Flooding

[Juan Villar 2]

I wonder if anyone could clear this up for me?

My local river has recently burst its banks after some heavy rain. The river also has a backwater which is roughly a hundred yards or so from the main river. When i drove past the river the other day, the land between the main river and the backwater was flooded.

Would the fish in this stretch be caught in the flood water inbetween both rivers, almost certainly meeting their end, or would they clock on to this and move elsewhere?

Thanks

 

[Phil Hackett The Boastful Expert :-0]

A bit of both Juan.
Large fish would move with the drop in water. Many Smaller fish will get caught out. Falling to predation from gulls, herons and such like.

 

[keora]

Bigger fish seem to have the instinct to get back to the river, but small fry may not. So you can get fry losses in big floods.

 

[Wolfman Woody]

A few years ago I got a phone call froma worried member of the public that fish (big carp) with stuck in a flooded field and they were worried that when the waters receded the fish would get caught and die.

I spent two hours with a big net chasing carp to 20lbs back into the ditch that they had come through only to find that as soon as I went to round up some more the original lot came back into the field.

I got fed up and left them to it, obviously they were rummaging around in cow pats and finding all sort of worms and things to eat. The day after the level had dropped about 18inches and the field was empty. Not a fish, dead or alive, to be found anywhere.

 

[Juan Villar 2]

Cheers, I had a feeling that would be the case just wasn't 100% sure.

Atleast you were good enough to try and do something about it Woody.

Actually thinking about it now, in a farmers field further upstream there is flood water still in the field from around 10 years ago, which is more like a small 1 acre lake than flood water.

I remember fishing the river with me brother-in-law right next to the flood water. We had our backs to the flood water while fishing the river and kept hearing big rises coming from behind us. We came to the conclusion that it must be fish, so we gave it a go without sucess. Im positive there are fish in there though.