River Roding

[Andrew Banham]

back over passingford tomorrow clearing trees in the river and fishing in the afternoon till 10pm

[Bigoll]

After a largely fish-less week in Pembrokeshire and an excellent, though non-fishing related, fortnight on hols I popped down to my favoured swims on the Roding for a few hours this afternoon. Once the thunderstorm, which started as soon as I was set up on the bank, had cleared off, I settled in to an excellent session.

The river had been in flood for much of the time between Easter and summer so I was uncertain as to whether the pockets of fish had been swept downstream, but it seems not. First cast was rewarded with a small dace, while the second landed a 'one hander' chub (I'm terrible with weights and measures). Third fish out was a larger chub, followed by a gudgeon, which I've never caught on the Roding before. After that I was just hitting minnows so assumed the other species had got a bit spooked and duly moved further along the river to another spot.

And what a sight was in store - at least a dozen large chub basking in the sunlight over one of the deeper pools. I fed them a few maggots just to watch them go about their business for a while, whereupon an inquisitive passer-by and his Polish friend decided to join me to see how things were going. I'd planned to play the pool my own way but was egged on and cast out for their entertainment, immediately banging in to one of the large chub. I gave the chaps a few seconds of show and tell (yes, it's a beautiful fish; no I'm not going to eat it; because it's illegal and would strip the river bare; yes you do need a licence to fish in the UK - hopefully some of this rubbed off on them) and was about to take a photo when it skipped out of my hands and landed straight back in the water. After that the shoal vanished, not helped by a bunch of dog-walkers allowing their pets to charge past me into the river. Dark thoughts made me move on once more.

Third swim was hidden away from the path and I was undisturbed for an hour, though evidence of campfires and vodka sessions was everywhere. A couple of deep pools yielded a few more dace and minnows but nothing more. Thinking the shoal of large chub might be back, I returned to the previous swims but was thwarted by: a bunch of kids splashing around and hitting the water with sticks; 4 dogs running around or swimming; what appeared to be a woman washing her clothes; and a family using the riverbed as a footpath, swiping at everything with shrimp nets and churning the entire stretch into a muddy soup. Seriously, torture is too kind for these antisocial philistines.

Fed up of all the meddling, I moved further the other way and plunged through the nettles and brambles to a deep section away from disturbances. Lo and behold the chub were right there! Clearly they had the same idea as me. Sadly, the commotion from upstream made them too timid to catch so I settled for another couple of dace and called it a day.

Despite the disturbances it was a great session and the range and size of fish was excellent for what is a small, shallow river which has been in flood for more weekends than I can remember. I'll be down there frequently during evenings and weekends if anyone fancies tagging along; I did note more anglers than I've ever seen along the park stretch before, so maybe word is getting out, or maybe it was just a nice day for it.

[Tench Dreamer]

After a largely fish-less week in Pembrokeshire and an excellent, though non-fishing related, fortnight on hols I popped down to my favoured swims on the Roding - those in the park stretch up to Debden - for a few hours this afternoon. Once the thunderstorm, which started as soon as I was set up on the bank, had cleared off, I settled in to an excellent session.

The river had been in flood for much of the time between Easter and summer so I was uncertain as to whether the pockets of fish had been swept downstream, but it seems not. First cast was rewarded with a small dace, while the second landed a 'one hander' chub (I'm terrible with weights and measures). Third fish out was a larger chub, followed by a gudgeon, which I've never caught on the Roding before. After that I was just hitting minnows so assumed the other species had got a bit spooked and duly moved further along the river to another spot.

And what a sight was in store - at least a dozen large chub basking in the sunlight over one of the deeper pools. I fed them a few maggots just to watch them go about their business for a while, whereupon an inquisitive passer-by and his Polish friend decided to join me to see how things were going. I'd planned to play the pool my own way but was egged on and cast out for their entertainment, immediately banging in to one of the large chub. I gave the chaps a few seconds of show and tell (yes, it's a beautiful fish; no I'm not going to eat it; because it's illegal and would strip the river bare; yes you do need a licence to fish in the UK - hopefully some of this rubbed off on them) and was about to take a photo when it skipped out of my hands and landed straight back in the water. After that the shoal vanished, not helped by a bunch of dog-walkers allowing their pets to charge past me into the river. Dark thoughts made me move on once more.

Third swim was hidden away from the path and I was undisturbed for an hour, though evidence of campfires and vodka sessions was everywhere. A couple of deep pools yielded a few more dace and minnows but nothing more. Thinking the shoal of large chub might be back, I returned to the previous swims but was thwarted by: a bunch of kids splashing around and hitting the water with sticks; 4 dogs running around or swimming; what appeared to be a woman washing her clothes; and a family using the riverbed as a footpath, swiping at everything with shrimp nets and churning the entire stretch into a muddy soup. Seriously, torture is too kind for these antisocial philistines.

Fed up of all the meddling, I moved further the other way and plunged through the nettles and brambles to a deep section away from disturbances. Lo and behold the chub were right there! Clearly they had the same idea as me. Sadly, the commotion from upstream made them too timid to catch so I settled for another couple of dace and called it a day.

Despite the disturbances it was a great session and the range and size of fish was excellent for what is a small, shallow river which has been in flood for more weekends than I can remember. I'll be down there frequently during evenings and weekends if anyone fancies tagging along; I did note more anglers than I've ever seen along the park stretch before, so maybe word is getting out, or maybe it was just a nice day for it.

Sounds great bigoll....Ill give it go when it cools down. Where in Debden was this?

[Andrew Banham]

nice story bigoll
after spending sunday morning ripping up dead and fallen trees and using a dingy to cut any trailing branches in the river we returned in the afternoon one above the clearance and myself below and had very few bites and both blanked. to make it worst we had over fifty large roach and rudd moving between us not interested even on shallow float fished maggots. long range forcast predicts rain as the river has almost stopped and when the river flows fish feed a lot better

[Bigoll]

John - you must be itching to give it a go! While I'm reluctant to specify the swims for fear of finding them full up, I can tell you that there are fish to be had in Roding Valley Park. The only time I've blanked there was when the river was in full flood and a thunderstorm was going on. Hopefully I'll bump into you down there one day after the school holidays.

Andrew - I've never fished the stretch north of Debden but it sounds like the fish are there in bigger numbers if not a greater willingness to be caught; perhaps there's more natural food than Roding Valley Park, given I had fish leaping out of the water to attack the maggots on the retrieve. Any chance of a taster session on the house? I'm going to break out the pioneering spirit and explore other sections more thoroughly in the coming weeks, which have some nice stretches but are somewhat more difficult to access.

[Tench Dreamer]

Oh yes bigoll I am itching. Ill park in David Lloyd cross the small arched bridge and walk on the park side up stream....It will be small river fishing first time for me and I ll probably wait till Sept.They will be short session and Im looking forward to it.

Fair enough on the swims...I only meant the area and youve told me that.Thanks

[Andrew Banham]

hi all hope to get out for a evening session today. i have checked the level station at shonks mill which is on the EA site and is reading 0.28m which is very low however passingford is very deep so the level station tells me wheter it will be flowing or not. it takes some time to understand the data but it is useful as my club stretch is shallow and fast at one end and deep and slow at the other so i know what to expect. there is one for loughton and redbridge. the shonks mill one is pretty accurate i dont know about the others. this is from some european directive and they have do it.

[Bigoll]

Good luck Andrew - let us know the results. I plan to have a session tomorrow and will report back - I suspect the heavy showers last night and today will mean the fish are feeding well. Loughton shows 0.05m, which seems unlikely! Though it could be a trickle where their gauge is - presumably at the culverted section near Debden station - while downstream is a mixture of fast and shallow, and deep and slow.

[Tench Dreamer]

Andrew/bigoll....Couple of technical questions please1. What tactics do you use on a general rove around this part of the Roding....also 2. Baits....whata use?

[Andrew Banham]

what a terrible session ,thunder and lightning, heavy downpours and the air really cooled. i had 4 hittable bites and caught a small perch.
so far this year i have been legering with big baits like hair rigged corn, breadflake and crust and lobworms with 2 twilight specialists at passingford no need to rove because for about 400 yrds depths between 5ft-9ft. at mitchells farm or stanford rivers like to floatfish with maggots with a centerpin or leger with a small bomb again with maggots or redworm. i like long trotting under the M25 bridge in winter when there is extra water with maggots and its the only place i know where chubb can be caught in open water. if the river is flowing then you can cover a lot more river with a float .