Is Fishing Good in the Rain?
By Alex Clayton · Updated 23 October 2026
Fishing in the rain is often good, and rain on its own is rarely a reason to stay at home. What matters is the type of water and what the rain is doing to it. Still waters usually fish on through steady rain. Rivers depend on whether they are rising, peaking, or dropping and clearing.
The bigger risks are the ones most rain articles skip: a river coming up fast, slippery banks, overhead power lines and thunder.
The six steps below take you from checking levels before you leave to knowing when to pack up. For the wider picture, see our guide to how weather affects fishing.
Step 1: Check the Forecast, Flood Warnings and River Levels Before You Go
The most useful rain tactic happens at home: knowing whether the water is fishable, and at which stage.
- Check for warnings. In England, the GOV.UK check for flooding service shows flood warnings plus river, sea, groundwater and rainfall levels. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland run their own services through Natural Resources Wales (NRW), the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) and the Northern Ireland authorities.
- Read the trend, not the number. Find the gauge nearest your stretch and note whether it is rising, steady or falling.
- Check the rain upstream. Rain higher up the catchment reaches your stretch later, so check the hours before your session too.
- Rule out flooded rivers. Angling Times is blunt: don’t fish a river that has burst its banks.
Still waters care less about levels, but car parks and bank paths flood too. Check with the fishery before you travel.
By now you should know whether the river is rising, peaking or falling, and whether any warnings are in force.
Step 2: Pack to Stay Dry and Keep Your Tackle Working
Wet hands, a flooded bag and a bait tray full of slop end more rain sessions than the fish do. RoSPA advises packing waterproofs, because the weather changes quickly.
- A breathable waterproof jacket and over-trousers
- Waterproof boots with grippy soles (see Step 4 on banks)
- A brolly or brolly shelter for static coarse and feeder fishing
- Dry bags for your phone, rod licence and spare layers
- A towel, so you can tie knots and handle fish properly
- Bait boxes with lids. Maggots in a lidless tub during a downpour are a lesson most anglers only need once.
If you only buy one thing, make it the over-trousers.
Step 3: Work Out What the Rain Has Done to Your Water
The same downpour can switch a river off for chub while barbel start feeding harder, according to Angling Times. So blanket advice about fishing in rain fails.
Still waters. On lakes, ponds and commercials, steady rain is rarely harmful. Many anglers find it freshens and cools the water after a warm, settled spell, and rain on the surface may help mask your movement in the margins.
Rivers. Rivers change by stage (Angling Times guidance):
| River stage | What you see | What tends to happen | What to try |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rising and colouring | Climbing, turning brown | Chub stop; barbel often feed harder | Barbel on smooth, even water or the crease |
| Peak | High and pushing hard | Barbel hold close to the bank | Creases and slacks near your feet |
| Falling and clearing | Dropping, colour thinning | Chub feed again; barbel ease off | Chub in their usual swims |
| Back to normal | Usual level and colour | Chub at their best | Your usual approach |
Roach, dace and bream tuck into slacks out of the main flow. Spate rivers rise and fall quickly, while big lowland rivers take longer to settle. Barbel anglers often report that a slow rise with colour can fish, while a sudden rise carrying debris is usually a no-go.
See how to read a river for where creases and slacks form, and fishing after floods for really big water.
You should now be able to name your river’s stage and the species most likely to feed.
Step 4: Pick a Safe Swim, Away From Power Lines and Crumbling Banks
Carbon fibre rods and poles are “great conductors of electricity”, in National Grid’s words. Rain also softens edges and turns clay banks slick. Your goal is a swim you can fish, and leave, safely.
Follow National Grid’s angling advice:
- Keep at least 6 metres between your rod or pole and any overhead power line.
- Carry rods and poles horizontally, parallel to the ground.
- Set up at the water’s edge.
- If your line tangles in an overhead line, don’t try to free it. Call 105.
On commercials, look up before shipping out a pole. Lines crossing car parks and peg access tracks are easy to miss when you’re carrying a long pole in the rain.
On the bank itself, RoSPA warns about slippery banks and fast, deep water, and advises wearing a good lifejacket. Avoid undercut or freshly eroded edges, test soft footing with your landing net handle, and don’t wade a rising river.
Skip any peg with lines overhead, however good it looks. Our fishing safety guide has the full checklist.
Step 5: Match Your Bait and Tactics to the Colour of the Water
Small, subtle baits in chocolate-coloured water are one of the quickest routes to a blank. Colour cuts sight feeding, so fish find food by smell, vibration and contrast. Match your bait and lure to what you can see.
Heavy colour. Go bigger and smellier. Angling Times recommends big, smelly baits for pike and perch in heavy colour, and a large meat bait for barbel in a coloured, rising river. Fish the crease and slacks, and keep baits still and close to the bank where fish shelter.
Light colour. Use brighter, more visible hookbaits, and lures with flash or vibration that fish can feel as well as see.
Clear still water. If the rain hasn’t coloured the water, fish your normal approach.
On Windermere, in my experience, rain rarely colours the open lake much, so I stick with my usual methods out there. The margins and inflows are where wet weather changes things, and that’s where I’ll put a deadbait or switch to a lure with more vibration.
So on a coloured river, fish big, smelly and slow near the bank. On a clear lake, carry on as normal.
Step 6: Know When to Pack Up, and What to Report
Three signals end a rain session: thunder, a fast-rising river, and fish struggling.
Thunder. RoSPA says don’t fish during thunderstorms. At the first rumble, put the rods down and leave the bank.
A fast-rising river. If the level climbs quickly, debris comes down, or the bank you walked in on is going under, move or go home.
Fish in distress. The Environment Agency has linked fish deaths to heavy rain flushing drains into rivers during low, warm flows, cutting oxygen (ITV News, 2026). Watch for fish gasping at the surface or crowding inflows. In England, call the Environment Agency 24-hour environment incident hotline on 0800 80 70 60. Elsewhere, contact NRW, SEPA or the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA). If oxygen looks low, skip the keepnet.
Any one of these ends the session. Don’t wait it out.
Frequently asked questions
Is fishing good after rain?
Often, yes. Still waters usually fish well after steady rain. On rivers, the best window is normally as the level drops and the water starts to clear, when chub feed again, although Angling Times notes barbel can feed hard on the rise. Never fish a river that has burst its banks.
Is it safe to fish in a thunderstorm?
No. RoSPA advises against fishing during thunderstorms, and National Grid points out that carbon rods and poles are great conductors of electricity. Put your rods down and leave the bank at the first sound of thunder.
Do fish bite more in light rain or heavy rain?
Many anglers find light, steady rain fishes better than a downpour, because heavy rain on rivers brings colour and debris. There is no reliable UK evidence for rain-driven feeding frenzies or pressure-triggered bites. Water type and river stage matter more, and some anglers also track moon phase fishing patterns.