Birmingham Anglers Association

Dave - go up. There's more flow close in upstream than there is downstream, and the bank is more accessible on the rock area as you mentioned. Downstream you need to cast further out to reach the flow, and the trees may make casting tricky, especially using deep float rigs that you need. There are pegs where you can get down quite close to the river, the best one being the swim on the outflow gate, the bank has a more gradual decline there, and isn't a sheer drop, so quite safe, and there's a lovely flow right under your rod tip. Take a rope yes, but also a spade, to remove mud and flatten a bit of bank off to fish from.

The member that went in the river was chasing a known big fish from the car park swim. That swim gets hammered, and there is no vegetation whatsoever on it, so that didn't help his cause.Take a look, and you'll see what i mean.

Good luck,
JC.