How long does it take fish to adjust to the new river topography brought about by a big flood?

After the devastation wreaked upon my local river Derwent this weekend, it looks like we're virtually going to be getting a whole new riverbed to get the hang of once the levels drop back down again. From my exploratory missions over the past few days, I've seen new gravel banks thrown up, new pools gouged out, islands swept away and a whole lot of new snags in the form of fallen trees. So how long does it take the fish to figure out where the most desirable spots are in this brave new world? (That's assuming that the poor little buggers didn't all end up being washed down into the Tyne anyway!)

I have to say, there was also a lot more damage than I first thought, including at least one bridge down at Shotley Bridge (Morayflyfisher will, I'm sure, know this one) and the little one downstream from Ebchester virtually dug out to its foundations. Scary stuff.

My local rivers (Windrush and Glyme) suffered some serious flooding last year. The general effect was to clean out a lot of silt and for a week or so as the level stabilized and started to drop the normally fairly turbid rivers ran gin clear. This also seemed to bring the fish on the feed. Great combination!
I would assume that the fish will find there way into the new features of 'your' river almost instantaneously.
If you FF for pike post flooding can be a very productive time.

Cheers

Andy

That tree in the top picture would go nicely in my woodburner - or is it holding the bridge up?

Not very many minutes. They will be sorted out before the river is fishable.

richard

__________________
Who resides on the right bank of the Derbyshire Wye and is lulled to sleep each night by the mutterings of a weir, dreaming that "When the rivers and their inhabitants come first, we ALL win..."

I'm sure you'd be more than welcome to it - and a few others too!

Thanks, all. In a funny sort of way, it's actually quite exciting - like I said, in some places it's virtually like having a new river to get to know. From the look of it though, there's an awful lot of clearing up to be done this winter…

Hi.

As others have said, it won't take the fish long to settle down, in some ways, to me floods etc make river fihing interesting, you get to know a piece of water and then it all gets altered, the learning all starts again, were will that big fish be holding up now

__________________
www.acgameangling.com & www.acgameangling.co.uk

I wonder what impact flooding like this has on the insect life - can't be good?

My regular haunts flood regularly ,especially the Swale.15' floods happen every year , sometimes on several occasions.The flood may move the furniture around - rocks and gravel move, shallows are deepend and vice versa,trees ripped out but are the fish bothered- not a bit.We had ahuge flood on the Rye in 2005- it did reduce grayling numbers for 18months but no other effects- apart from fact that flylife is better than before! Many old fart members of clubs will wring their hands and say that you have lost your fish- nonsense. Evolution is a wonderful thing. And if you're a creationist...well, sorry.

As a kid I lived near a river about that size - it went up and down like the proverbial "Fiddlers Elbow" in response to rain.

In spate, a worm near the edge would often produce a fish.

Then wait until the flood had subsided to about the colour of good beer and go spinning - very productive.

__________________
Plusnet/Madasafish > Liars to the internet community

One word of advice. If you wade, carry a wading stick for the first few times you go out,I drowned a camera assuming a nice straight run would be still thigh deep.My fishing partner said my impression of Excalibur being substituted by my rod was most dramatic!
Regards
Rob

__________________
on the banks of the River Dove-walking in Isaac's footsteps