Local Conditions - Local Knowledge

[Neil Maidment]

The recent Ribble Fish-In thread got me thinking.

"Snow melt" coming off the hills. I can't remember the last time I fished a river affected by snow and ice!

We're all Anglers but do we cope as well as we should on a strange venue? As far as I'm concerned, local knowledge is a huge advantage.

For my part, I was brought up on the tidal Dorset Stour. Two tides a day, lower stretches sometimes flowing "the wrong way" or top half going one way, bottom half going the other! My other local was the Avon, really fast and powerful flow, loads of weed, etc etc.

What is peculiar to your local river/canal/lake?

What gives you "the edge" locally?

 

[BAZ (Angel of the North)]

Nothing peculiar in particular Neil. The thing that gives me the edge is plenty of space and few other anglers. I don't like crowds when I'm fishing.

 

[Mark Wintle]

Neil,

the lower Stour tend to suffer from 'road melt' nowadays! That's when it rains really heavily and the storm drains from Bournemouth pour in a dark grey filth running off the roads. This is especially true in summer when it hasn't rained for a while and you get a big storm. There are several drains coming in at Iford, Tuckton and Sheepwash that do this. I've had a couple of sessions ruined by this. You sit out the storm then know you've got an hour before the river changes colour and you can't catch. It even did it on June 16th one year - rained 4am to 6am, we turned up at 7am having waited for the rain to stop and really struggled.

Baz,

Is that the edge where you fish for a week and blank? Perhaps there are few other anglers because there's no fish!

 

[BAZ (Angel of the North)]

Six weekends of blanking at the last count Mark. But I did see somebody on the horizon (o

 

[Graham Whatmore]

My favourite river, the Wye, is usually a pretty formidable prospect when its low, you can catch bleak and minnow by the thousands but the proper fish tend to feed only during darkness. With two feet of water on and falling its a totally different river, its not easy to fish but the fish are kickstarted into feeding and the prospects are excellent. I've caught most of my Wye barbel in flood conditions and mostly by fishing the crease, like most fish they love it there.

The Warks Avon is another river that is adversely affected by summer droughts and fishes better with colour in. Have you noticed how rivers clear very quickly after rising and colouring up? Years ago a river would hold its colour for up to a week but not now, in fact I have fished the Avon with nine or ten inches on and its been gin clear, strange! When you can see your maggot trundling along the bottom you just know you are in for a bad day.

 

[john conway]

The conditions I?m interested in re Chub fishing on the Ribble and other northern rivers are how bright conditions are, sun or moon, sudden drops in water temperature (snowmelt) and how fast the river rises, all basically bad conditions for Chub fishing. Because I keep pretty accurate records I?m beginning to build up a picture of locations and year class of fish in these locations. I?m nosy so I talk to the lads on the bank and listen to local gossip as to what?s coming out. Like the vast majority of anglers I go fishing when I get the opportunity but I do try and arrange my opportunities to suit favourable conditions i.e. dull/overcast/no moon, falling river, sudden rise in water temp or at least a stable water temperature.

 

[Neil Maidment]

Mark, you're right. I've seen the outlet at Old Iford Bridge chuck out the storm rain and colour up the Bournemouth bank side as it flows down towards the first bend by when its coloured the whole width. In those conditions I was told the first few swims on the Christchurch side below the bridge were worth more than a look.

Down there a couple of weeks ago and spent a day walking most of the stretches from Sheepwash down to Wick. Happy memories, it's changed but still the same if you know what I mean.

 

[Rich P]

I think John Conway's got it just about right - that it's not necessarily local knowledge, but more being inquisitive and general knowledge built up over the years, that is important.