaming aswell.

I don’t look for completely dead slack water and I certainly avoid eddies with boils and broken surface water movement. I look for water that’s flowing at about a brisk walking pace, this is often very smooth flowing and is the sliver of River between the slack and the raging main flow.
In the picture here I was doing exactly this fishing the black circle on the red line which was a smooth walking pace and where I would expect barbel to comfortably hold up and feed.
IMG_2330.jpeg


Single large hook baits with good density and scent work for me and personally I believe a big piece of cheddar to be one of the best.
I Wouldn’t go to a swollen river without a lump of mature cheese on me. Don’t dismiss it. It’s got all the characteristics you need from a bait that you want to be searched for and found.

That’s how I do it. Look forward to hearing other techniques 😊
 
Richard Isaacs said:
Yeah absolutely.. safety first. 100%

Flood water fishing for me is really exciting because you can hit the motherload by casting in the right place.

Barbel feed very confident in these conditions right through the day but more importantly they do this from areas of comfort and sanctuary. Finding them is never easier than in a swollen river.

The difficulty around flood water fishing is keeping a lead in the same place. Crap coming down the river builds up on your lines and the sheer pressure of water alone means you need heavy powerful gear to put heavy loads out.

So first off for me (everyone else might have different methods) I always fish upstream. I always fish a much heavier lead than I need to, to hold and I’ll always release at least 2 full rod lengths of line after the cast to create a nice big bow in the line. Always a full free running lead when up streaming aswell.

I don’t look for completely dead slack water and I certainly avoid eddies with boils and broken surface water movement. I look for water that’s flowing at about a brisk walking pace, this is often very smooth flowing and is the sliver of River between the slack and the raging main flow.
In the picture here I was doing exactly this fishing the black circle on the red line which was a smooth walking pace and where I would expect barbel to comfortably hold up and feed.
View attachment 26749

Single large hook baits with good density and scent work for me and personally I believe a big piece of cheddar to be one of the best.
I Wouldn’t go to a swollen river without a lump of mature cheese on me. Don’t dismiss it. It’s got all the characteristics you need from a bait that you want to be searched for and found.

That’s how I do it. Look forward to hearing other techniques 😊
Click to expand...
Thanks for the info Richard, just arrived at a very high Kings Weir.. will post how I got on later! 🤞
 
Great advice from Rich👍 I always tend to use back leads where possible (snags permitting). For two reasons, firstly I find it helps with protecting the line from collecting any debris coming down, so I can keep the rod out longer fishing. Secondly, probably from my carp days, I prefer to have or think my line is close to the river bed, not spooking any fish in the locality. But definitely look for a slack piece of water, downstream of an overhanging willow is always a good spot 👍
 
Some great advice here . I would add that in extreme floods fish in a spot that you are familiar with at normal levels . On more than one occasion I was flood fishing and on returning later when the flood subsided , discovered I hadn't even been fishing in the river proper but on what would normally be the bank ! This said , one one of these occasions I did catch an adventurous little barbel who clearly though the field was a better spot to find a worm than the river proper
 
I reckon a worm or worms take some beating for the Barbel in a flooded river . When you think about it loads of worms must get washed in by the flood water ,Barbel must stuff themselves on worms in such conditions
 
A lot of flood water fishing starts in the Summer.

Take pictures of the pegs you fish and look for drops / ledges where fish could sit when there is extra water on.

As others have said, slack water and a roving approach work well. If you haven’t had a fish in 10-mins then move on as it’s unlikely they will be moving between pegs if there is a raging current.

This only issue with floodwater fishing for me is time. It’s pitch-black after work which means I’m limited to weekend fishing. Roll on retirement.
 
I very rarely do anything but float fish for barbel, and don't get much pleasure from legering in any conditions, let alone fishing flooded rivers, but.....when I have fished in higher water I always found it best to use a backlead. The backlead meant I could fish a tigh line to my bait and also avoid the barage of debris coming down river from clogging up on my line.
I also found that barbel were very often in the same places as usual, where you might not expect them to be!
 
David Will 2 said:
Doesn't need to be a back lead , simple float stop or stop knot does the same job. Back lead will be off the deck anyway in such conditions when clogged with rubbish.
Click to expand...

I used a captive backlead, usually several ounces or more, which is on the deck and not raised up in the flow. A float stop doesn't keep the line pinned to the deck or enable you to keep a tight line.
As far as i'm aware all a float stop does is keep a lot of the debris from sliding down to the lead/feeder or whatever your using. Using a stop just gives you a huge ball of rubbish fixed on your line, I prefer not to drag a ball of rubbish back, and especially not along with a fish.
 
Ian Woods said:
A float stop doesn't keep the line pinned to the deck or enable you to keep a tight line.
Click to expand...
I don't think David was suggesting a float stop pinned the line down? Why would you want to keep a tight line? A large bow is what I'm looking for in flood conditions.

Ian Woods said:
Using a stop just gives you a huge ball of rubbish fixed on your line
Click to expand...
That's kind of the point isn't it? It's what it's there for.
 
Joe Winstanley said:
I don't think David was suggesting a float stop pinned the line down? Why would you want to keep a tight line? A large bow is what I'm looking for in flood conditions.


That's kind of the point isn't it? It's what it's there for.
Click to expand...

David suggested the back lead would be up in the water, which it deffinately is not. The use of a backlead is not an attempt to stop weed etc from sliding down the line, it is there to stop as much weed etc from clinging to the line as possible in the first place.
Fishing a captive lead negates the need for a mini weed rack/float stop on the line.
Fishing a backlead cuts out the aggro of having to wind in a huge ball of debris, which I found was a pain in the harris and completely knumbed the feel of playing in a fish.

Joe, I don't want an argument with you, I simply stated a method of fishing a flooded river, if you don't think the method is a good one just ignore it 👍.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top