Muscliffe Free Stretch,Dorset Stour

rob@home · #1 09-01-2009, 06:22 PM

Well had it in mind to have a days fishing yesterday down the Stour thinking that the previous days rain would be washing through & given the river a bit of colour. Our rivers have been really low & clear lately, not conducive to catching fish in any river anglers opinion. Well after a nice lie in I got to the river @ about 12-30 & set about baiting a few swims with hemp & casters. Gave it about 20 mins before setting the gear up with my usual light link ledger & avon rod set up. One last look @ my baited swim seemed to indicate that they were having it! I counted 10 chub all over 3lb with some going to about 6lb I reckoned all snaffling hard in roughly a foot of water.
I thought that I'd leave them to it & have a crack @ them later on the way back when most of the dog walkers & kids had gone home. So I wandered up the river fish spotting as I went. Stopped here 1st & spent half hour on a feeder catching some small chublets & gudgeon ( not quite the barbel i've been after but its a start I spose

)

Moved on upstream trying to locate some move moving fish. Stopped off @ a lovely swim however there were dog walkers & kids everywhere, give it another month & it'll be a lovely swim Spotted some lovely roach & threw in some free offerings & with that the shoal disappeared. I had a good feeling they'd moved down into the deep water just below the swim so used a feeder with hemp & casters again to tempt them back up to the bottom of the swim. 1st cast bang! I thought it was a chub but no my 1st roach of the season & a clonker @ 1lb 8oz.

Did try to get the rest of the shoal going but what with dogs,horses & some rather obnoxious kids jumping in the river too it wasn't to be. I started to wander back downstream. Wandered back to a likely looking spot with some far bank cover. Managed a few chublet before the swim erupted with what must of been a decent size pike & thought better of it so kept on wandering. Thers always spots on a river that I call banker swims where you can be sure of taking a fish or 2 & I have a couple of these on this stretch. Stopped @ one of them & managed another couple of chub to 1 1/2lb then back to my starting swim. My chub that had been so carefree earlier were gone when I got there & there were the remnants of bait in it too which probably meant that it had been fished before I had arrived, never a good sign from my experience! Anyway 10 minutes of baiting & dark shapes started materialising from the back end flotsam around a streamer weed another 10 minutes & they were looking quite confident again although as soon as I put a lump of luncheon meat in they spooked straight back under their weed hideout. Took me a good 30 minutes to get anywhere confident enough to drop a bait in but when I did the fish spooked quite markedly. After 10 minutes of watching these fish 1 moved over my corn & then moved back to cover & my corn was gone. With that the rod bent over & a decent chub was on.
Not a big chub by my standards but nevertheless a well earned fish of about 3lb

By this time the light was fading quite badly so I moved to my last swim, this swim is where you come down to the river but as this swim gets hammered by dogs,horse,kids this is probably the best time to be in this swim as the light fades. 1st flick I lost a decent fish on corn but try as I might nothing else would go for it. So @ 9pm I called it a day after walking a good couple of miles, a hard afternoons fishing but an enjoyable one...

BaggieRich · #2 09-01-2009, 07:11 PM

Well done Rob, sound slike a cracking trip!

fishypaul · #3 09-01-2009, 07:26 PM

nice one rob,lovely roach

rob@home · #4 09-01-2009, 08:09 PM

Cheers guys gotta make the most of these summers evenings autumns on her way. Got bitten to bu**ery though by those damn midges just as night falls the river seems to come alive with the damn things.

Greenheart · #5 09-02-2009, 04:15 AM

Great read & nice Chub. Sounds like a fun day.

Catfish Virgin (Still!) · #6 09-02-2009, 09:50 PM

Good report Rob and a very nice roach!

Used to live in Castle Lane and fish Muscliffe, Redhill and New Road all the time (only about 40+ years ago so a bit different then!).

rob@home · #7 09-03-2009, 06:00 AM

Did you ever have any luck for these barbel people keep telling me about in this stretch Neil?
I've fished it consistently for the last few years & not even had a sniff from one, i'm sure there are some in there maybe down towards the throop end but i've never had any joy with them. There are some cracking chub in there i've seen them to what I would reckon to be 7lb+. Also some nice roach,perch & pike when you can find them.

Fishing Forum Admin · #8 09-03-2009, 06:11 AM

Nice one mate

rob@home · #9 09-03-2009, 06:42 AM

Like your zander site Richard its really usefull was chatting about zeds last night didn't have a clue how to catch 1 till looking @ your site though...

Catfish Virgin (Still!) · #10 09-03-2009, 08:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rob@home

Did you ever have any luck for these barbel people keep telling me about in this stretch Neil?
I've fished it consistently for the last few years & not even had a sniff from one, i'm sure there are some in there maybe down towards the throop end but i've never had any joy with them. There are some cracking chub in there i've seen them to what I would reckon to be 7lb+. Also some nice roach,perch & pike when you can find them.

Opposite bank - Parley (Bounds Farm) and Parley Church both RDAA controlled - hold some superb barbel but they are not so prolific as Throop.. However both those stretches are incredibly underfished and those that do fish there are very tight lipped! The roach in Autumn and Winter are superb but take a bit of locating, if you can find them there a brilliant catches to be had. The chub are plentiful and it regularly produces 6's and rumours of much bigger fish in late Atumn/Winter.

Back in the 60's, the expert view was that there were "no barbel above Throop Weir" (the old weir before that new fangled concrete thing went in!) but those in the know knew different. I had them throughout Parley, up into Redhill, New Road and Dudsbury!

Nowadays, they are all through those stretches and Longham produced a "16" plus loads of other doubles. The Waterworks (also RDAA) also produce some huge doubles!

Sitting on a bed of hemp and fishing casters was a great method a couple of years ago! But I reckon a concerted effort should produce them. Put the time in, walk the water a lot and try to locate them. Then fish that area hard!

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