Where do they go in flood?

[tommos16]

Hi all, peculiar question maybe but the title explains it - when the river is in flood, where do the fish go?

I have a nice spot on the a river Douglas that is a weir pool about 4/5ft deep. It's very productive for better Perch. Before and after it are extremely shallow rocky runs, where no fish could pass. The fish are essentially hemmed in.

But when the levels rise, I can't catch a single thing there. Not in the Eddys, the little bit of slack water, anywhere. But when the levels drop, what I assuming is the same shoal of perch are back and feeding.

Now if they can't go backwards, and evidently don't go forward, where do they go? Or is it possible they get swept downstream and what is there now is from further upstream?

It's only a very small river, especially in Wigan Town centre where I have my spot, but it comes through with some force when it's in flood

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[ian g]

If there is a lot of dirty flood water it's possible that they just aren't feeding . Maybe try as the river is fining down after the flood as they could well be hungry

 

[tommos16]

Yeah I tend not to get many bites when it's consistent or on the up, but when it's coming down it's ruthless fishing. Catching them on the drop type stuff. That would make sense

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[Kevin aka Aethelbald]

My guess is that fish take a break when the river is in spate and hang about behind anything that creates a slack spot, like boulders or the bottom of thick weed beds. Rather than actively feeding, they might feed opportunistically, if they see anything of interest sweeping past. I'm only basing this on trout behaviour; ground feeders may differ.

 

[108831]

It's amazing the amount of different opinions on this issue,my friend who is lower Stour manager for Ringwood club believes that last year with all the high water that the barbel got forced down into the harbour area(no salt water infringement),in my experience with all the trees on the banks they would tuck up and there are feeding opportunities,if they have migrated it would be for some other reason.Just because your weirpool holds decent amounts of perch,doesn't equate to catching them,you can fish many miles of the Gt.Ouse around Bedford and hardly catch a roach in winter,everyone knows it's stuffed with them,conditions dictate feeding....

 

[Kevin aka Aethelbald]

Personally, I don't think the fish go anywhere during spate. It's just that they are using all their energies and food reserves simply fighting the conditions and surviving. Until conditions allow them to feed again. I have no evidence for this, but if the EA bungs me a few hundred thousand I'll commission a few under-employed eggheads to carry out a study.

 

[108831]

I have caught big bags of fish in cattle drinks that would normally be well and truly dry,on spate type rivers fish of certain species(roach/perch/dace)can and do migrate to 'safe' havens in winter,but knowing the part of the country where tigger lives,his rivers have had horrendous amounts of floodwater to contend with,but looking at his most recent trip out the barbel haven't been swept away,lol....

 

[ian g]

I think as rivers fine down or at least the heavy colour starts to drop then species like perch , roach , chub will be more active . All rivers aren't the same , I mainly fish the Severn which holds flood water for a long time unlike spate rivers so fish need to feed . We fish an area none as the big slack during the winter which is around a foot deep and almost still in the summer but produces decent fish of all types with 5 or 6 foot on in the winter . I've caught big perch there when the rivers flooded but mainly when the silt has dropped out a little .

 

[tommos16]

Yeah it's an interesting subject isn't it. All part of the puzzle! The pattern is 100% that I tend to catch them when the river is on the way down again, once its been consistently low they tend to hide under a bridge which I can't fish under and you can only tempt one or two out. After a period of heavy rain and it empties out, it's not uncommon to catch 10/15 perch one a chuck. Decent stamp as well!

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[ian g]

Another question is how you fish for them ? I generally fish worm which is obviously a natural bait and probably what fish expect to see in flood conditions .

 

[seth49]

Now this is something I saw about thirty or more years ago, it was a lovely sunny day with no rain at all, and yet when we drove over the Ribble nr Clitheroe after lunch, we was surprised to see that the river was very high and coloured, there must have been a thunderstorm further up river earlier that day.

When we arrived at mitton bridge, a few miles down stream, the river was still low and clear, as the flood hadn’t reached here yet,so me and my workmate walked onto the bridge to watch.

The fish obviously knew what was coming as they were all lined up on either bank, chub and dace mainly with a few game fish as well ,all as close to the bank as they could get, looked like this was what they did when the river was going to flood.

 

[tommos16]

Another question is how you fish for them ? I generally fish worm which is obviously a natural bait and probably what fish expect to see in flood conditions .

It's worm, dropshotted because it's a few feet below me and it's difficult to fish on the float. It does allow me to get into positions other methods won't, and I can place a bait basically like I was fishing the pole but bite detection is via touch ledgering. Perhaps I just haven't given it enough time when I'm fishing

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[tommos16]

Now this is something I saw about thirty or more years ago, it was a lovely sunny day with no rain at all, and yet when we drove over the Ribble nr Clitheroe after lunch, we was surprised to see that the river was very high and coloured, there must have been a thunderstorm further up river earlier that day.

When we arrived at mitton bridge, a few miles down stream, the river was still low and clear, as the flood hadn’t reached here yet,so me and my workmate walked onto the bridge to watch.

The fish obviously knew what was coming as they were all lined up on either bank, chub and dace mainly with a few game fish as well ,all as close to the bank as they could get, looked like this was what they did when the river was going to flood.

Incredible! They're a lot more in sync with the water than we'll ever be, but for me that's the joy of fishing. The watercraft is the biggest part of it for me. My girlfriend laughs because I can go to the spot and know in an instant if I'll get a bite or not. I don't even try these days if I know it's not looking itself

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[no-one in particular]

I don't know much about perch fishing but when my local river has been flooding and lots of debris coming down I drop a float in the tiny eddy made by a small cut in the bank, it might only be 2ft deep, 2ft wide and 3ft long. I feed mash bread into it and it settles down in this tiny eddy or goes round and round with odd bits escaping into the main river and going down the edge of the bank with the flow. The float misses all the debris flowing down the main current and more or less stays stationary with a bit of layed on shot to help it. I have had some excellent roach fishing like this with the odd good chub as well. It ties in with what Seth said, I think the fish just hug the bank and smell my bread or follow the thin trail of bits of bread going pass them and follow this up to my little eddy. I quite enjoy this, little casting to do, float right in front of me but sat well back from the bank, the river is so coloured the fish cannot see me even in so close in so shallow water and I find it quite exciting. I think mashed bread is ideal for this, I usually tear about 5 pieces up, roll it between both palms until it breaks up a bit more, then squeeze it hard into a ball, it drops in and sinks but breaks up on its way down, some settles, some goes round and round and some goes down the bank with the current, ideal. I feed a lump in every 15 mins or so.
I remember when I first tried this, turned up and was going to go home because the river looked impossible to fish; I decided to half heartedly put the float in this edge cut off just to wet a line, wasn't paying much attention and ended up having a really great session, it has usually worked ever since. It might not work in all rivers though, there is no template as such.

 

[108831]

It is amazing,but people regard the GtOuse above Bedford as smallish steady flowing river,but I have known it to be bank high(4/6ft up)or higher for months,once from October till March,now 4/6ft doesn't sound much to someone talking in metres,but the water is being forced through and is a gurgling brown mass with trees and debris,the river needs at least a week of dryish weather to start dropping,years hence i've waded 200yards with a landing net pole testing depths to reach the river(it was dropping)and just about managed it without getting a wader full,detouring several times to avoid deeper areas,no doubt some fish succumb,but in the wild the fittest survive and add to the gene pool that strength...

 

[steve2]

I haven’t fished a flooded river in years but I do remember on the small rivers I fish that I had good catch in what were normally dried up side ditches. Sometimes this would be 100 yards or so away from the main flow. As soon as the river started to drop the fish went with it.
I spent many hours looking for a Crabtree type of eddy after reading Mr Crabtree Goes Fishing, but never found one.

 

[ian g]

I love to float fish and as others have said any slack water near the bank will hold fish when the river is in flood . I suspect your perch will go a day or two with out feeding but if you put a worm in front of them they'll be on it

 

[markcw]

I haven’t fished a flooded river in years but I do remember on the small rivers I fish that I had good catch in what were normally dried up side ditches. Sometimes this would be 100 yards or so away from the main flow. As soon as the river started to drop the fish went with it.
I spent many hours looking for a Crabtree type of eddy after reading Mr Crabtree Goes Fishing, but never found one.

There is a side ditch on the River Bollin near Lymm, when the Bollin is high and pulling through most of the fish headed into the ditch. It was possible to jump across it when the level was low,
There were a couple off the Mersey in Warrington. This was a bit wider, again when the Mersey was in flood the fish ventured into these, unfortunately these are punishable now due to an abundance of rushes all along them and across them .

 

[108831]

The thing is many nearside slacks actually continue well under the banks,holes,mid-river stick-ups all have protected areas,even when pushed down in the flow,when floods subside its amazing how many of this years fry haven't been washed away to the sea....

Also,if fish deemed it necessary,they would hold in a shallow slack,if that was what was needed to survive.

 

[tommos16]

Good point! This spot is teeming with fry and big enough perch to be eating them, maybe this is the safety spot from other parts of the river. For context, to call the Douglas a river is ambitious. Its a glorified stream when it isn't in food, and its shallow beyond belief in the vast majority of its flow through Wigan, so it doesn't hold fish all over

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