Hi,
I am a member of the River Erewash Foundation, but am looking to expand my horizons this summer. I'm interested in fishing the following rivers, has anyone tried already, information or advice?

River Leen
River Maun
River Meden
Bagthorpe Brook
Clifton brook
River Smite
River Greet
Hallougton Dumble

I am in the main a fly fisher (some of you may know from the fly fishing forum, but I do like to get my avon rod and pin out, or my ultra light spinning rod as well.

Many thanks for any help anyone can give me!

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I remember most of those as open sewers but dare say they're all fishable now.

A bit further away the Devon ("Deevon") has always been good.

Most of the rivers I mention are so clean now, they support self sustaining trout populations.
The Smite becomes the Devon lower down. How do you access the Devon? Is there a club that controls any of it?

Thanks for the help so far.

Haven't fished the area for years but Bottesford AC might be worth a try. The 'Where to Fish' guide (in many libraries) gives the controlling clubs for almost all British waters.
It's amazing how rivers have cleaned up since industry moved out. A friend was a fishery biologist on the Erewash as recently as the late 80s and he reckoned it was pretty disgusting then, though probably a lot better than 30 years previously.

nicky boy welcome to AN ,oh dear this small river bug has got you hasn`t it .i know another one for you i usually keep it too myself as it has barbel in it & if more than one person fished it it`d be crowded .there`s a little river that starts in nottinghamshire called the The Erewash !! only joking its called Fairham brook it starts near the A52 fly over at carlton (you may of infered to it as calton brook ?) it heads south towards leicestershire ,but passes through bunny first .best baits are corn ,hemp,worms and the odd slug ,oh and red maggots never in great quantities .not fished it for a couple of years now but know through contacts that chub and barbel have been seen .thers not a lot of road access (soutside of bunny being best .theres a side lane of the main through lanewith good access and a nice wider section but its mostly fished walking back the 5 miles or so (seems more like fifty-five miles) to charlton fly over up stream too the trent,thats all i can tell you as i used too get dropped off at bunny and walk back that way travelling light as possible.

In the early C20th the Leen was a very productive water but ran through industrialised areas and became all but dead. It was culverted heavily in the 60s but I've always felt it had potential as a fishery if it were cleaned up.

I'd be very interested to know how you get on if you give it a try. Another tiny water that used to contain small pockets of big fish was Tottle Brook which ran from Highfields lake to the River Trent.

Just been down to the Leen outside the QMC, very clearly saw chub in excess of 4lb, very spooky though. No bankside cover, or anything. could be worth a try though. Will look further upstream at Old Basford. There are trout for sure in there, along with big chub.

Chavender, I'm sure the brook you are talking about is the Clifton brook, which flows into the Trent at the A52 flyover. There are indeed plenty of big chub in there, I once saw a shoal of 30 plus of them near to where the brook actually flows under the flyover. There are trout too, my degree thesis was based on a study of the brook, I found 5 brown trout whilst sampling.

Thanks for the help guys!

Some Leen history here:

http://www.lentontimes.co.uk/images/galler...listener_50.htm

This is another useful resource for looking at small rivers in the area:

http://www.picturethepast.org.uk/index.php

Some of the images are fairly contemporary and will give you an idea of whether the location looks fishable. Beware the creaky search facility.
There's always Google earth for an aerial view. A lot of these small waters are only known to people who live next to them and would repay a bit of pioneering work IMO.