River Stour - Fishing in Wessex

The Dorset Stour


	The Dorset Stour which is most fishable from Blandford to Christchurch Harbour, contains many species of coarse fish. Most famously perhaps is the Barbel held in this river, which 13lb plus speciems are caught reguarly on a season basis.

The Rivers course and its History

The river Stour starts notably as a fishing river from just North of Gillingham in Dorset, and flows on a fairly southerly course through North-West Dorset to the coast at Christchurch Harbour where it combines with the Hampshire Avon in the harbour mouth.

The river is quite different to fish, than the Avon being generally slower and less deep. The river supports a wide range of fish from excellent barbel, bream and chub in the lower stretches, to mullet near the harbour. Large pike are also fairly common. To the north perch, dace and the like can be caught.

Places to fish on the River Stour

The Stour has several locations available to day ticket anglers, and the odd free stretch, even on its more popular and better stocked lower stretches.

Nevertheless by joining on of the local course angling clubs in the area, further stretchs of more private waters are at your disposal. Clubs that I know of that have access to parts of the Dorset Stour are;

Ringwood and District Angling Asc
Christchurch Angling Club
Wimborne and District Angling Asc
Gillingham and District Angling Asc

One of the most well known fisheries on the river is Throop Fisheries which is now part of Ringwood and Districts Angling Associations' waters. They operate day tickets to this stretch, and these are available from local tackle shops.




*An 9lb barbel caught from Throop Fisheries in the summer of 2000*

	For detailed description of places to fish on the Stour please click one of the links below. Throop Fisheries Muscliffe Free Stretch The Lower Stour Fishery

Site Navigation

The Dorset Stour