Side-stream fishing

[MikeT]

I had a great time on Saturday- fishing at the Bickerley Mill Stream near Ringwood. This lovely little side stream on the RDAA book is said to be a sensible place to go looking for fish when the main river’s in flood. I knew the Avon would be high and dark, and wanting as usual to trot a float (as opposed to using a beach-caster rod and 5oz lead), I though I’d give it a try.

 

I found the stream very high but in excellent colour, and the fields were manageable- albeit very soggy; the bullocks’ hooves had made the going very soft. It was such a freakishly warm day I didn’t need a coat, despite a reasonably brisk westerly. I needed my waders because in a few places the water would have spilled over the top of my wellies as I sank into the sucking mud, but the millstream looked really good. I found a nice little pool just below a ford, which looked promising, so I chucked in a couple of handfuls of maggots on my way to a nice trotting run a hundred yards further upstream. I enjoyed a half-hour running a float through that swim, but, whether I wasn’t getting it right or there were no fish there, I had no bites. I didn’t mind, as there was a huge flock of fieldfares and a small flock of sweet long-tailed tits to delight me.

 

I walked round to the lowest limit of the Severals fishery on the main river, and spent an hour at a gorgeous slack on the massive inside bend by the trees, and caught a dashing dace there. The magnificent river was in no mood for my petty attempt at angling her, and she intimidated me to go back to my comfortable little sidestream pool in a state of due humility.

 

The flow was choppy as it emerged under the footbridge below the ford, and flattened out by the end of the pool where some supple branches and twigs overhung, upon which a robin was busy holding chipping territory. A big back eddy swirled slowly round in a full circle, and the spot looked very fishy to me. I fed some maggots for a while, watching how the current took them round, and decided on a line to trot my float. I baited my hook and flicked it out, watching how the current immediately pushed it off the line I’d picked, and into the slack at the top of the eddy. It took me half a dozen casts to get my float in the right place for the trot, and when I did it was carried right under the overhanging branches at the end of the pool, and dipped. As I brought in my first fish, a big flashing swirl announced a pike attack, but I managed to bring my chub to the net. It had three new scale-bare scrapes on one side, and two on the other, but I reckon it was the luckiest fish in the river. A pound and a half, maybe, and I was delighted to see it.

 

It was very hard to find the right line to fish, with the back eddy trying to pull the float off-track and succeeding in four casts out of five, but I managed to hit the right spot enough times to catch four more cheeky chub in that pool, one of which was exceedingly pretty (I attach a photo). I felt very pleased with myself, because the challenge was to present the bait in just the right way, which required a precise cast and careful line control, which I felt was well rewarded with some fine November fish.

 

Edited November 17, 2008 by MikeT

[MikeT]

Oh, boy. Sorry about the size of that photo! It's at least four times bigger than I thought!

 

M.

[Vagabond]

It's at least four times bigger than I thought!

 

Four times bigger - that's an angler's dream!

 

Nice report and pic - 600 pixels is the width I reduce mine to.

[MikeT]

Smaller now, but still perfectly formed.

[Anderoo]

Excellent report! Sounds like a great day and a very inviting little stream. Who needs the Test?

[yorkio]

Oh, boy. Sorry about the size of that photo! It's at least four times bigger than I thought!

 

I must admit, I rather liked the big picture. (It would have made nice a desktop pattern too.)

[MikeT]

Hi MC. My rod was a 13' Normark Titan II. I found it about right, length wise, because I prefer to stand well back from the water's edge, and I generally find it's helpful to have greater reach for trotting (in fact, I did start off with the little extension piece to take it to 14', but I got annoyed with the imbalance this caused and took it off. I put it in my backpack but managed to lose it somewhere on the riverside, though this is no great disaster because I always hated using the rod with the extension).

[pfcruleok]

Hi Mike T

 

 

Thanks for sharing that with us, looking forwards to doing a bit of trotting myself next Monday on the Itchen.

37 years of angling and still getting excited !

[Chris Plumb]

Nice......

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reel!

 

 

 

 

C.

[Rog Hill]

Hi Mike,

 

I've been meaning to give the Bickerley Stream a go but each time I find an excuse to go onto the main river. I'm assuming from your post the section you were fishing was downstream of the car parking area, do you have any knowledge of how accessible the upstream sections are, and whether they produce?

 

Rog