Where to fish on the Stour or Hampshire Avon

Hi Guys,
I will be spending a week in mid August with friends in Wimborne, Dorset this summer and intend to have a days fishing. I would like to fish away from Throop and the Royalty. I've checked a few local clubs that have day tickets and they offer some tempting waters.

Could any member of the forum suggest a nice stretch for chub and roach. My preferred method is float fishing and will be restricted on the amount of tackle I will be able to fit in the car, two rods maximum.
Thanks in advance.

Roach on the Avon below Ringwood are non existent according to the EA survey I heard about.
Never caught one or seen anyone else catch one in 3 years of trying.
Don't waste your money on the Avon (Royalty exempted) is my advice.

The Throop is a good bet and a much healthier river IMO.

Above Ringwood at Ibsley would be my advice, but not sure you can get day tickets for those stretches.

Also reserve judgement until you know what the river levels are.

The Stour around Sturminster Newton is day ticket from local sources and as Mr Crabtree as you can find with plenty of water and no crowds. Roving with bread or casters and light float tackle should get you roach, dace, perch (try worms) and chub. Few monsters on this water but a chance of roach to a pound plus and chub to 3lbs.

Throop is less crowded than in the past but not an easy nut to crack as the fish have seen it all before. I'm still trying to crack the roach on there and other nearby stretches - hemp and tares in summer.

Avoid waters in and around Wimborne; once excellent now very hard! Blandford not much better.

Thanks guy. I have followed up Ibsley and Sturminster Newton and both are available on day ticket and look very attractive on Google Earth. The upper Stour resembles my favourite Yorkshire river the Nidd, another Crabtree feature pack river, so the Stour may get the vote. Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

You've got it right, walney - the "outer limits" of the Stour now probably offer the best experience for a fisher visiting from a county that still has some real, wild rivers. Do be prepared to "break ground" (gently, responsibly) in places, though.

A lot of this is probably way out of date as have not fished the area for a long time but, it might help you and give you some ideas to look up.

The area around Ringwood has several day tickets stretches. Try the tackle shop at Ringwood. There's Lifelands above the weir (I think its called that), The Ringwood stretch itself and the Severals just below Ringwood. Further down Bisterne but that might be closed this time of year. Further down the road towards Christchurch there was a pub called the Queens Head or the Kings Head on the right hand side, they used to do a day ticket quite cheaply, they had a nice little stretch, worth calling in and asking them if your traveling that way. Further down is the Winkton Stretch , day tickets available from the Davies Tackle shop in Christchurch, a lot cheaper than the Royalty, but could still be very good. Try looking up the old Bat and Ball stretch, tickets from the Bat and Ball pub, was once very good, lovely stretch but not as good as once was but, nice to fish. This was above Fordingbridge I think.

I found all of these good for chub and/or barbel. Roving tactics with free-lined big lumps of cheese or luncheon meat can pay off and a nice way to fish. Roach were very few and far between I am afraid. Although if I remember rightly there was a side stream on the Severals stretch that could produce at times. Might be worth looking some of these up on the internet to see whats what nowadays.

I had a holiday with parents in Wimbourne when I was a kid and I remember looking at the Stour there but, it was very shallow, just a few inches, whether it was just a very dry spell, I cannot remember but, it was un-fishable. That was long time ago though.

Just adding this as I was thinking about it, the Lifelands stretch just above the weir in Ringwood always looked more roachified to me. The river was deeper and calmer here and looked more like a roach water. I believe the day tickets could be got from the tackle shop in Ringwood.

Thanks for the detail on the Avon, will look into this. I may need to persuade my wife that it is essential I fish for at least two days over the week.

I don't think The Several Fishery (its proper name not 'Severals'!) has had day tickets for years. The Avon has changed enormously in the last few years mainly due to the change in policy on weed cutting ie they don't do it any more and what was formerly easily fishable is mostly one humongous mass of weed; OK with a CAC or RDAA club ticket as you have miles and miles of water to search but a day ticket is less forgiving when you've only got a short bit of river. Roach are scarce to say the least below Fordingbridge nowadays. Not aware the New Queen or Bat and Ball still have fishing. Britford near Salisbury can be good with tickets on the bank but a 60 mile round trip from Wimborne.

Definitely recommend the Stour over the Avon if staying at Wimborne.

jack sprat said:

Britford near Salisbury can be good with tickets on the bank

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. . . and if you ask the bailiff, Stuart, I know he will put you on a decent swim, but you'll still have to work for your catch though.

There are still a lot of good fish there but they are getting more and more difficult wit the passing of every year.

If you're used to the Nidd then the upper Stour has similar features with some slow deep bits with roach and perch and other riffle & pool sections which are more dace, chub and roach. Mid-week in summer on the upper Stour you won't see a soul.

Thanks guy for all the info. The upper Stour looks the favoured spot. From Google Earth it looks beautiful. I will bear in mind the Avon near Salisbury as I had a look at it when I last stayed with my friends but only for a few days and it looked totally different from the northern river normally fish.