kenj

As the 2014 trout season approaches fast, I wonder what state some of the fisheries will be in following the floods, but reviewing this thread, my own small river soon recovered to provide excellent fishing, before a summer drought brought us back down to earth again.

Cheers Paul, I don't go near the shop often, being a bread man. The flyrod will be back out of the rack this week. That stretch below the Whitewater will probably have a few trout taking, when it warms up.

The Emmbrook is the river I was talking about. My friend Ray Laker lived in Robin Hood Way in the 70's, the river passing beneath a bridge at the end of the lane, where a deep pool formed. Probably covered in houses now, as much of my other favourite the Wycombe Wye now is. Is there any public access? We all can't have a river at the bottom of the garden! I agree that the 1lb 4oz chub is very dace like. Concave anal fin and dorsal. It hasn't got that blockhead look either. I'll bow to you though, you were there. Ken

Does anyone know if the meadow at Ford Lane on the Blackwater, where the Whitewater comes in is still free fishing?

What area of the Blackwater are you fishing? I've only fished the free stretches above Sandhurst and where the Whitewater flows in. Not fished it this year, not enough water in the autumn, now too much. Like many of these small rivers, it's swimmy. One peg I have fished on the punch with liquidised bread gave me skimmers, chub and roach, plus gudgeon on the stick. This was my catch report from my own small river not far from the Blackwater. Over 8lb of mostly roach on the stick with bread. http://www.urbanfieldsportsman.com/index.php/roach-queue-up-for-bread-punch-on-the-middy-stick/

Keep at it Chris. There is no need to fish right across canals, 8 metres is plenty. I get most of my fish down the inside shelf and in the boat road. Remember with the liquidised, just a small ball to start and only feed when it slows down. Often two feed areas work. Feed one and fish the other. Bread punch is no longer the "secret" method it once was, but it still works, especially where mums bring their kids to feed the ducks. Good Luck.

It's a sad fact that many of our fishing venues in and around London are unsafe. West of London, at a water which has good barbel and chub, it's unwise to leave your car in the secluded car park due to break-ins and tow-aways. Canal bridges often have a collection of daytime drinkers. Now being past the age of retirement, at the other end of the spectrum to young Jack, I pick my venues with caution. 30 years ago, the London canals gave me hours of sport catching roach and skimmers on the bread punch, but today I wouldn't recommend them to anyone.

The Colnbrook below Iver Village is on private land above and below the Iver Lane (down stream is part of Farlows, plenty of gudgeon, a few chub), the old Cape Boards stretch at the GU Canal end, Yiewsley is the stretch. I shoot a farm along part of it and the level was fishable on Monday. Well worth a walk, I had a barbel 100 yards upstream of the bridge this summer. Parking is OK the Iver side of the bridge.

Hi Hopey, There are several free stretches on the Colne. The river splits into many parts below West Drayton and makes it's way to Staines. If you get a decent Ordinance Survey map, you will find a few hidden free stretches in the Colnbrook area. I see you have a barbel in your profile and with a bit of searching out you will find some ideal barbel swims. One in that area has produced good barbel, chub, roach and dace for me. The stretch is only about 50 yards before it goes under the M25. The best and longest free stretch is upstream of Iver Lane (near Farlows) to the Uxbridge road at Uxbridge. Unfortunatley, this stretch, about a mile, was given park status and "improved" with willows along it's length. The council stopped maintaining the banks and many of the willows have fallen into the river, although this has created some nice gravel runs. Once again barbel are one of the main target species in this mile of river, with chub and good perch. Also there are some double figure pike. On my last outing in the summer, I was catching roach and dace on the stick, when a massive pike tried to drag my net in, my son and I just winning the tug of war, although the net was ruined. I prefer to fish the stick with maggots, which works well for the dace, roach and chub, but the specimen boys tend to fish with PVA pellets, meat, etc. I've not fished the Farlows bit for years. Like all of the Colne, it's swimmy. You could catch a hundred gudgeon from one swim, move twenty yards and it's full of roach. Plenty of chub all over the river. Give it a go. It's worth a bit of research.

The Thames is already full of carp. At Windsor commons and tench get caught on a regular basis, even a small river where I live has it's fair share of rudd, crucians, commons and bream, all overspilled from the lakes, that drain into it. What we don't want are catfish.

Taking in your advice on sinking the liquidised bread Rudd, I went out and bought a small bait dropper for my return to the Basingstoke Canal, but found that despite all the rain we have endured this week, the canal was at near normal level and pace, balling the bread in as usual by hand in close, while feeding the far shelf at 9 meteres with a cup. This time I had no barge to spoil my fishing and ended up with a respectable 7lb plus from a two and a half hour afternoon session on the bread punch. Once again I used a No 4 single elastic and didn't lose a fish. My Blog http://www.urbanfieldsportsman.com/index.php/bread-punch-finds-skimmer-bream-on-the-basingstoke-canal/

Sorry for the slow reply Rudd. Yes liquidised bread. This canal was really pushing hard and I had to put it in upstream, the hotspot being 10 ft down from me. I had them going well, then a barge came upstream and churned it up and I lost the better fish. I am just about to liquidise another loaf, hoping to get out after the rain tomorrow.

Welcome back Phone. I'd noticed the lack of criptic comments. I broke my back in two places some years ago, when the car I was racing, thought that it was an aerobatic stunt plane. The good news is that one of the best cures is a bit of fishing, especially with a fly rod. Got me back together in no time, with no repercussions.

There is some good info here, but you can baffle yourself with science. I was fishing the Basingstoke canal yesterday on the bread punch, using a single Slip Fluoro No 4 through the top two of my pole and didn't lose a fish, even though it was pushing through. As you can see from this pic, I had some good skimmers and some very nice roach, plus some tiddlers. This was my blog post: http://www.urbanfieldsportsman.com/index.php/bread-punch-nets-quality-fish-on-the-basingstoke-canal/

Well done anyway on your result. It's a good place to fish a match, at least you know you will catch some fish. I live in Bracknell and have plenty of good free fishing without driving far. The punch works well for me round here.

Must have been a hard day at Wood Lane. Wins are usually over 100lb of carp on pellet waggler, or method feeder. Even the silvers are in double figures. Maybe I might stand a chance with my bread punch.

Hope you all enjoyed a good Christmas. In my view, many new anglers these days, start their fishing careers on easy commercials and after a while get cheesed off catching scruffy lipless carp, then realize there is a whole world of angling out there, or give up all together. I am fortunate to live in an area, where I can walk to a couple of small lakes full of single figure carp and crucians, ideal for the occasional summer evening's sport, while having access to a couple of trout rivers to fly fish, one free fishing. Ten miles away is the mighty Thames at Windsor, which has fished well for roach this year, often slotting in among the barbel fishermen, to watch a float go under. I've been a member of Old Windsor angling club for thirty years and following a decline in members in recent years, have seen a healthy increase, often from these disenchanted carp men, who have never fished running water and want to know what it's all about. Having moved to my current house a few years ago, I found an overgrown little brook, that held shoals of roach and chub and was happily catching nice roach and the occasional chub with a stick float on bread below a road bridge, when a car pulled up and disgorged a pair of anglers, who'd given up trying on on an ice covered local commercial fishery. Seeing me netting some good fish, they asked if it was OK to fish above the bridge. They failed to get a bite, having filled it in with pellets. Going back to see how they were getting on, I couldn't believe the tackle they were using, hoping to catch roach on a freezing day from a 12 foot wide brook. Among their vast tackle boxes, the lightest line they had was 6lb, with floats to match. Plenty of gear with no idea comes to mind. They gave it an hour, packed away their kit and watched me for the last half hour of light, when the roach got bigger and a two pound chub took the flake. I wasn't Merlin fishing with a magic wand, just someone with all round experience, who has never stopped learning.

I started this post in April, concerned about the thin trout I was catching on my small Hampshire river, following a hard winter of floods. I've just returned to the forum for a look and see that this is still being viewed and it ended up being a bit of calender of fishing events through the season. One brown trout that never made it to these pages, was one of my best from the river. I caught this beautiful fish in early May on a gold ribbed hairs ear nymph. It was 17 inches long with a massive tail and needless to say fought like the clappers on my 7 ft, 5 weight rod. This was my blog report: http://www.urbanfieldsportsman.com/index.php/big-trout-in-a-small-stream/

The roach have been showing in large numbers at on the Thames at Home Park, Windsor over the past few weeks. One report is of 30lb in five and a half hours, pole with maggot and ground bait. I watched a stick float angler take several roach in the 8 to 12 oz bracket along with dace and a chub on this stretch. I got out myself this week on this bit of the Thames, when the river was coloured and rising. http://www.urbanfieldsportsman.com/index.php/thames-roach-fishing-at-home-park-windsor/

On our small Hampshire river, which is a mixed coarse and trout fishery, we have been plagued by signal crayfish and mink. Our bailiff has a crayfish licence and has netted well over 1000 crays so far this season out of a half mile stretch, plus several mink that have gone into the nets for an easy, but fatal meal. The shoals of dace and roach seemed to have vanished from this water, with just the odd big chub reported. A recent barbel session in a known hotspot by two of our anglers, resulted in only crayfish. It's like the cormorants, nothing done due to red tape.

I've just seen this post. The Frays runs from a spur of the Colne above Uxbridge, behind a housing estate north of the A40, this is the first bit of public fishing. It's very narrow here and looks empty of fish, until you put a stick float through it. The river passes through a treatment works and is always warm in the winter. on this stretch I;ve had good bags of dace, perch and chub, plus the odd few roach and even big skimmers. It then enters a culvert at the High Street and comes out in a park as a shallow duck pond, before passing under the Slough road and running along the Cowley road, shrouded by trees. I fished this a long time ago, just before it entered a factory (Cowley mill) and had several pounds of dace and perch, with a few small chub. It then runs through factories parallel to the GU canal, where I was told the fishing was private, passing under the Iver road past the Shovel pub, where it enters the canal below the lock and flows out on the other side down to a now residential mill. There was some unclaimed land above this mill, just 50 yards, which was full of good roach and a few big chub. I fished the stick here, but the local, who put me onto it, always fished the pole over to the bushes and had bream and chub. I bet it's full of carp today. Below this it Little Britain lake, with the Colne to the west and the Frays to the east. Some big chub and pike come out of this 500 yards, it's narrow and shallow, but slow moving and weedy. Some big roach and bream also come out at times. It's public,or day ticket fishing. The river goes through private land under the Slough Arm canal, behind stores, where it is joined by the river Pinn from Pinner at Yewsley, passing through another housing estate (private). It is a proper river again, but enclosed by houses until it reaches a small nature reserve, where it briefly joins the Colne, then splits at a weir into the reserve. This used to be held by West Drayton AC, but last year was free fishing. This side stream is full of good chub, the last bit where it goes round the side of Thorney Mill has big roach and barbel too. It's only two feet deep, but this bit used to be left out in club matches, because whoever got in there won the match. I've had over 30lb in three hours fishing. There is also another small weir and side stream, which has some big chub and barbel. The Frays splits and flows into the Colne below the mill, the total length being about 4 miles. If you pick your spots you can have some good fishing. At the West Drayton end there is parking in Money Lane for the reserve, or a carpark in Thorney Mill Road, but be warned, this is Traveller City and cars have been broken into, towed away and spare wheels nicked. I think that's why WDAC gave it up. We had guest tickets and stopped going for the same reason. Good Luck.

Now in the final month of the 2013 season on my local trout river, I revisited in the hope of a decent back end trout, as they tend to come out of the woodwork in September. Fishing a size 16 gold head pheasant tail nymph, I'd already returned a couple of dace and a few wild browns between 6 and 12 inches, when I struck into this chub. It initially fought hard, running upstream, but gave up after a few minutes. A beautifully conditioned unmarked fish, which I reckon would have weighed 4 lb. Thought I'd hit into a big trout, but this chub scores enough points in my book. This was my blog report: http://www.urbanfieldsportsman.com/index.php/wild-brown-trout-flyfishing-season-closes-with-a-bang/

Following on with this thread, after a prolonged mayfly hatch this year, we had floods and then a drought, with the river levels dropping to a trickle over the stones in places. The Himalayan Balsam made up for lost time, but a working party cleared the worst. The big stock fish of earlier on in the season seem to have passed through the river, leaving the wild fish to thrive. The low water levels have continued, but those members, who still turn out to fish, following the hectic mayfly duffers fortnight, can enjoy some rewarding fly fishing. My last outing yesterday is covered here http://www.urbanfieldsportsman.com/index.php/thankful-for-small-mercies/

I bought my 12 ft Appollo Taper Flash in about 1960 for under £4 brand new at 5 shillings a week (paper round money) from the local cobblers shop, which also sold fishing tackle. At the time it was revolutionary, being light, while with it's stepped down mid section and fine tip, gave it a good action. People forget that the only alternatives were heavy Spanish reed rods with a greenheart tip, which were prone to breaking. Striking was a wobbly, double action affair. Even an expensive split cane match rod tended to have little back bone to handle larger fish like tench. Glass rods were solid and heavy. The first two fish that I caught with the Appollo were 3lb+ barbel taken on legered cheese paste from Romney Weir at Windsor, and went on to win many club trophies as a Junior, then a senior with it. Legering also accounted for many river bream and chub, while it was a good float rod for trotting bread flake, or maggots under a porcupine quill. After a lay off from fishing for ten years, I was talked into fishing a match and won it in 1975 with this rod, again porcupine quill with flake for over 7 lb of roach against hollow glass rods and the latest idea hemp and casters. Getting into match fishing again, I bought an ABU Mk 6 with my winnings. I still have the Taperflash and use it for dead baiting spratts for pike. Yes it's heavy and stiff by today's standards, but don't judge it by modern rods.

Following up on this topic, like everything else on the river bank this year, the trout on my free urban river have put on a lot of weight this year, helped by good hatches of mayfly, despite being late, due to the cold weather. On my small Hampshire syndicate water, the wild trout are also showing a healthy increase in size and number, this one taking a shadow mayfly last week. One welcome thing missing from the river this season is the Hymalayan Balsam, which we hope our pulling sessions last year, the floods and cold have put paid to.