I remember fishing Upper Benyons in the mid seventies,early eighties,it was like heaven,beautiful clean gravel glides,streamer weed,loads of barbel,chub and roach,sadly most rivers have gone down the same slippery slope,breaks my heart,even the once great Royalty fishery is a mere patch of it's former self...
River water quality
- Thread starter mikench
- Start date
Just to add to the above,our rivers now have the paddleboard/kayak menace destroying the peace of the rivers,be sure constant disturbance is harmful for the environment of the waterside,or has everything alive on the river got to become nocturnal?
no-one in particular
Well-known member
Maybe this is still a bit of a fad, it may die down. From what I have seen most of them cant stand up very well on them and wobble about, something to do with mass and inertia, the laws of motion, they probably think they look like Scott going down the Amazon but once the reality sets in I think that will give up on them over time. Some of them look like they should be supported by a frame of some sort unless that will be the next innovation but that is not the look they want so I doubt that will catch on although I am sure someone will come up with one one day. Its when they start thinking about attaching outboards is when we will all be in troubled waters.
rayner
Well-known member
Both Kayak and Paddleboards are a bi-product of the C virus furlough, folk need to spend their time doing one activity or another. Rather them Kayak than fish. Eh.
no-one in particular
Well-known member
You do have a point!
Covid has been a nightmare around here for people who would otherwise probably be shopping or sitting on the sofa playing XBox finding their way into the countryside.
Stretches where I have never seen anyone other than the odd dog walker or angler have become like Butlins, and the f**kers leave all their rubbish lying about or toss it in the river!
The sooner we get back to normal the better!
Stretches where I have never seen anyone other than the odd dog walker or angler have become like Butlins, and the f**kers leave all their rubbish lying about or toss it in the river!
The sooner we get back to normal the better!
no-one in particular
Well-known member
Feel free to express yourself
What's the Royalty like now Whitty, not been there must be for 15 or 20 years now. Is it really bad? The Avon was my favorite river once, I guess it shouldn't be now although often think of having a trip back down there, but should I bother?
I caught my first two barbel from the Royalty,fished it holiday wise for several years,before joining Christchurch AC and fishing the middle Avon,catching my first doubles,then lots of 5/10lbers,then my local rivers became better without the distance to travel,then marriage and kids,I fished the Royalty a few times towards the end of my time fishing around Ringwood,had catches of five and six barbel in a session,now I holiday at Christchurch 3 weeks a year and fish the lower Stour in the evenings,I have several contacts in the area,one a very good friend who is the lower Stour manager for Ringwood DAC,I asked him how the Royalty was fishing only two nights ago,he has told me twice now how grim it is,if it was fishing he would be on it himself,but he isn't,sad but he tells me the otters have been hard at it on the venue....i've caught so many chub,barbel and bream there it doesn't bear thinking about,quite a few mullet too....