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Floodwater Barbel Location

S

Steven Palmer

Senior Member
Hi All,

So, considering the weather what tips / advice do you chaps have for locating Barbel in high water / flood condition?

Is it just even flow, overhanging trees/bushes, in a slack, edge of a slack, on the crease, shallow/deep water etc?

May need to consider this question come next weekend!

Cheers,

Steven
 
For me smooth running walking paced water over gravel bottom. Inside of bends, drop offs, behind bushes trees. But you'll catch in the strongest of flows upstreaming behind trees and bushes is a deadly method in flood conditions.
 
Summer flood? Anywhere you can keep a bait in for more than 30 seconds without it getting wiped out by drifting blanket weed! ;)
 
Like what Clive and Jim said...but.........worth dropping a hook and weight into what appears rough water on the near bank to see how it fishes/holds.

Like weir sills, sometimes the water below is far slower than it appears on the surface. And sometimes a number of fish will hold there.
 
Thanks for all the replies.

Would I be better looking for deeper water (8' plus) or shallower, say up to 6', there is a spot I have in mind which in normal conditions is about 4' or so with a gravel bottom, some nice runs and a few overhanging bushes but with the extra water it will be faster and 6' or so?

Cheers,

Steven.
 
Hi Steve,
the advice that you have already been given is sound advice, experience is always top of the list, these lads that have have just posted have got bags of it, if you know the river, then even with a bit of extra water the Barbel will not be too far away from there low water havens,when you get to the river, experiment, try all different locations, under the bank, under the trees and bushes, in the middle of a raging river, put your bait in and wait 30 mins, if you have not had a bite in that time, move your position and try a different spot, its great fun looking for them, once you have taken a fish, you will be absolutely made up, and you will be dreaming of that moment for many nights,
one other tip, do not overfeed on a flooded river, it will be a waste, and your bait will be lost, use a nice large smelly bait.
Brian.
ps.
On deep swims, the flow on the top of the river is not always the same on the bottom, it can be much slower, a Barbel can lay in a very small indentation on the bottom, and hold there for long periods of time.
Good luck.
 
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Steven. Great Stuff from Young Willson

Just to add something to the advice given. If it's really high and pushing, and especially if its got fair bit of debris I always fish upstream.

Simply pop the bait upstream a couple of rod lengths up at 45 degrees about a rod length or two out (dependent where it looks good) Let it hit the bottom. Pull off a couple of rod lengths of line by a couple or three lifts of the rod with the bail arm open. Click it shut.

Put the rod in the rest, fairly highly set. The line will arc downstream but with the correct weight on the line the bait will remain pretty much on the bottom (at about 2/3rds of the weight needed when fishing downstream)


It will also enable you to clear any debris as you fish as the rubbish will run up your line to the surface most times rather than go down to move your weight / bait in the pushing current. A thump with the hand on your rod will usually remove most of it.

Bites will be a bang on the rod top then a slack line.....lift the rod....bingo!

I don't know what river you are fishing but some of ther best Severn flood swims are the flat places you sit at normal levels!

Good Luck
 
I always use clip on backleads in floodwater, whether fishing up or downstream, they have to be heavy enough to prevent dragging , but they will allow a bait to stay in position for longer periods, especially with lots of weed etc building up on the line.Fishing at an acute (shallow) angle either up or down also helps, rather than straight out, its all about reducing line exposure to the flow.
peter
 
Graham Elliott said:
Steven. Great Stuff from Young Willson

Just to add something to the advice given. If it's really high and pushing, and especially if its got fair bit of debris I always fish upstream.

Simply pop the bait upstream a couple of rod lengths up at 45 degrees about a rod length or two out (dependent where it looks good) Let it hit the bottom. Pull off a couple of rod lengths of line by a couple or three lifts of the rod with the bail arm open. Click it shut.

Put the rod in the rest, fairly highly set. The line will arc downstream but with the correct weight on the line the bait will remain pretty much on the bottom (at about 2/3rds of the weight needed when fishing downstream)


It will also enable you to clear any debris as you fish as the rubbish will run up your line to the surface most times rather than go down to move your weight / bait in the pushing current. A thump with the hand on your rod will usually remove most of it.

Bites will be a bang on the rod top then a slack line.....lift the rod....bingo!

I don't know what river you are fishing but some of ther best Severn flood swims are the flat places you sit at normal levels!

Good Luck
Click to expand...

A very informative post, many thanks. I presume that with the slack line the fish is already hooked and moving downstream, the earlier bang on the rod top being the point at which the fish is hooked?
 
Thanks. Yes Jim.

And the slacker bow in the line line tends lay some of it on the bottom, below the bait, holding the bait in place (probably much like Peter uses a backlead for) and makes the rig practically into a bolt rig with the fish pricking itself against the weight and the pressure on the line.

Using this method with a group of anglers I took on the Severn a number of years ago gave us 28 doubles over a weekend when the river was top of bank high........(hard to believe I know:rolleyes:) One chaps first ever barbel was 13lb plus.

In fact fishing the same way works very well in normal conditions and gives a few more swim options below long, heavy tree lined areas that are inaccesible from upstream and rarely fished.

I would encourage everyone to give it a real try this weekend. But don't worry about trying to get tight to the lead or worry that the line is pointing downstream. Every bite will show. I promise.

Graham
 
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Excellent advice and hope to put it into practise over the weekend.
 
I've had a good many of my floodwater barbel fishing cattle drinks, and bank cut outs, all under my feet.

The most important piece of the jigsaw is to store as much information about the stretch you are fishing while the rivers at normal levels, so you know exactly where to head once floodwater is pushing through.
 
Graham's advice definitely works, the bites are unmissable, on rivers like the Wye it is unforgettable, I was amazed last year that how quick a barbel could find pellets in heavy coloured water, when using a tripod the drop back is positive and all you need to do is wind into the fish.
 
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