Different Stour , different result.

barbelblanker · #1 01-12-2009, 10:02 PM

Having just joined Birmingham AA I decided to go to stourton castle on the river Stour , mainly because I was on standby for work so had to be able to pack up and get to the office in 30 minues (ish

).

The river is next to the Staffs Worcester canal at the stewponey where there used to be a pub but now there's just apartments

.

The stretch upstream from the road goes about 100 yards, turns left at about 90 degree. About 100 yards above that is a small wier (probably about a 10 foot drop). The river then turns back 90 degrees where it passes through a canal looking section with a field on one side and trees on the other . Some of these have fallen in the water. The river then bends a few times in to a wooded areas directly next to the canal.

Saturday (day one).
It was still bl@@dy cold

. Low wind ground hard with frost.
Choose a swim above the wier opposite some fallen trees. Depth turned out to be about 5 foot and quite even. Loose fed (sparignly) some help, maggot and soft pellets. Trotted a float through the walking pace water for about 45minutes. Nothing.

Moved right up to the wooded area and trotted a float again. Small roach about 6oz but not a lot.

Moved down to a snaggy swim between two branchs that had fallen across the river. Swim was about 30 yards wide and both branchs had significant debris rafts against them. Trotted a bait down to the bottom of the two and caught a roach between 12oz and 1 pound. Switched to a small feeder and caught a bigger fish again but things were slow.

So saturday , a relatively short session and cold. three roach.

Sunday was back a little earlier but had to leave at 4 because the eldest had a party and the wife is in bed with woman flu.

Weather had warmed to a tropical 8 degrees , wind was up and blowy. Ground had that inch of defrosted slippery mud under which was ice. Cold under foot then.

Tried the swim I left the previous night , nowt. Two guys fishing above me in the woods didn't seem to be doing too good either.

Moved to try a longshot under the wier. Loads of eddies and a lot shallower than I thought. Fed maggot and trotted and avon through the worst of the flow and guiding it to run down the crease .

The float flew under and I caught ......a tree root. Snap!

Retied a hook and the avon went JUST outside the root and then went under and again,a tree root....that started to move with a slow dogged UPSTREAM movement. Oh I see it's a fish. Saw it , ah it's a couple of pound bream, bit greeny silver though. The I landed it. That's when it dawned on me that this was no bream, it was the biggest roach I have ever seen in MY net. Had to be at least two pounds but looking at some recent pictures of 2 pounders I reckon it was heavier (allowing for exxageration on my part and theirs ) .

It was about now that the decision to stay mobile and leave excess gear at home made sense up to the point where I left the scales at home

So I can't claim it. And I left the camera home on day two

. My phone is one of them without a camera

So it was a 12 oz as far as the PBs go AHHHH!!!!

But now I know they are there.

And a two pound roach is on my list.

Spent an hour back on the canal section and did catch a tiddly roach too.

So day two was one roach, probably at least two pound but can't claim it and one tiddler.

And I enjoyed every minute of it AND I will be back.