First up lets get that title out of the way, can a river be too high for fishing? From my experience no, sure there's the safety element and flooding isn't good for those affected but those fish have to go somewhere and if warm enough WILL feed, that reason alone is why I love fishing swollen rivers. As for too many fish, well keep your expectations low or the extra water will beat you, keep your optimism high though and you could be rewarded.
River Avon - Bidford
Following the rains I had to get out last week, it had been a while and I hoped to get my mojo back, you know when you have a venue in mind and you're going to fish it no matter what, so I checked the river levels which showed the Warks Avon to be dropping, so that spot I had mapped out in my head was where I caught some nice perch this time last year.
Things seldom go to plan so as we arrive (my missus in tow) on a windy but sunny day I am struck by how high the river still was. Any notion of fishing my perch spot was blown away given that the stile I need to cross to get into the second meadow was a good foot under water, crossing the (usually dry) ditch it traverses in such circumstances would just be stupid, given it must be 5 feet deep and that's without the mud. The only option was to fish the lock cut instead.
The water was above the towpath and the mooring poles were just visible below the surface, flow was minimal here compared to the torrent of the main stream the other side, where the little weir roared formidably above the noise of the willows blowing. For the slow lock cut a light stick was put on and naturally the calm waters that preceded the choice of set up became a chop as soon as fishing commenced, why does that always happen?
I decided to stick it out (no pun intended) rather than change to waggler and was rewarded by bites after ten minutes of finding the depth and a clearish spot, anything would do in such circumstances so I was happy to get a nice mix of decent roach, dace, gudgeon, perch and fun sized bream, all of which had their usual colour washed out.
The bottom of these locks are always covered in thin strands of weed so whilst not snags a such they did make presentation hard. The water also dropped whilst we were there with tops of the mooring poles just protruding above the surface for the first time and the towpath was now visible but still well below the water.
My missus meanwhile was chasing the kingfisher about with the camera which put on a show feeding from the willow downstream, and perching on the lock gates.
Bit of a blurry shot but her hands were getting cold, such was the big willow that sheltered us somewhat from the biting wind also blocked the warmth from the sun, with this is mind we packed up fairy early, it was a good day out with plenty of fish caught and a few netters, job done.
River Thames - Wallingford
A few days later I am off to a rising river Thames, wondering what the hell I was doing as I drove through heavy rain the entire route, with the showers supposedly forecast later I did think it was one of those days where they get it wrong and it was 'In for the day.' I hoped not as I parked in a flooded lane, leaving mine the only car there to cross an equally flooded meadow.
The river didn't look too fast, we've all seen the Thames higher but it had a heavy flow highlighted by a young swan which went downstream faster than boats are allowed. I stopped by the first slack knowing I could get soaked through at any moment so not wanting to walk too far.
A heavier float than usual was needed as the slack was anything but, however a steady pace did make for a nice trot through, nicer still was the float burying and a decent roach was netted, the roach kept coming and it was great being able to fish maggot without being plagued by bleak.
It was a fairly slow process as each cast the bites were in a small area under a tree that required the float held back from the off, almost running through in a semi circular trot with the eddy, this deeper, slower zone must have been where my feed was collecting, the bites were unmissable though when the float got down to this sweet spot each time.
The first 20 fish were all roach before I started getting through to some dace and perch, the flow picked up, got more boily and coloured, holding back harder earned some better roach and suddenly every one was a netter.
I also manged a few silver bream, lovely little things these with their huge eyes, you also get them on bread or hemp but I had 7 today on maggot.
