Flooded Rivers - The Aftermath

Few, if any, of us have experienced floods like we're having this winter.

What do you think will be the aftermath when they settle down again to something like normal?

We know that some swims will be lost and others will be formed, but all in all, are they going to be better, cleaner waters with bigger fish or could there be a serious downside?

Quite honestly Graham it's anybody's guess as to what the end result is going to be as with all things there will be winners and loosers.
I fear for this years fry in many areas of the country as one of the potential downsides another is heaven only knows what has been washed into the waterways when the rivers where running several feet up through various high streets.
A possibly amusing prospect is what might turn up in the rivers once they become fishable again as countless ponds natural and ornamental were washed out by flooded rivers. Catfish in the Severn anyone??
Up here in the north west we have not been quite as badly hit by the flooding and our rivers seem to have benefited from the extra water certainly in many areas of the Ribble and Aire the silt has been ripped of the gravel leaving the river beds looking cleaner than have seen them for years.
How the Yorkshire Ouse and the Severn and Wye will have faired I have no idea as I haven't had the chance to fish either of them since the weather closed in.
I feel that we will get a clearer picture by next summer.
For many anglers who fish the rivers there will be exciting times ahead as they will have to go and rediscover their favourite rivers all over again I for one am looking forward to it.
Cheers
Alan

One thing I fear that the current flooding will bring to the fore again, is the plan to dredge the Severn. The idea being that a canalised version will take the water away quicker than at present.
At present the Severn is navigable to Stourport, but for many years there have been calls to open it up even as far as Wales.
On the local news today, the reporter was standing shin deep in Shrewsbury High Street interviewing an EA guy, who replied to his question on what the EA was doing, with something like 'We've got plans which will be revealed soon'. Interesting.

Sedge,
what are the major implications of making more of the Severn navigable?
I can foresee the wash eroding the banks and the pollution aspect but do you think they will rip out huge swathes of bank and make marinas and suchlike?

Rik, take the stretch between Hampton Loade and Bridgnorth, just as an example. It is probably the most prolific barbel alley in the country. There is also such variety. You can literally cross the river in places by walking across, a few metres down you've got deep glides. There is also such variety on the bottom. You've got rocky bits, gravels, streamer weed etc.
The problem with canalising it, is that it would do away with all the natural environment as it now is. This, I fear would have a serious effect not only upon the fish but also the other creatures as well, certainly the bird life.
Then, of course, as you mentuion, there is the erosion of banks etc.

Are the boating lobby very strong? Or are they just a loud minority, the speed that they travel down the lower Severn is unbelievable.

They should have numbers and be reportable. Most rivers and estuaries have a 5 knot limit, is this in force on the Severn as they don't seem to follow it?

Severn Dredging - it'll look the like the Ouse in a few years' time...!

I think there is sure to have been alot of fish movement both in and out of the rivers. Alain mentions about fry survival and initially I agree that this could be a problem. However on a more positive note I have seen reference many times recently that one of the issues contributing to a lack of fry in many rivers was due to the "over clean" water being pumped back into them and this has led to a lack of mico organisms on which the fry feed
...Am I wrong in thinking that perhaps a positive side to the flooding will have been an influx of more natural mico food from the land into the rivers so aiding fry in the future ?

The problem is we're entering a period when no-one really knows what's goiung to happen, because we've not had flooding like this in many areas for hundreds of years.

Harsh winter run-offs have been blamed (along with zander and illegal immigrants...) for poor fry recruitment in many of our drains and rivers up here. Shellfish crews sometimes find dead coarse fish washed up out in The Wash.

I reckon the powers that be will start improving more rivers, so they start to resemble the great Fen rivers like the Ouse, Welland, Nene, Witham etc.

The problems with the Severn, Warks Avon, and to a lesser extent the Yorks Ouse is simple - too much building on flood plains at a time when we are getting milder, wetter weather as a consequence of global warming.

There's a lot more stuff on the wires today about it - worse still predicted for the Severn over the weekend, esp Tewks, Gloucester etc.

More flood alerts for SW England as well.

Going onto this fry thing, the problems with food/quality come in the summer when fish are tiny. "Too clean" water lacks the right micro-organisms fish need to flourish at a very early stage of their lives, these are water-borne creatures. Believe it or not part of this stems from progressive improvements in sewage pumped into rivers.

some intresting points here, would you not argue that the big fish explosion in the Ouse was down to or linked to the crayfish explosion? any shortage of fish year on year inevitably leads to bigger single species who adapt and benefit from the situation?

As for the Severn canal, bloody hell, the Hampton to Bridgnorth stretch is my target area and as Sedge says, the sheer variety of fish species is down tot the difference in water speed /depth etc in this highly prestigious bit of water. Heaven forbid it becomes like the Nene.

It'll certainly make the carp fishing easier

Rik, carping aint so hard anyway,,,,, and now the rivers will be full of em, they will lose their 'beerboilybellies' and shape up a bit.......
and think of those lovely chub who are able at 10oz to chomp a 22mm boily!!!!!

pissa!

All fishing is easy mate!!!

I'll have to disagree with the belly bit though.
I've caught carp from Christchurch harbour, where you need 4 to 5 ounces to hold bottom when the tides running out, and the carp I caught from mid-river were some of the fattest I've had.
Mind you they went like the perverbial of a shovel aswell.

I think they swim so quick cos of that Welshman who shakes his bankstick at craps, although i suppose its better than sheep worrying........Evening Cooperman, how is the shitbashing?