The following is a brief round up of my trips since my lost post, which has seen me concentrate on just two venues:

As the evenings shorten, this venue has the advantage of being between home and work, although perhaps somewhat eccentrically I have even taken a couple of long lunches and fished here. At the start of the autumn I was using either bread flake or tares with loose fed hemp, but as temperatures have dropped I have predominately used bread flake and either Sensa 3000 River groundbait or plain old liguidised bread. I have somewhat rung the changes with methods; trotting falling tides, a cage feeder for a rising tide and a form of stret pegging for between double high tides. Well at least I think it is stret-pegging; an avon flat fished well over-depth with the bulk shot bunched together and a long tail to the hook. Whatever it is, it has been fairly successful by my standards.

Back in September I was concentrating on the Pony Fields stretch or the Railway Bridge swim and since then have moved down to either the Island at Iford or by Wick Ferry. Overall, that big silver has been elusive. However, I’ve had good sport with dace and roach and bonuses in the form of a sea trout of no great size from Wick and a 3lb 8oz mullet from the Railway Bridge swim. My first ever mullet and boy do they struggle. I’m not sure what sort of eating mullet make, but both he and the trout went back for another day. Certainly the mullet was too glorious a creature to biff on the head. They are stunning looking fish. Both came on bread flake, fished in conjunction with a cage feeder for the mullet and stret-pegged for the trout: oh and both came at dusk. Incidentally, the cast before the mullet something took my bread flake with such force that it made the rod jump out of its rests. My initial thought was a river carp, but having now experienced a fight with a mullet, and as they are shoal fish, I guess it was probably a mullet. What I cannot really understand is after 8 years of living down here, I had come to regard mullet as predominately shy or non-biting fish, but contradictorily once they do take the bait, it is with a mother and a father of a bite.

The Tidal Stour is available on the Christchurch Book or by day tickets from Sean at Christchurch Angling.

I spent a couple of lunchtimes looking at the northern end of the mill stream. As a result I decided I liked the look of the glide between the footbridge at the end of Bickerley Road and the old railway bridge. I have named this glide Chav’s Pool; you’ll soon twig why if you have company along this stretch. Since then I have fished here a few times and again that monster silver has eluded me, but in short sessions trotting an avon or stick through, the landing net has been required for both roach and dace. Flake, maggots and caster have all proved equally effective, flake perhaps sorting out the better dace. A youngster told me he never fishes this spot without catching a pound roach, and whilst I’ve no reason to doubt him, his lack of scales or net and the use of a bucket as a keep net maybe means the veracity of this claim should be questioned. I’ve no doubt though that the odd decent fish is there and I’ve seen good-sized fish downstream of the railway bridge in mid-stream: waders may be a useful item here, but I’ve had dace trotting from the bank just below the railway bridge. More reliable sources tell me good chub can be taken from the far bank just upstream of the railway bridge in the evening. Trying for pike may be worthwhile as I’ve has a jack follow a dace to the net.

On my last visit (17^th December), other than bleak and minnows, I blanked early morning on a swollen river with a heavy frost still on the ground. I now understand (from the forum on the Ringwood DAA site) that frost often does put an end to the sport on the stretch. (Note to self: fishes best in winter, but not after a frost, em interesting.) On the way home I stopped to look at the Hampshire Hatches end of the stream and the river was over its banks. A very polite and informative chap was fishing the swollen footbridge ford swim and was also blanking. In fact if you look at the Bickerley strand of the Ringwood DAA web-site forum you will see a fantastic picture this chap has posted of the flooded stream.

With the turn of the year I’ll predominately resort to chubbing should I visit this stream between now and the end of the season. However, Chav’s Pool is quite a fun stretch and the footbridge pool at Hampshire Hatches should see dace shoaled up between now and the end of the season.

Now where is that cheese paste in the freezer …..

The millstream can be fished free of charge by the youth of Ringwood (ah ha – explains a lot), Ringwood DAA members and on a shared basis members of Wellworthy Angling Club.

HNY

GG