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Surprising comments above about angling booming nowadays and concern about pressure on fish at the start of the season....
Angling pressure on rivers (and canals) is I would say a fraction of what it was forty years ago and much lower than even twenty years ago. Even at the height of summer you can walk miles along many rivers and not see a sign of an angler, (or in some places even the river itself due to rank vegetation!).
Most venues have just a handful of fishable, clear pegs usually close to the parking areas, most of the other pegs are hideously overgrown and many disappeared altogether. Forty or fifty years ago one never had to go to the river bank armed with machete and pruning saw, sheer numbers of feet on the banks kept them open. Match activity is also a shadow of its former self, some weekends have no bookings on the rivers at all. Numbers of competitors are often only single figures for many club events and even prestige opens rarely attract more than thirty to fifty whereas even club events for the bigger clubs would attract hundreds back in the 70's.
A happy by-product of this is easier fishing (1.7 lb reel line, 1lb. bottom and 20 hook no longer de rigeur), and bigger fish in better condition.
An interesting discussion.
Posted on July 06, 2022 at 10:07 PM
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Lake 2 is still full of weed and clear water, no sign of fish. Lake 1 is fishable - some light blanket weed on the bottom but this isn't really a problem. What is a problem is the lack of fish. Two hours fishing this evening, not a bite. I did see a carp move in the corner of lake 1 furthest away from the car-park then a couple of small rises from silver fish -roach or rudd. Very little sign that either lake is being fished. The lakes have had a chequered past with drain-downs, floods and otters, and I think the stock is currently very low. I would like to be proved wrong!
Posted on May 24, 2022 at 10:53 PM
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Yes, surprisingly this has happened to me with barbel on several occasions, with pellet, maggot, caster and even the open-end feeder with a chopped meat, hemp and groundbait mix. It's not a regular occurrence though, perhaps once in a session, when you get three or four barbel, one of them sometimes grabs the bait as soon as the feeder hits the bottom. Happens more regularly with chub.
Posted on August 23, 2021 at 10:09 PM
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On your working parties programme it states that the Ribbesford fishery was "done" in June this year.
Not sure what the contractors' brief was, but the bottom two fields downstream of the football fields appear to be untouched, so much so that you can't even tell where the pegs originally were! No spaces at all in the bottom field.
I managed to clear one of the less-overgrown pegs in the deep water in the second field below the end of the football pitches and had 20lbs. of fish in three hours so there are plenty of fish down there, and it's a very peaceful venue. Yes it is a fair walk from the car-park but well worth it from late summer into early winter.
Do the BAA have any plans to do any clearance on this venue this year? A shame to let it fall into disuse, as a few years ago the club built platforms at points all the way down to the downstream limit, however these have effectively disappeared.
Posted on August 20, 2021 at 10:48 AM
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I have never caught carp or tench on the Staffs Worcester, I don't think they are as numerous as in the Birmingham-Worcester. I understand that carp have been prominent casualties in some of the pollutions and fish kills that have affected the canal from time to time, but I suspect that there are still enough to be worth targeting if you can locate them.
I don't think you can entirely rule them out from any of the sections and they almost certainly move between pounds via the locks. I have seen mirror carp in the Watermill length of the canal downstream from Kidderminster centre, and they are present also in the long pound that runs from Falling Sands locks right down to the basin and marina in Stourport. There are reputedly large carp in the marina complex in Stourport but I don't think you can fish there unless you can befriend one of the waterside apartment owners. Further upstream, the Botterham to Swindon sections have a few carp, I remember being surprised to see one surfacing in my peg in the middle of a snowstorm one January as I cowered beneath my brolly.
Look for areas where the canal is wider or where there are far-bank reedbeds or other thick cover, walking the canal early morning or evening in summer might help pinpoint where they are.
Best of luck, sounds like a worthwhile challenge
Posted on June 09, 2021 at 12:19 AM
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