Gary

This is about the only water on the Ringwood Ticket, that I have not fished.  The reason being is that it looks fairly narrow and I think when I went to have a look at it ( this was about 3 odd years ago ) it seemed overgrown, weedy and difficult to access.

I would go with the RDAA recommendation for the line strength if the stream is as weedy as I remember as it may well be that which snaps the line.  I would have thought there may well be some roach in the stream, the ticket book says there should be.

Chris

Chris

This is the one stretch of water my club share with Ringwood DAA and I have I have fished there without sucess on 3 or 4 occiasons over recent seasons.  Having said without sucess there has usually been a mitigator or too, like the weed which was horrendous when I tried back in July.  I was hoping the weed will have died back a bit by now.  Yes it is narrow, but I quite like narrow rivers.   I was hoping someone out there had some tips as I'm  sure it has potential and that I've been approaching it with the wrong methods.  Oh well, I'm off Friday so maybe I'll give the Lower Stour a go.

Gary

 

 

Co-incidentially this weeks Anglers Mail (17/01/06) features the mill stream on the Where to Fish pages.  Not sure it adds a lot to our understanding, beyond:

fishes better in the winter

best swims are at the Hampshire Hatches end of the stream

use bread punch with a ball of groundbait every five trots  

Never been a bread punch fan myself - always regarded it as a bit of a northern tactic, but might be worth a whirl.

Gary

 

Gary,

That's useful info, though that it fishes best in Winter is mentioned in the RDA book.

I had tried bread punch on the Stour a couple of years ago and it did attract the roach, it also had the habit of attracting the minnows too. Added to the fact it needs to be replaced frequently (at least when I use it) due to it not staying on the hook too long. I prefer maggots/cheese for this type of fishing. Though I mostly use pellets now as I have been aiming for the larger species recently (ie carp in lakes and barbel/chub on the rivers).

Certainly might be worth a try on the millstream though, if just to see how it works out.

Chris

Chris

Funny you should mention minnows, I tried my luck on the millstream for a couple of hours around lunchtime on Friday and got blitzed by the little blighters on maggot and flake - no roach or dace though.

As I was packing up I bumped into Robin Simpson (Beeches Brook ballif/ex Wellworthy member/current Ringwood member/local sage) and he was very informative.  He suggested either roving upstream of the bottom boundary for chub or, especially in the last two weeks of the season when the dace shoal up before spawning,  trotting under the footbridge at the Hampshire Hatches end of the stream.  Looks a tricky trot to me, but that may say much about my troting skills.

Saw four deer, a grebe and a kingfisher, so far from a wasted couple of hours.

Gary