Sorry, couldn’t resist that! Well it has certainly rained a bit recently. And oh boy when it rains it really rains. Most of the country seems to be under water, with the vast majority of the UK’s rivers on flood alert. The news channels are awash (sorry) with pictures and stories on the latest developments as they happen, minute by minute. Some areas have had devastating water level rises and to all of those poor souls who have had their homes flooded out, my deepest sympathies. Let’s hope we’ve seen an end to it for the remainder of the winter.
Of course generally winter floods means warm rain and milder weather. All that basically means feeding barbel. However when levels rise this much you have to be very careful indeed. I love to catch barbel but I’m not risking life and limb to do it. You need to know your stretch like the back of your hand before attempting to fish in these exceptionally high conditions. The fields are flooded and you need to know every nook and cranny of the beat you are going to fish. Ditches, holes, uneven ground, crumbling banks, feeder streams etc. etc. can all become death traps if you go wandering off kitted out in your waders oblivious to the dangers. Unless you are 100% confident, then don’t bother. Wait for the river to drop to a safer level and then give it a go.
I did manage to venture out after a 3 week hiatus. This was mainly due to work but also a chest infection which has lasted the best part of 4 weeks and has left me a little run down. Danny and I met at the world famous (or is that infamous) Max’s Cafe for the full Monty before exploring a couple of sections of the Kennet. The river had burst it’s banks around the upper Benyons, however the car park side appeared to be OK. A walk downstream confirmed that it was safely accessible. Danny and I found a number of good looking spots to try but wanted to look at another stretch first. So we drove to the second beat and due to the time, decided to fish it. However once we had walked the beat with the gear, I realised it was a mistake. There were far less areas that looked fishable to me, whereas we had left a stretch that had a number of excellent opportunities on offer. We persevered but unfortunately failed to get a bite. By 4pm the river was rising and spilling out into the adjoining fields. It was time to head home and after being poorly for so long I felt completely exhausted from all of the walking.
With the kind permission of Micky Holtam
With the kind permission of Micky Holtam
The next day saw Geoff and I heading to an old haunt in search of some roach. These are a group of small lakes in Herne, Kent. They are renowned for the quality of the roach fishing. The wind had sprung up and became very blustery and remained that way all day. We opted to float fish in an area of around 4ft (which is good for these lakes) and slightly sheltered from the wind. My swim had a sunken tree in close which I thought offered a nice feature to fish to. The set up was fairly simple; 13ft Maver Reactorlite, fixed spool reel with 4lb line and a 3.5lb hooklink with a size 14 hook. The float was a simple Drennan loaded waggler. I had a number of baits at my disposal including Pallatrax Hidra small snails, maggots, luncheon meat cubes and expander pellets. Additionally I had sprayed the maggots and Hidra’s with the Winter Almond over spray and also mixed up some of my favourite groundbait which is the excellent Pallatrax Bloodworm and Maggot Crush.
Bloodworm and Maggot Crush
Bait Selection
After carefully plumbing the swim, I opted to fish close to the sunken tree at around 1 rod length out. I mixed up the groundbait and put out two small balls and some maggots. I continued to feed golf ball sized balls of groundbait throughout the day. Initially I opted to fish on the bottom and alternated between all of the baits at my disposal. Bites came almost immediately and unfortunately it seemed that small skimmer bream had become quite populous here. In the past it was rare to catch bream on this particular lake and now they were far more prevalent. Still it was nice to get the rod bent.
A few decent roach put in an appearance and numerous fish were netted up to 10oz for me. Geoff managed a couple of better ones at 13oz and 14oz. In the past we have caught good numbers of 1lb plus roach here but it wasn’t to be today. The bream were generally small with the odd better fish, possibly up to a couple of pounds. Both Geoff and I had a couple of surprise captures; we both had two nice chub apiece, with the biggest about 3lbs. I also lost a big common carp near the net when the hooked pulled. We saw the fish on numerous occasions before it came adrift and it looked to be well into double figures, so I was a bit gutted to lose that. Then just to keep up with the Jones’ as they say, Geoff also lost a good carp.
As the day wore on the bream took over. So I decided to fish up in the water and shallowed up the float. Alternating between baits I fished at around 18″ deep. Now when bites came roach were the culprits. It made a big difference and soon I had notched up a couple of dozen nice roach. I think by the end of the day I had counted 59 fish for me, give or take one or two. So all in all a fun day. Geoff trailed a little with probably high 20s I think. Perhaps my superior angling came good on the day or it could have been the groundbait and flavoured maggots that made the difference! Or maybe I was lucky, who knows. Geoff normally excels at this kind of fishing, so it made a pleasant change to dish out a can of whoop ass! 🙂
The River Angler 
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