Royalty and Throop

[steve2]

Trying to get my fishing interest back and I think the best way is to get back on a river.
Looking to visit the places I haven’t fished in years, the Royalty and Throop also Britford.
Anyone got any up to date info on these and places to stay.

 

[Peter Jacobs]

Steve,

As you might think Britford is running a little low and not at any great pace and yet some decent fish are still coming out. A chap I know had some good grayling, trout and chub on the fly below the little weir.

Also, as you might imagine, there are not too many anglers on Britford at the moment.

As for the Royalty and the Stour then maybe Neil Maidment can help you out there as he is more of a regular there than myself.

 

[108831]

Just been on the phone to a mate of mine,who as it happens was walking beat 2 at Throop at the time,as the river is so low,the river is chokka with weed,with little flow and very little coming out,he virtually said the Royalty has been ottered out with the few chub and barbel coming out being damaged by our furry friends,hope that's not the case and Neil comes out with a more positive story.

 

[Mark Wintle]

Throop is low (the recent rain has had negligible effect) and weedy and though there's some weedcutting going on the danger is that the river will show its bones before too long. Some nice fish about if you can find them though I haven't had a chance to get out this week as my wife who is already disabled broke her ankle last weekend; quite when I can fish again remains to be seen - I might start sneaking out at 1am every night..... Before this latest calamity I was catching a few nice roach and dace on hemp and tares plus had one evening after the chub getting four to 4-12 and losing one.

 

[108831]

Sorry to hear about your wife Mark,never rains,but it pours...

 

[steve2]

Thanks for the info,
Sorry to hear about your wife.
Seems like most rivers and streams in the South/South East are suffering from low flow. Will have to put off trips till later in the year.

If it wasn't for the sewer farms my local streams would have run dry years ago.

 

[Mark Wintle]

By the time you get to the end of Throop Fishery the Stour is 50% treated sewage, a fact lost on the morons jumping in the river from Iford Golf Course footbridge!

 

[Neil Maidment]

The Stour at Throop is low, clear and has copious amounts of weed, all entirely usual for this time of the year. Fortunately it is a good 12ins higher than this time last season but needs some summer storms to freshen it up. As Mark has said, the recent short lived rainfall have had only short term positive effects.

If you "do" Facebook there is an unofficial Throop Fishery page with up to date information on it (ignore the odd post about seeing numbers of 8lbs/9lbs chub mg.

So far this summer the barbel fishing has continued the recent year on year improvement with some excellent fish coming out. The chub fishing continues at a pace with most in typical summer condition. However, the majority of the better results have gone to anglers able to fish late afternoon into dusk and the 1st hour after sunset Sadly the typical B&B or long distance traveller has often packed up and left well before that time.

I've hardly fished Throop this season save for a couple of evening sessions as I've been favouring club sections of the Avon well above Royalty with some good results with chub and dace. Not fished the Royalty for a while but reports of it's death are widely exaggerated!

Here's a link to an article what I wrote describing "my" Throop:

https://ringwoodfishing.co.uk/files/cms/throop_1.pdf

It ends towards the close of the 2017/18 season so reasonably up to date. My 2018/19 season (Autumn/Winter) on there was more successful in terms of quantity but the numbers of really big chub of previous seasons typically eluded me

 

[steve2]

I first fished Throop and the Royalty back in the mid 60's. The Royalty gave me my first double figure barbel but was too crowded so moved over to Throop and it then seemed like I had the river to myself after the Royalty. A far better place for my then style of fishing.

 

[steve2]

Just read your "My Throop" I also made the 150 mile trips from Romford for a days fishing back then, wonder if our paths crossed.

 

[Neil Maidment]

I moved away in 1988 and didn't come back permanently until 2015. But I was a little closer as I lived around the Hants/Surrey border so it was a 150/160 mile round trip.

Throop is a much bigger fishery than Royalty, offering a lot more variety and opportunity to "hide away", particularly later in the season. The central Beat 2 is obviously far more popular than Bt1 above and Bt3 below but even now is not as crowded as it used to be. I'm lucky that I can now fish midweek and, particularly in Autumn/Winter, often appear to have the fishery to myself. Weekends are obviously a bit different at peak times. Throop is also nowhere near as manicured as Royalty, something I much prefer.

It's not all chub on there, the roach are continuing their strong comeback and it's well worth a trot early morning or late afternoon.



However for me, the main attraction is always the chub

My best from Throop in 2018/19 was 6:11 on the 1st of March. The Stour looked set for an excellent last two weeks of the season but was pretty much flooded out through to mid March.

 

[john step]

Steve, check up on the Britford fishery if you decide to go there. It may be open now but when I went down for a few days about 4 yrs ago after buying my LAA book most of it was closed off for some reason. Only the canal looking bit near the bailiffs hut and the lower bit below the small weir was open.
The back bit was fenced off.

 

[steve2]

By the time you get to the end of Throop Fishery the Stour is 50% treated sewage, a fact lost on the morons jumping in the river from Iford Golf Course footbridge!

A friend of mine use to swim in a part of the River Chelmer till I told her she was swimming less than half a mile from Chelmsfords main sewer farm outlet. If she had seen what I have seen floating down that and other rivers it would be the last place to swim.