River Fishing Tips | How to catch silvers after the floods
Top matchman Dan Squire reveals how to catch after the floods…
Floods are no good for anyone, but most of all the river angler who will have been sat at home twiddling his thumbs and waiting for the waters to finally recede.
It’s frustrating and annoying, but the one crumb of comfort is the knowledge that when levels do return to normal, the fish will be ravenous, having been unable to feed properly for weeks on end. That means a bumper day on the bank is in prospect!
Rivers will still be holding some colour, and provided the weather is mild, all species will feed – big barbel and chub for the specimen hunter, roach for the pleasure angler. A double-figure net is the minimum target that they should be aiming for.
The best way to catch them in coloured water is without a doubt a groundbait attack, throwing in an opening salvo of balls packed with loose offerings and then running a pole rig over the top. Roach will home in on the groundbait and mill about over it for hours, and this is when you can really plunder them.
Big rivers like the Wye and Thames usually grab the headlines for big nets but much smaller waters are also stuffed with roach.
It was on one of these, the River Parrett in Somerset, where Sensas star Dan Squire was to prove what river fans have been missing out on for so many weeks…
Go for the pole
“Anyone who lives on the doorstep of the Parrett knows it is a phenomenal venue for roach,” explained Dan. “I’ve had loads of double-figure catches, despite the river not looking all that good at first glance. However, it has a good depth down the middle even though it’s not that wide, and that makes it ideal for fishing the pole.
“The stick float can work when the river is running hard, but for an average flow, nothing more than running a rig down over groundbait will bring plenty of bites,” he added.
“The pole offers a much neater presentation, and accuracy too, allowing you to fish right over the groundbait every run through.”
Feeding
“I’ll begin by cupping in two big balls of groundbait holding casters and, after that, I will loosefeed if the flow allows,” revealed Dan.
“The mix is 50/50 Sensas Roach Noire and Gros Gardons Noire, which is very sticky and able to hold a lot of casters in each ball. After this I fire in around 30 casters each run through.
“This will draw fish from upstream but also let me run the float past the groundbait to catch further down the peg where those casters will be landing.”
Positive floats
“On rivers with lots of fish to go at and a good depth, you need to fish reasonably positively in terms of floats. One between 1.5g and 2.5g will deal with most river conditions,” Dan explained.
“A Sensas Jean François is the classic river pattern and it only needs an olivette and couple of dropper shot.
“This type of float also has enough of a body to let me slow the rig down against the flow if I need to, without the presentation being affected.”
End tackle is relatively fine, though. This, given the target species, is no surprise. Dan goes for 0.08mm or 0.09mm Sensas Feeling as a hooklink to a size 18 Sensas 3405 hook to allow him to fish with either maggot or caster on the hook. Caster is the preferred bait as it always produces a better stamp of fish, and matches what he is feeding.
Keep in touch
Roach are famed for moving about in a river swim, especially if you are loosefeeding, so if the bites suddenly drop away Dan’s solution is to add a pole section to go either further across the river or down the peg.
It’s amazing the difference this can make, and often produces a bigger fish or two into the bargain.
