The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

Thought I'd grab a couple of hours just downstream from the canoe school at Burnt Mill.

Lots of leaves floating on the top plus canoes from the school made it hard work. Constant feeding of maggots and casters produced a 3" perch in the first hour and bites were hard to come by. I eventually got a bit of success with an 8" roach and then as the sun went down, I started to get cold, so thought I'd pack up. My mistake was to pack the landing net first... As always you have one last cast, whilst you clean away. Of course, the float dips and the rod bends over - this was not an 8" roach. I manage to bring it near the bank, and see an enormous perch just under the surface. However no means of getting it in and far too heavy to lift. There is a three foot drop to the water and I can't get down. Eventually and inevitably, the perch rolls off and disappears into the depth. Oh well, after more than 50 years of fishing, you might think I would know better, but it's amazing, you can still make schoolboy mistakes. Perhaps I'll remember for the next time, but it did whet my appetite to come back for more!

Happy days,

Fished it again today at my swim underneath the A414 bridge by Harlow. Beautiful October day and quite warm, with lots of leaves on the surface of the water. Bites hard to come by on maggot and so I switched to brandlings. Ended up with 3 perch, best one about a pound, but slow going

Hello every body, I am new to this site but an old fisherman.Had great success on the stort be it small roach,bream, perch,chub and a ruff which I have never caught before. Fished this river since a young lad and seen the ups and downs.That's it for now except my favourite haunts are the stretches along river way.

Welcome to the site Esox. I usually fish in the swim under the bridge which goes into Harlow from the A414. Have caught some nice roach and perch there+ the worlds smallest pike, but no chub. I was told that there were tench in there also, but much as I would love to, I have never caught one there. It's a bit chilly for me at the moment, but maybe I'll see you there when the weather warms

Esox14 wrote:Hello every body, I am new to this site but an old fisherman.Had great success on the stort be it small roach,bream, perch,chub and a ruff which I have never caught before. Fished this river since a young lad and seen the ups and downs.That's it for now except my favourite haunts are the stretches along river way.

Hello Esox.I wonder if you are a lea valley boy,(I was)Done a lot of piking round there,where the stort enters the lea at fields weir,that was always a good spot,got too busy for me and as I have said before it got visited by the wrong sort,just wondered if it is up or down at the moment,

Back in November I went lure fishing along the Stort, from the Harlow Mill, down to the Moorhen Marina and back... I tried Jigging, Plugs and Drop-Shotting.... I never had a touch... Hot gossip from Harlow Angling is that Harlow's Polish/EE residents have cleaned it out... I dunno if thats true or not, but it was certainly devoid of predators on that day...

Bluelabel wrote:Back in November I went lure fishing along the Stort, from the Harlow Mill, down to the Moorhen Marina and back... I tried Jigging, Plugs and Drop-Shotting.... I never had a touch... Hot gossip from Harlow Angling is that Harlow's Polish/EE residents have cleaned it out... I dunno if thats true or not, but it was certainly devoid of predators on that day...

Glad you said it and not me,as I have said before the whole of the lea valley is finished,nice place to walk your dogs though Just heard the other day that down at Broxbourne mill a couple of EES caught a pike and put it in a bag but luckly for the pike there were loads of people about and they made them put it back.

Hi,
Just seen this post as I was searching for something else and just wandered if you eventually me up with 'Mole.'
Regards,
Dean194bt

Has the Stort improved at all from the earlier posts, my sister moved to Stansted Mountfitchet on Friday and I noticed the Stort is just south of the village, I also noticed another small river called the Bourne.

Thanks
BB