Throop In Flood

[Neil Maidment]

As we had a little bit of rain over the weekend and the weather was a bit milder, I went down to Throop yesterday. Stopped off at Ringwood to pick up a bit of bait and was pleased to see the Avon had a bit of colour and looking good.

Parked up at the Old Mill, intending to look at the Wendy House & Barbel Corner areas. Stour looked good as well, a bit of colour and good pace. First half hour I had a nice 4lb chub and lost a decent fish which may have been a barbel.

10am and it went very dark! Thunder, lightning and a torrent of "big" rain and then a truly vicious hail storm! At one point the river was covered in large white patches as the hail stones drifted downstream. Think positive, at least I remained dry and snug in my new Preston Innovations suit.

During the next couple of hours, the river rose by about 18- 24 inches (a big change for the Stour), became a darker chocolate colour and just about every conceivable bit of rubbish came barrelling through on the extra flow.

Spoke to Chris Allport who confirmed the local area and up in the Stour valley had had a huge amount of rain in the previous 24/36 hours. Throop had fished well over the weekend and will probably do so again by next weekend, but not yesterday! He reckoned along with the flood water the big "turn off" was the amount of rain water washing off the road systems.

The river was still rising as I left and when I crossed the Avon at Ringwood, it was in the fields!

[Mithrandir]

Unlucky Neil.

I might try down there next week if the rivers have been refreshed by the rain this week.

Im coming,I'm coming ...aaah![img]/forum/smilies/big_smile_smiley.gif[/img]

Well maybe.[img]/forum/smilies/i_dont_know_smiley.gif[/img]

Whats it like today?

[Neil Maidment]

"I have never known throop to get hit so quickly it normally wouldnt be like this untill tommorow so i expect it to be bank high if not in the fields by tommorow. With rain forcast for much of the week its certainly going to get a good flush through.
Water temp is only 44 so dont expect the barbel to play that much.keep an eye on the temp though because if it starts rising and gets up to 47 then them barbs could be on the mooch."

Last nights quote from one of Throop's bailiffs and very successful regular.

I took the water temperature about an hour after yesterdays hail storm, it was 43!

All yesterday afternoon, the rafts of debris were getting bigger and bigger as all the dead reeds, branches and all sorts of rubbish were being swept away. It'll certainly get more than "refresh"![img]/forum/smilies/big_smile_smiley.gif[/img]

I am not that surprised it rose quicker than normal, although many factors come into play. I suspect that because its been so dry recently the sudden heavy means more water travels off the land directly into the river as"overland flow". Normally a larger majority comes into a riveras "through flow" hence delays in flood peaks. The ground has become pretty compacted, plus you have less vegetation this time of year, which also makes a difference. So I reckon more got into the river directly which is the quickest route.

Thats my guess anyway. Wash off roads would be an irrelavance.

[njb51]

I hope to be on there on Sunday!

be frozen by then

global warming you see

[Graham Whatmore]

My son Scott was down there in Christchurch yesterday and he said virtually the same thing, it won't do any harm to flush the river out though it will be the better for it, try again next week Neil :0}.