The journal · Conditions
Spate Rivers as They Fall
A rain-fed river rises in hours and clears over days. Somewhere on the way down there is a window when it fishes better than at any other time.
· 4 minute read · 921 words
A chalk stream is fed from underground and changes level about as quickly as a bath filling. A spate river is the opposite. It drains hard hill ground, peat and thin soil, and it answers rain almost at once. Anyone who fishes one learns to think less about the calendar and more about what fell on the hills two days ago, because on these waters the level is the season.
The shape of a flood
Plot the height of a spate river against time and the line has a characteristic form, called a hydrograph. After heavy rain it climbs steeply, often reaching its peak within a few hours on a small upland stream. Then it comes down slowly, in a long curve that may take two to four days to return to where it began. The rising limb and the falling limb are two quite different rivers.
- Rising. The water turns opaque brown and carries leaves, twigs and soil. Fish stop feeding and look for shelter. It is also the dangerous phase, because the level can come up faster than you can cross back.
- At the peak. Unfishable. Thick, loud and the colour of milky cocoa. Go home, or go and look at where the soft water forms, which is useful knowledge for later.
- Falling and clearing. The colour shifts from brown to the clear amber of beer, stained by peat but no longer muddy. You can see your boots in 40–60 cm of water. This is the window.
Brown water is a river being rearranged. Beer-coloured water is a river being served.
Why the falling water fishes
A flood rolls stones and scours gravel, and it knocks loose a great quantity of food: stonefly nymphs, caddis larvae, worms washed from the banks, small fish swept from the margins. As the level drops the trout come out of shelter hungry, the tinted water hides both them and you, and they will take a large fly with a confidence they never show in August’s low water. For a day, sometimes only a few hours, wary fish feed boldly.
Where the fish are
No trout sits in the main push of a high river. It costs too much. Look for the places where the current is slack enough to hold in but still close to the flow that brings the food.
| Lie | How to recognise it | How to fish it |
|---|---|---|
| Soft edges | A strip of slower, smoother water along the bank, sometimes over flooded grass | From well back, with a short line. Fish it before you step into it. |
| Inside bends | The slack, shelving side opposite the fast outer curve | Cast up into the crease and let the fly drift along it. |
| Behind obstructions | Boulders, bridge piers, fallen trees and groynes with a quiet pocket below | Drop the fly into the slack and along both seams. |
| Pool tails and side channels | Broad, even water where the pace eases | Swing a streamer across slowly, a step at a time. |
Tackle for coloured water
Leave the 6X in the bag. In tinted water fish cannot see nylon well, the flies are heavy and the current doubles the strength of every trout. Use a leader of 7–9 ft ending in 3X (0.20 mm) or 4X (0.18 mm). Shorter leaders turn over weighted flies cleanly and give better control at close range.
Flies should be bigger and darker than usual. Black, dark brown and dark olive show a strong outline against stained water, and a little flash or a touch of orange helps the fish to find them. A black Woolly Bugger in size 8–10, a Muddler Minnow in size 8, a rubber-legged stonefly nymph in size 8–10 or a Prince Nymph in size 10–12 with a 3.5 mm tungsten bead are all the box needs.
- Start with the streamer. Cast across towards the far edge of the soft water and let it swing round slowly, with a few short pulls of 10–15 cm. Finish each cast by letting it hang at the near bank for a count of five.
- If fish pluck without taking, or the water is still quite coloured, change to a large nymph and drift it dead along the crease on a short line.
Check the gauge before you travel
Most sizeable rivers have public gauging stations with levels published online and updated through the day. Learn what figure means good fishing on your water and write it in your diary. A reading that has peaked and been falling steadily for 12–24 hours is the signal to go. A level still climbing, or more heavy rain forecast on the hills upstream, is the signal to stay at home.
Wading in pushing water
Often the right decision is not to wade at all, since the fish are under your own bank. If you must, go no deeper than the knee. Fast water at thigh depth can take the legs from a grown adult, and in coloured water you cannot see the stones, holes or drowned branches in front of you. Use a staff on the upstream side and shuffle, keeping two points on the bottom. Wear a snug wading belt, and a buoyancy aid on larger rivers. Never cross to a far bank on a river that might rise behind you.
The amber window is brief and cannot be arranged in advance. Watch the rain, and be ready.