''Who would have thought it.''

Derek Gibson · Dec 21, 2015

There was a time when we Northern anglers envied the Southern lads for their access to waters, and fish that we could only dream of, how things change. Now we have anglers from ''Darn Sarf'' coming up to fish the mighty Trent for Barbel, Zander and Pike etc. So we appear to have come full circle, as the title suggests.

flightliner · Dec 21, 2015

Even from as far as ireland, saw a guy a couple of years ago who had travelled over to catch his first ever barbel.
A couple of months later having a walk on the tidal reaches in the close season I found the very recognisable chair he had been using just discarded on top of the flood bank.

laguna · Dec 21, 2015

flightliner said:
Even from as far as ireland, saw a guy a couple of years ago who had travelled over to catch his first ever barbel.
A couple of months later having a walk on the tidal reaches in the close season I found the very recognisable chair he had been using just discarded on top of the flood bank.

Had he been swept away or thrown in?

binka · Dec 21, 2015

I know of a couple of anglers who regularly do a long haul from way darn sarf for a weekend day on the Trent.

Almost without exception the anglers I see nowadays are targeting the barbel but there really is so much more to go at, at the top end of their weight scale.

But don't tell anybody

Derek Gibson · Dec 21, 2015

flightliner said:
Even from as far as ireland, saw a guy a couple of years ago who had travelled over to catch his first ever barbel.
A couple of months later having a walk on the tidal reaches in the close season I found the very recognisable chair he had been using just discarded on top of the flood bank.

Although it was extremely rare to find any of the Southern big fish boys up in our neck of the woods Mick, I can't fault them given the likes of the Hant's Avon and Dorset Stour providing a much higher quality of fishing than our Northern rivers. The one exception I vividly remember was a visit by Peter Wheat who teamed up with Tag Barnes to do a feature on Barbel at Topcliff on the River Swale, sometime in the late sixties.

Ray Daywalker Clarke · Dec 21, 2015

I am in the right part of the country then.

I fish the Trent, and the Stour, it takes around the same time to get to both.

Neither Norff, or Sarff

flightliner · Dec 21, 2015

It certainly is a whole differant ball game as you say Del, plenty of fish wherever you tried but genuinly big fish for a particular species were generally thin on the ground. Maybe a genuinely big roach, gudgeon from the Witham and Trent respectively, and maybe one of the odd big bream around seven lbs from maybe the 800 pegs on the wide Welland was your lot riverwise.
A similar picture prevailed on stillwaters, but over the last twenty plus years its obvious the scene has been slowly changing to the point that with maybe a tinge of wanting some chub action south coast wise I have no inclination these days of travelling much more than thirty miles from my front door.
Any specimen fish that I may need these days just doesnt warrent travelling any further.
ps, its unbelievable that only ten minutes from my house I can chase double figure barbel from a river where if you fell in only thirty years ago you died of any one of a dozen awful conditions before you could drown.

no-one in particular · Dec 22, 2015

How many Stours are there in the country and what does it mean?

maggot_dangler · Dec 22, 2015

markg said:
How many Stours are there in the country and what does it mean?

Too flaming many as to the meaning of I did look it up once have check again brain fact right now...

PG...

Sent from my 8055 using Tapatalk

Derek Gibson · Dec 22, 2015

markg said:
How many Stours are there in the country and what does it mean?

Don't know how many Stour's Mark, but what I do know is that ''many'' of us Speci types were certainly influenced by the angling mag's of the early sixties. And the prominent targets for our attentions were specifically, Throop Mill on the Dorset Stour, and the Royalty fishery on the Hant's Avon, of which we visited on a number of occasions. But by crikey what a journey that was for us in our old banger's.

Picture this, four young blokes driving down in an old A35 van (sardine tin), two in the front and two in the back sitting on old sofa cushions, amid all the necessary gear. Split cane Mk4s, rucksacks, fishing chairs etc. Yeah we were keen as mustard. Couldn't do it today of course, the old bill would make sure of that.

Bob Hornegold · Dec 22, 2015

Derek Gibson said:
Although it was extremely rare to find any of the Southern big fish boys up in our neck of the woods Mick, I can't fault them given the likes of the Hant's Avon and Dorset Stour providing a much higher quality of fishing than our Northern rivers. The one exception I vividly remember was a visit by Peter Wheat who teamed up with Tag Barnes to do a feature on Barbel at Topcliff on the River Swale, sometime in the late sixties.

Derek

I use to drive from London to fish Topcliff Mill for the day 30 years ago.

The first place I ever used Maggot feeder to good effect for the Barbel !!

If I remember rightly we use to get a permit from a little shop in the Village ?

Bob

Derek Gibson · Dec 22, 2015

Bob Hornegold said:
Derek

I use to drive from London to fish Topcliff Mill for the day 30 years ago.

The first place I ever used Maggot feeder to good effect for the Barbel !!

If I remember rightly we use to get a permit from a little shop in the Village ?

Bob

Bob, you are correct, tickets could be obtained from the little shop, and occasionally from the Black Bull pub by the bridge. Mr Smart took over the old mill and fishing rights, and renovated the old mill to become an anglers holiday destination. I fished it just the once after that in 1970, before concentrating my future efforts on the river Ure. Again another weir pool at Newby Hall in the company of Tag Barnes.

However I would be most interested to hear of your visits there and results obtained. Also any impressions you may have had of the river Swale.

robertroach · Dec 23, 2015

Some of our rivers down here have become a lot worse over recent years. I'm thinking of the Hants Avon where the roach hardly seem to exist any more except in very small numbers in a few locations and stretches of the middle Dorset Stour which are just a shadow of their former self. Water abstraction, agricultural poisonous runoff, otters, cormorants etc. all to blame. I would love to have a go at some of the bigger rivers further north like the Thames, Wye and Trent, although they are not easy, but they are all too far for a day trip.

''Who would have thought it.''

Derek Gibson

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flightliner

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laguna

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binka

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Derek Gibson

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Ray Daywalker Clarke

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flightliner

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no-one in particular

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maggot_dangler

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Derek Gibson

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Bob Hornegold

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Derek Gibson

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