Then and Now

[Neil Maidment]

Five months, July to December, separate these comparison images of the Dorset Stour (Throop) taken this season.

This is normal, at least as normal as it gets after many decades of flood management, river straightening and abstraction, for many parts of the Stour.

It's Mother Nature in action with floods and frosts making light work of natural river maintenance. The "now" images are still quite deceptive as the river bed is littered with stalks and the chub love them! Fortunately those stalks are rotting and usually come free when the inevitable happens with a hooked chub :wh

 

[mikench]

What a contrast! The before looks barely fishable, well to me at any rate!

 

[theartist]

This is typical of rivers everywhere it seems with the huge demand for water in summer leading to rivers choked with reeds, rushes and watercress. Then they wonder why they flood when all that veg gets washed down to the nearest choke point.

Be interesting to see a summer pic from there a few decades back

 

[Neil Maidment]

As far back as my youth in the 1960s the Stour, in many areas, has been choked with weed and reeds throughout the summer. But for the most part surrounded by a flood plain, not so now, well it is, but a lot of it is now built upon.

It's as close to its natural state as we're ever likely to see again.

There are fishable spots, not necessarily trotting, but the normal annual change is one of the main reasons I pretty much leave it alone until late Autumn into Winter.

 

[barbelboi]

From what I remember of the Stour in the 60's is that it was choked with bootlaces................

Hard to see from your pic Neil but are those the same reeds I get in the streams here? If so, do you know what they are............

 

[sam vimes]

This is typical of rivers everywhere it seems with the huge demand for water in summer leading to rivers choked with reeds, rushes and watercress.

Not quite. It may be typical of many lowland rivers, but I'd have to travel a fair way to see anything remotely like that.

 

[Mark Wintle]

The summer shot of the Stour shortens the perspective greatly and makes it look like one mass of bulrushes although that short bit is one of the worst in that respect but it does have a few float-fishable holes. Elsewhere, and there's more than 45 miles of Stour that AREN'T Throop, the Stour was particularly weedy this year but mainly with soft weeds, eelgrass etc. The Throop bailiffs worked hard in the summer to keep some runs open. Elsewhere it was a case of picking your stretch - one day I walked two miles and failed to find a fishable swim though there were fish present, though I'm sure floating crust might have nailed some of the chub cruising on the top, yet more recently that stretch is fishable now.

I must confess I don't bother with chub much, simple fish easily bought with a lot of bait, when there are some much more interesting challenges in the river, sadly beyond my limited skills but I've spotted perch over 4lbs, know of plenty of whacking great tench (did get one last season), and still prefer the joys of summer/autumn roach with the most delicate of tackle as long as I can avoid the poxy pike (five on the bank this summer, three on .09mm hooklinks including two doubles, the last of which took nearly 20 seconds (yes, seconds!) to land. This time of year I'm concentrating on the roach, fishing Dob's favourite bread punch.

 

[theartist]

Not quite. It may be typical of many lowland rivers, but I'd have to travel a fair way to see anything remotely like that.

That's good to know, you're fortunate as this is what they could look like, this used to be all water and you can make out the original width of the river I remember when I was young.

 

[sam vimes]

That's good to know, you're fortunate as this is what they could look like, this used to be all water and you can make out the original width of the river when I was young.

We can suffer with low flow rates as much as anywhere. However, bedrock and cobble riverbeds, that only give way to gravel as the rivers start to meander, mean that weed growth will never be particularly significant compared to a lowland river.

 

[theartist]

We can suffer with low flow rates as much as anywhere. However, bedrock and cobble riverbeds, that only give way to gravel as the rivers start to meander, mean that weed growth will never be particularly significant compared to a lowland river.

Do you have problems with pools forming and fish becoming isolated in them during low water?

 

[sam vimes]

Do you have problems with pools forming and fish becoming isolated in them during low water?

Nothing quite that extreme. The rivers are generally a bit to steep for that kind of scenario. We just end up with more extreme versions of pool, riffle, pool. The pools themselves with minimal flow.

 

[Pete Shears]

These pictures remind me of long stretches of the river Wreake,if you didn't know there was a river, in summer it is amazing that any water gets through to the Soar north of Leicester.
The main trouble is that for years it has been treated as a drainage ditch for Melton and continual building on the natural flood plain means the natural summer level will never get back to where it should be but there are good perch,chub,dace,roach a few large bream and pike but the clear spots take some finding,usually a cormorant has found them first.

 

[Neil Maidment]

Same area - from the footbridge over New Weir looking downstream towards where the original pic was taken. There's usually a decent flow through the central part of the weir all year round.

This is approx halfway in the original pic. Chibbs Pool which, many decades ago, was a premier Salmon/Seatrout holding pool at the outflow from the Old Weir. The pool itself (to the left) no longer exists as it's sadly heavily silted and "willowed" up but continues to be a productive swim on its day.

I was unable to help with this summers work parties but in previous years we were often not able to achieve much in the water as the levels were too high! Only hand cutting allowed and often not safe even in wet suits or waders.

 

[Neil Maidment]

This time of year I'm concentrating on the roach, fishing Dob's favourite bread punch.

Two of Monday's chub fell to small pieces of flake on a #14. Most of the smallish roach I've had from lower down towards the tidal have been on bread punch using a set of Mick's that are probably at least 40 years old