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High coloured water and falling temperatures - do you fish?

P

Paul Dowgill

Senior Member
After a relatively mild last weekend, i was looking forward to more of the same. but checking the forecast it is predicted to fall from 9c to 3c in the next few days (below zero overnight). Add to this, locally we have had heavy rain so the rivers are high with some color. The question is would you fish in these conditions with likely snow/sleet and, if so, for what, or keep the other half happy and do the necessary DIY?
 
Paul - water temps will lag a bit behind air temps, and so you might catch the tail end of warmer water depending on how soon you fish after the temps take a downward turn. High with colour would say Barbel to me - low clear and cold then maybe not. Only Barbel would drag me out at the moment - can't get interested in anything else.
 
A frost will drop water temps very quickly. High, cold water is not much good in my experience, worse than low cold really because if it's low and cold it's more likely to have been stable for a few days.
 
High cold water leads to difficult conditions in my opinion. At times like these I tend to try far upstream for grayling (assuming the upstream section starts to fine down quicker than lower) or brave it for chub.

Either way, I don't expect to catch too much but I enjoy it all the same!
 
Out tomorrow and will be trying for chub and roach , might be mad but if its my day off then I'm fishing as you never know
 
Hi Paul,
No conditions would see me ditch the fishing for DIY! But Barbel wouldn't be my first choice in these conditions. I normally head to a still water (providing they are not frozen) for a bit of pike, perch or roach fishing, and enjoy the barbelling when the next warm front comes in from the south west.

All the best.

Jamie.
 
I am really happy when it has been cold for a while with low clear conditions - ideal for chub and the crust/cheese paste but cold and floodwater has never seen me do too well with the chub. As far barbel - it was 11c last Monday, when of course i could not fish, will be 3c by Sunday, with a few nights of frost so little chance I suspect. It may be me, but the weather always seem to turn for the worse when the weekend arrives, oh for the day when i can fish in the week. However as mentioned it is about being there, so i will be fishing as you never know, plus i can't stand DIY :) So it could be lobworm in any slack i might be able to find and we shall see. As for the upper course of a river and grayling - it would be nice.
 
I certainly agree with you regarding the weather turning for the worst at weekends Paul.
I'm lucky to be able to pick and choose my visits to the bank nowadays after decades of weekend only trips regardless of conditions. Like many keen anglers who have a go when all their instincts are telling them to have another couple of hours in bed I've spent many hours sitting out in freezing floods.
As always much depends on which way the temperature is going and locating the fish.
A warm outfall is often a holding spot in freezing flood if you can put up with the extra amounts of sewerage that often gets pumped out during these conditions!
As mentioned, a lobworm fished in a slack or flooded side stream may produce a bonus fish.
I would put barbel and chub towards the bottom of the target list and rove the bank for pike. If you happen to know where one or two of the big old girls lay up in cold coloured flood a good fish can almost be a forgone conclusion.
It's often easy to see that pike don't move about much in prolonged flood by the large amount of leeches and lice that have attached themselves to a captured fish through inactivity.
I prefer cold clear rivers for piking and chub, and for some reason have often done well when it's snowing,.. perhaps it's because during a freeze up the temperature can rise slightly when it snows?
Again, as mentioned, an unfrozen stillwater can be very handy when the going gets tough on the rivers or a decent boozer of course!:D
 
If I had access to any Grayling fishing that's what I'd be doing.
When I used to fish the Kennet it was quite hard to get through the small fry to the Grayling in normal temperatures, when it was really cold the Grayling would feed so would usually get a few, with Dace and the occasional Chub mixed in. Maggots of course.
 
Being very kindly disposed to my fellow BFW members, I thought I would undertake a short experiment this afternoon on a local stretch of the Kennet. Air temps have been low but there was no overnight frost. Today the temperature increased from 3c to around 6c mid afternoon before plummeting as the sun went down. The recent rain has raised the river level a good couple of feet and it was nicely coloured. I forgot my thermometer so in order to test the water temperature I removed all my clothing and lept into a lovely looking slack. I can confirm that the water is extremely cold and contains many crayfish.

So after drying myself off with a wooly hat kindly leant to me by another angler, I fished for about three hours with smelly meat. I must have fished 5 or 6 swims including a couple that I know hold fish. Rather like my Friday nights at the local night club, I really wasn't expecting any action whatsoever and to my amazement, that's exactly how it turned out.

On the plus side, I now have a new wooly hat. The angler was insistent, almost violently so, that I keep it.
 
Nice one H, well done for the selfless efforts in jumping into the slack to report back that the water is cold :)
 
Hi Howard, it was nice to meet you at the meeting on Wednesday night. I also fished this afternoon on the upper lea, the water was up and coloured also quite cold but I had 2 barbel one 6lb & one at 8lb on smelly meat but that's fishing if they want it they will have it!
 
Gareth my feeling exactly and if you are not there you will never know - so this weekend could be smelly meat or frozen worm - the good news is there is now no snow forecast, but of course that could change in the next hour. I doubt i will see anyone else and when I get on the bus about an hour or so after dark the looks will be along the lines of is he mad, to which the answer is a resounding...maybe :D
 
Paul I think all fishermen are either obsessed or mad or probably both! I don't know where you fish but I kept on the move & putting the bait in front of them, they will have it!
 
High water is perfect for barbel but cold water isn't! Not worried about the odd light frost on the big rivers as it takes a prolonged cold snap to bring the temperatures down with a large volume of water. When the water temp goes below 6 Celsius I'd fish for something else.

Keep your eyes on the TAC water temps Paul. More than useful in the winter :)

Stephen
 
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Howard, in my youth I often took all my clothes off and jumped into a slacky, just couldn't help myself. I too ended up with smelly meat, but again like you, I never caught anything. Luck of the draws mate.

Cheers, Dave.
 
Well at 42F and falling to 40F by the end of the day i was not tempted to jump in and of course the fish were not tempted to jump out either :) Missed one bite while getting some soup (doesn't that always seem to happen) and struck at another for thin air and that was it. Convinced myself they were very small chub just mouthing the smelly meat. River was well up so fished about four smooth glides and on into dark. If only it had been a few degrees higher or on the up, it did look perfect. No one else was out - the river does seem to go quiet after November.

And on the bus home as always there was the muttering, which i am sure is along the lines of he must be mad, the drivers always seem to get it though. Roll on next week.
 
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