Kentish Stour near Canterbury

[moby2]

Hi,
New member to this forum, recently returning to fishing after a gap of a few years - with a preference for river fishing, Barbel and Chub being preferred target species.

I now live split between South East London and Broadstairs, so distance wise it looks like it makes sense for me to fish 2 areas - from London, drive to the Upper Medway(so I am joining the Tonbridge Angling Club) and from Boradstairs the Kentish Stour.

Problem is, I'm not sure how much time I'll spend on the Stour, so I'm looking for good day ticket or free stretches rather than joining a club, but having checked loads of web info, it appears that the river is almost exclusively CDAA and MKF, with no day tickets ! Are there any good stretches either above or below Canterbury that I can fish without having to buy another membership ?
I notice that many web sites say that "within Canterbury City Limits, fishing is free" but not being a "local" I don't know how far that extends west or east along the river, and I can't find the relevant info on the web - can anyone please enlighten me on where the "city limits" are in relation to the river please ?

Many thanks to anyone that can help,

Cheers !

 

[chefster]

I did,nt know there were many Barbel and Chub in the Kentish Stour,i used to live in Canterbury and fished all through there on Free stretch and on CDAA book,beautiful river , tidal in places, brilliant stick float fishing for Roach ,also skimmers, bream,Grayling, dace,eels ......

 

[theartist]

I'm certain there are free stretches in the town so any info would also be appreciated.

Visiting the inlaws down that way soon so anywhere to wet a line without tresspassing would do me.

 

[no-one in particular]

If I remember rightly the bit in the town is very shallow and clear and virtually UN-fishable. There where a couple of swims in the suburbs that were fish able. Most of the fishing between Canterbury and Ashford is private fishing . Mostly owned by syndicates for trout. Below Canterbury there used to be day ticket at Grove Ferry and Plucks Gutter which can be good fishing. These might be worth looking at on Google. Sandwich further down which is very tidal had plenty of free fishing from the toll gate downstream but, could be good for bream, roach, mullet, pike.
Long time since I fished the area so, info might be out of date a bit but, it might help.

 

[moby2]

Thanks all,

Seems like any decent river fishing will require joining MKF or CDAA then. Oh well, c'est la vie !

Cheers

 

[John Sayer 3]

For the Upper Medway you will need to join RTWAS, Tunbridge Wells not Tonbridge. RTWAS have nearly 8 miles of the river that includes the beat where the UK record barbel was caught in the 1990's.