silkweed

[Isis]

Silkweed used to be the most effective bait for the roach on the River Gade on Croxley Moor. There is a weir at the back of the old Dickinson's Mill. Unfortunately this has been polluted many times by the sludge from the paper mill. This river also had enormous gudgeon and a Mr S.Corley had a 1lb 6oz Dace from the water, back in the 1950s I think. Like CWK I've also had roach from the old weir at penton fishing close in. Great bait.

[GloucesterOldSpot]

Silkweed used to be the most effective bait for the roach on the River Gade on Croxley Moor. There is a weir at the back of the old Dickinson's Mill. Unfortunately this has been polluted many times by the sludge from the paper mill. This river also had enormous gudgeon and a Mr S.Corley had a 1lb 6oz Dace from the water, back in the 1950s I think. Like CWK I've also had roach from the old weir at penton fishing close in. Great bait.

Croxley Moor - takes me back. I used to fish that stretch in the 1980s and early 90s. The fast water below the weir used to be good for dace and roach (and minnows) and as you got nearer to the bridge the chub began to appear. The swim just above the bridge, trotting the far bank and under the bridge itself was always a very popular spot.

Further downstream there were some lovely weedy channels that always looked very promising - very barbelly too, though as far as I know none were ever caught there back then (though a few were caught further upstream around the weir and bridge at Gade Avenue, and I believe they have since increased in both size and numbers throughout).

There was good roach fishing to be had if you sneaked into the Marconi stretch above Dickinsons...

[Isis]

This river was one of the first ever cases of pollution taken up by the ACA in the late 1940s. I only fished the moor in the 1950s and 60s It got very badly polluted and then they restocked. There were never chub in the river until that stocking. The bends downstream near the railway bridge produced a lot of good roach too. One close season we were fish spotting and found a lot of spawning fatalities in the canal downstream that were over 2lbs. The best known stretch at the time was through Cassiobury Park where lots of good uns came out. The stretch immediately above Dickinsons also held some decent rudd. Takes my memory back.
After pedalling up the hill from Bushey Arches on my way to Croxley Moor I took a breather near the lake in the middle of Watford High Street, opposite The Top Rank, Baileys or whatever it's called now. Resting my tackle against the brick surround I got told to p*** off by a policeman. He thought I was going to fish there. Was tempted though. :chuckle:

[GloucesterOldSpot]

Cassiobury Park was always consistent for roach and chub, but you had to get there early to get the pick of the swims, especially on a Sunday. Here's a nice shot of Adrian Gooch with a net of fish taken from the park around 1986:



Adrian was one-time proprietor of Barnet Angling Centre, and did a centre-page feature for the Angling Times on the free fishing in the park. The regulars thanked him a bunch for that! When I next fished it there wasn't a swim to be had anywhere - it was like the old Division 1 National with about two thousand anglers spaced at five yard intervals on both banks from Gade Avenue to the top end of the park - a distance of about three miles.

Sad to say Adrian passed away recently.