Did your river fishing improve in 2016?

jasonbean1 · Dec 26, 2016

Well mine has, I live in Oxford and mainly fish the Cherwell around Kidlington, the upper Thames at Clanfield and the ODAA waters through the city.

Other than travelling further afield to catch more barbel I think the all round sport on rivers around my way has been excellent this past year. They have been getting slowly better for a while but this year there's been a noticeable improvement for many species. That's not just for me....many of my friends are finding the same, also other anglers I bump into on the bank are finding very good sport.

Roach, perch and dace are thriving and getting very big, barbel are turning up again both large and small. And I was out today on the Cherwell and had all year classes of chub, which is something that has been missing on there for many years. 5 years ago we would say "what we gonna do when these few big chub go over"

What I read though flicking through the internet is anglers bemoaning the decline in river fishing? 10 years ago I think it was pretty poor and had declined to that point for quite a few years.

My thoughts are there was a lot of things impacting rivers at the same time, otters, mink, cormorants, crayfish, floods and there seemed to be a lot more eutrophication in the rivers around here back then.

I reckon the rivers are on a good run at the moment and I hope it continues.

Happy new year and I hope 2017 see's even more improvement.
Jason

tigger · Dec 26, 2016

jasonbean1 said:
My thoughts are there was a lot of things impacting rivers at the same time, otters, mink, cormorants, crayfish, floods and there seemed to be a lot more eutrophication in the rivers around here back then.
Jason

Don't agree with that statement myself, regarding the pred's.

The rivers round here are fishing well but I think they would have fished a lot better if we hadn't had the horrendous floods we had last year. I do know of several rivers locally that spilled out for several or more miles into the surrounding areas along their lengths and the amount of fish that died because of this would have fed all the predators put together for the next hundred years!

Hugh Bailey · Dec 26, 2016

I fish the Wey.

I know Skippy may not agree, but, aside from the Barbel, I can't see how the river has ever been any better.

I started fishing it around 1964. Good angers caught good roach then, and I can catch them now (I'm nowhere near that good), but to be honest, no one fishes it much. I saw one guy on opening day, but since I rejoined about 7 or 8 years ago, I don't think I've seen more than 6 anglers when I've been. Granted I don't go much just now, but in maybe 20 trips you would expect to bump into a few people.

TBH I'm pretty happy about this. Fewer people to see me getting caught up in my jumper / jeans / trees / fence / etc.

But to answer the op - Yes!

terry m · Dec 26, 2016

Not yet, but still a few days to go to change that!!!

robcourt82 · Dec 26, 2016

The thames is a tricky one to get to for me, 90 mins in the morning 180 home which is a shame as the half dozen trips I've had have all been superb. Fished Walton, Staines, and Appleford and I've had good double figures of roach every time. Had 30pound at Staines on the wag on one of the hottest days of the year. It is simply solid with fish throughout the river.
I'm not sure my river fishing has improved but my catches certainly have. Had great days on the Thames, chelmer and the wensum, in fact I haven't had a bad day on a river this season.

The Runner · Dec 26, 2016

Agree, Thames seems as good as it's ever been in a lot of areas, at least as long as you catch it with flow and a tinge of colour. Still rock hard in most places if cold and clear, no change there as remember fishing Winter Leagues at Reading Prom and Shiplake 25 to 30 years ago with over 100 blanks out of 130.
Interesting about the Cherwell. Our club has a stretch of it (did have two but dropped one a couple of years back for various reasons) and it seemed to hit rock bottom about seven or eight years ago but has picked up since, The barbel and big chub aren't there any more but lots more roach and dace.
Its all cyclical I'm sure and a lot of the cycles are longer than anglers shorter term memories. Have had loads of conversations with other club members about the rapid drop off in chub catches on my local R Colne- I know there's problems of poaching, predation and most of all abstraction but in the end the vast majority of the chub were from two bumper spawning years around 1990 and the reason we aren't catching them is that they have mostly died off now. The dominant species now on our stretches at least are barbel and perch but this year there has been an explosion of little roach about half an ounce or so, so in the future it could all change again (as long as we are left enough water in the river)

jasonbean1 · Dec 26, 2016

Was it the Hampton poyle stretch Gerard's cross gave up ? I did notice the website was as up to date as it used to be?

Bob Hornegold · Dec 26, 2016

I have fished the Lea for 60ty years and every year it get worse.

There is NO control of predators, with fish egg survival at an all time low due to Signal Crayfish and Mitten Crabs.

Small fish are taken by Cormorants and larger fish by Mink and Otters, there is a general decline in the stocks within the river/navigation.

Yes there are some Huge fish within the system, but every year it gets harder to locate these fish as the older fish die off and there are less young fish coming through.

I can see no future for this river and many others, I know there are rivers that have full time keepers protecting them, game rivers and as a result the coarse fish thrive.

But generally rivers have never been so poor and it will be the commercial type waters that provide most of our fishing in the future.

Bob

Philip · Dec 27, 2016

Bob Hornegold said:
I have fished the Lea for 60ty years and every year it get worse.

There is NO control of predators, with fish egg survival at an all time low due to Signal Crayfish and Mitten Crabs.

Small fish are taken by Cormorants and larger fish by Mink and Otters, there is a general decline in the stocks within the river/navigation.

Yes there are some Huge fish within the system, but every year it gets harder to locate these fish as the older fish die off and there are less young fish coming through.

I can see no future for this river and many others, I know there are rivers that have full time keepers protecting them, game rivers and as a result the coarse fish thrive.

But generally rivers have never been so poor and it will be the commercial type waters that provide most of our fishing in the future.

Bob

You know the Lea better than me Bob (& better than most !) but your views are something I have heard applied to rivers like the Thames for decades "Every year it gets worse" with people bemoaning a lack of small fish coming through and the big old fish dying off. I have heard this so many times now that I would have thought the Thames system should now be a fishless wasteland devoid of any lifeforms whatsoever.

As for the future being commercials, I dont see that either....Jim Gibbinson said it was Gravel Pits 25 years ago when he bemoaned the death of river angling back then. I recon Gravel pits, Commercials AND rivers will all have their place in the future.

I don't mean to knock you Bob but the way I see it things have a way of sorting themselves out. I recently went down to an old stamping ground of mine, a tiny river in the South East that a decade ago was literally running dry from over abstraction...well with a bit of a helping hand from nasty ole man, I found a thriving little oasis again, full of fish and just like it was when i was a kid.

Things are not all doom and gloom

As for the river fishing where I am now ...well I have to say its never been better. Roach literally everywhere I fish now of all sizes which is usually a good indicator, I even had a Gudgeon. During October we had a few warm evenings and the river was alive with fish. Hopefully I'll be able to bag a few of em in 2017 !

Bob Hornegold · Dec 27, 2016

Philip said:
You know the Lea better than me Bob (& better than most !) but your views are something I have heard applied to rivers like the Thames for decades "Every year it gets worse" with people bemoaning a lack of small fish coming through and the big old fish dying off. I have heard this so many times now that I would have thought the Thames system should now be a fishless wasteland devoid of any lifeforms whatsoever.

As for the future being commercials, I dont see that either....Jim Gibbinson said it was Gravel Pits 25 years ago when he bemoaned the death of river angling back then. I recon Gravel pits, Commercials AND rivers will all have their place in the future.

I don't mean to knock you Bob but the way I see it things have a way of sorting themselves out. I recently went down to an old stamping ground of mine, a tiny river in the South East that a decade ago was literally running dry from over abstraction...well with a bit of a helping hand from nasty ole man, I found a thriving little oasis again, full of fish and just like it was when i was a kid.

Things are not all doom and gloom

As for the river fishing where I am now ...well I have to say its never been better. Roach literally everywhere I fish now of all sizes which is usually a good indicator, I even had a Gudgeon. During October we had a few warm evenings and the river was alive with fish. Hopefully I'll be able to bag a few of em in 2017 !

Philip

You are simply WRONG !!

As little as 10 years ago I could go to the Green and catch 10 Barbel from the High Bank in a morning, now you would be lucky to catch that amount in a season.

Continual stocking of fish from Calverton have little or no effect on the fish stocks, there is a breeding flock of Cormorants besides the river with No fear of man.

I knew the river in it's hey day, if you were not fishing it in the 50/60tys, then how can you compare it ?

Times change and we have to except the river as it is today and the are some huge fish around, but nothing like the number of the past.

And sticking your head in the sand and saying nature has a way of levelling things out is a nonsense, as Man has always interfered in the river stocks and controls.

The trouble is there are a section of conservationists (including conservationist anglers) who put there wishes before the wishes of the majority of anglers.

I'm afraid these anglers will always put up the same arguments and defend there opinions, but those of us who have been there and caught huge fish, plus large numbers of fish have seen the decline and deplore the uncontrolled predation that has taken place on our rivers.

Bob

jasonbean1 · Dec 27, 2016

Around my way there is a general feeing of optimism, which is something that as not been there for many years. The tackle shop I use most is top tackle, which is a stones throw from the thames at donnington. When I go in there which is most Saturday mornings there's plenty of reports of excellent catches from the Thames through Oxford.

While the Cherwell is definitely not back to its best the grip of all the problems it had seems to have loosened.

Bob, is your opinion just based on the areas of the Lea that you fish or is that rivers in general around your area?

---------- Post added at 04:02 ---------- Previous post was at 03:54 ----------

Around my way there is a general feeing of optimism, which is something that as not been there for many years. The tackle shop I use most is top tackle, which is a stones throw from the thames at donnington. When I go in there which is most Saturday mornings there's plenty of reports of excellent catches from the Thames through Oxford.

While the Cherwell is definitely not back to its best the grip of all the problems it had seems to have loosened.

Bob, is your opinion just based on the areas of the Lea that you fish or is that rivers in general around your area?

The Runner · Dec 27, 2016

jasonbean1 said:
Was it the Hampton poyle stretch Gerard's cross gave up ? I did notice the website was as up to date as it used to be?

Still got Hampton Poyle, we dropped the Northfields Farm stretch further downstream

Keith M · Dec 27, 2016

There are some areas of the lea in its upper reaches where its clubs have been able to improve the river through adding fish holding features; that are fishing superbly, I fish one of these superb stretches which holds quality specimen sized fish of most species, and it has done for as long as I can remember; unfortunately the wider stretches further downstream that used to fish well in the past are apparently not fishing as well as they did in the past.

It may have been Keith Speer that told me once that every drop of water in the Lea has quite probably been through a human at least five times by the time it reaches the Thames.

Considering that a lot of our rivers are experiencing periodic floods, over abstraction and over predation then it's not surprising that there are so many different fishing reports across the country even from the same rivers.

Keith

lutra · Dec 29, 2016

jasonbean1 said:
Bob, is your opinion just based on the areas of the Lea that you fish or is that rivers in general around your area?

Go easy, I think you might have caused mental meltdown with that one.

iain t · Dec 29, 2016

No. Got tougher tracking the buggers down

bullet · Dec 29, 2016

Mixed bag where I fish.
Trout fishing on several small rivers in the area was a bit disappointing, lack of rain didn't help.
Quality fish were scarce, although there were decent numbers of small ones. Hatches were on the whole poor.
The autumn grayling fishing has been good, but with the good conditions we've had a lot more opportunity to fish than most years, so don't know if it is just a reflection of this.
Again, I would say better sized fish are scarce, but plenty of others.
Chub fishing is ok, where I fish you usually get nothing or a few decent ones. As above, seem to be more small fish this year.
On the whole i would say its about average.
Seen a lot of goosanders this autumn, way more than usual.

lutra · Dec 30, 2016

A look back at the fishing reports from just the AT online tells a story. Yet another year with rafts of quality fish from rivers and still waters right across the country. Many of which would blow records of yesteryear out of the water.

Fishing has never been so good. Ever.

News 2016 — Angling Times

Did your river fishing improve in 2016?

jasonbean1

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tigger

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Hugh Bailey

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terry m

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robcourt82

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The Runner

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jasonbean1

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Bob Hornegold

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Philip

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Bob Hornegold

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jasonbean1

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The Runner

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Keith M

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lutra

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iain t

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bullet

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lutra

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