How to read a river

Current concentrates fish. A river has far less holding water than it has surface, and a fish will sit in a very specific pocket where it faces food coming to it without spending energy fighting the flow.

1. 01

   Find the seam

   The visible line where a fast run slows into a pool. Fish sit on the slow side facing the fast water, taking food as it crosses. This is the single most reliable lie in a river.

2. 02

   Fish the tail of the pool

   Where the pool slows and shallows as it leaves the run, food settles and predators wait. It's often the most productive metre of the whole water.

3. 03

   Look for holding water

   The deepest run, the pocket behind a boulder or bridge pier, the undercut bank under a tree, the slack behind a weir. Anything that breaks the flow makes a seat.

4. 04

   Work from downstream upward

   Fish face upstream, so approaching from below keeps your shadow, footsteps and line behind them. Start at the nearest swim and move up, never the other way round.

5. 05

   Present with a drag-free drift

   Mend the line so the float or bait moves at the same speed as the current. A bait that pulls a wake, or sinks and drags along the bottom, tells a river fish something is wrong.

6. 06

   Cover water rather than flogging one lie

   A few casts in each promising pocket beats twenty minutes on one. River fish are spread thin, and the next seam may hold the fish.