In the past there have been several threads on the FISHINGmagic forum addressing weather conditions, water temperatures, river levels, barometric pressure and, just recently, moon phases. From time to time similar articles have also appeared in the weekly and monthly magazines. How valid the recording and analysis of these events are is still open for debate. Some anglers don’t want to be burdened by having to make decisions regarding how the weather and water conditions affect their performance, they just want to fish a place they like when they like. That’s fine, I don’t have a problem with that, however, these events do have an affect on performance and some anglers are interested in them to the extent that they are willing to modify their behaviour in order to improve their catch rate.
We all learn to fish by watching and copying other anglers, reading about the subject and of course by our own experience and practice. Which ever way we learn we should always ask the question; “is what I’m doing the reason for my success?” or “am I successful in spite of what I’m doing?” We should also ask this of those we wish to copy. I believe I catch bream on the river Lune because I know where they are and when to fish for them and in spite of the fact that I use a John Wilson Avon rod, carry my tackle in a rucksack as opposed to a box and look like I do in the picture! Record Keeping To some anglers keeping records is a burden and possibly too much like hard work, to others its hard work that is valuable and to some its also valuable and no problem. If you fall into the later category then you are more likely to analysis your records and modify your behaviour or methods. The big problem is deciding what to record without overdoing it, apart from things like where, when, how and what you caught, the general consensus of other useful data are; water temperature, air temperature and the condition of the river. Well forget barometric pressure and moon phase for the time being but I’m sure there is something in both of these. I’ve always done the where, when, how and what I’ve caught but its only in the last six months, since Rivercall became available, that I started to record the river levels and only a couple of months since I purchased a digital thermometer for reading water temperature.
Up to now I haven’t paid too much attention to air and water temperatures because when I looked back in my records I found that Id caught bream in both warm and cold conditions. However, what I did notice was that on the river Lune river levels did seem to play a big part in when I caught bream. From my records for August 2001 to Jan 2002 I decoded to plot a simple graph (Graph 1), of river levels and bream catches and noticed that the maximum river level at which I had caught bream was 0.32 metres. Just about this time Graham Marsden and his pal Dave fancied a trip up north and a go on the River Lune for the big bream. Wed previously decided that wed get together on any convenient Friday – weather permitting. I therefore decided to put my theory to the test and set about watching the river levels very closely. Unfortunately the Friday we chose was just two days too early, river level 0.51 and falling, and we just missed out on a big bream haul on the following Sunday by a couple of local anglers, 14 bream and 3 over 10lb. By Monday the river level had bottomed out at 0.32 metres. This window of opportunity only lasted a couple of days then the river was back up again. So I spent another couple of weeks watching the river levels again and this time I wasn’t going to be caught out. On Tuesday, 5th March, the river looked like it may possibly drop below the magical figure of 0.32 metres Id been waiting for, but there was the possibility of a big storm blowing in around mid-night.
To give you an idea of how the river Lune levels fluctuated over the last few months of the season see the graph showing river levels obtained from Rivercall (Graph 2). At the four points where the graph dips below 0.40 metres bream were caught either by myself and other local anglers and to my knowledge over this period no bream have been caught above this river level. So where do we go from here? Well first Id like to repeat this exercise next year but over a longer period and covering a wider area of the river. This will, however, mean Ill have to fish over the maximum river level to prove the point. I may even get a wee bit more adventurous and try different baits during the high water periods to see if the bream can be tempted. Secondly I’ve joined Warrington Anglers this year and I’m going to have a go at the chub and barbel on the river Ribble and as both these fish can be caught in the times of high water I should be able to go fishing and catch regardless of river levels? Although I enjoy catching big bream, I don’t want to become a one fish or one river angler. However, big bream fishing is quite addictive, so you never know! |
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