Bridgnorth quite often have 50 turnout on there matches and now the river is back too normal the stretch will go from strength to strength, first evening match since the river has been low saturday resulted in a 138lb winning weight, if the river stays like this now sureley the record will go this season as long as the right angler is on the right peg, i’m looking forward to weds on my first wychavon qualifier.

the only trouble with the severn now is unless you draw on a few fish the pellet is a boring method imo and at bridgnorth anyway you will rarley win money in the summer fishing any other method!

Come and Fish the Wye.Phone Woody on 01432344644 he will tell you when the opens are on.

looking forward to our river matches unfortunatly dont think most people even have the gear to fish a river never mind the knowledge as someone who loves canal and river fishing i look forward our club matches but i dont look forward to the long walks and as i get older i find myself more and more happy to fish the mercials not many places on rivers or canals where i can SAFELY park my car get a good breakfast and practicaly park behind my peg One section of the Trent which belongs to Notts Fed is the Viaducts where you can now drive down to the peg and park behind most of them they have also put in some stages which is good but still dont think the days of 300 or even 100 peggers is about to return sad really but perhaps its too little to late

Vast majority of our club matches are on rivers and we get anything from to 25-50 turning out depending on the whens and wheres.

Consistency is probably a factor,as soon as the weather turns cold and the frosts appear the fish shoal up even tighter. I live very close to the trent and during the winter months I only ever see Barbel anglers on there, I never see any matches being held.

Commercials offer consistent sport,short walks and lets not forget the breakfast.Its a shame really but this is how fishing has gone over the last decade.

I fished the river Idle on the Hallcroft stretch last Sat and Sun. I’d been told it had good chub and barbel in it. Guess what I caught? Carp up to 10lb. They didn’t half put up a fight in the flow!

good to hear the Trent is fishing well and hope these results are widely reported in the angling press – fantastic river and fantastic and friendly people.

NoCarpPlease: With the long grass at Barford and access from Sherbourne church carpark there might not be long walks but they are a bit uncomfortable! lol

Has the revamped season ticket allocation reduced the speci barbel hunters?

N C P – I fished the rivers for over 30years and I totally disagree with your assumptions of winter fishing, yes the frosts are not as severe but the fish still shoal up FACT. I got tired of fishing matches on the Trent struggling your backside off for a bite. We fished the winter leagues and joked you’d get more enjoyment throwing your pools money in the river off Dunham Bridge rather than sit there for 5 hours and the odd bite on.
Switching to the canals is a good alternative but not all people think the same and you are moving from running line tactics back to poles, thats when anglers consider commercials and thats what happened with me I stayed on them.

Just a thought but “where’s John Allerton these days ?”

NCP. I would appreciate any info on future Trent matches. I grew up on the place even though its a 70 mile trip for me.
I am back into my match fishing after a pleasuring break of 10 years. Like everybody else I stopped going in the early nineties because of the poor sport and cleaner river.
I am glad its coming back to form and have had some good days out on the middle Trent over the last two seasons.

NCP- Regards your comments to venue experts,how many different methods of fishing commercials do you think you need to know? Method,shallow,paste and on the deck,if you can do these well and get a little advice from these “experts” you should be able to compete anywhere. Clean rivers and no power atations coupled with the extra chemicals off the land which are supposedly safe until someone decides otherwise is not a good recipe for success. River fishing is fine for pleasure fishing and set in a lot nicer surroundings. 300 people in a recent national and what won 32lb. Long live commercials and here’s to many more!!!

N C P – I think the rivers have gone past there point of return, my comment is purely because the amount of anglers that used to fish the rivers have either stopped fishing or now fish commercials. A more important factor is the up and coming youngsters ? they start on the commercials and miss out on the skills that are required to catch on a running water they would sooner stay put ? than learn the skills, this will be a big factor in giving you the attendances long term that you want to see.When all said and done you’ve only got to look at this season to see that alot of rivers have only been right over the last couple of weeks, what would you do ? stay at home or go to a commercial ??. If this weather stays the same year on year with all hype about global warming etc etc then this will give anglers more reason to stay on commercials and not return to the rivers. As I said on my first post its a shame but “its like that and thats the way it is” huuuugh

NCP- I think you need to read this thread from top to bottom and you will see you have answered your own question.
Unfishable,incosistent rivers,3lb a man what normal person is going to prefer that to cocnsistent good weights week in week out. Sorry mate but stop being bacward thinking!!!!

Wannabe: I’m having a bit of ‘enlightenment’ at the moment! lol

What is good about being 3lb ‘behind’ in a section is that you could feasibly catch a chub or tench and snatch the section on your last cast.

Unlikely to happen if you are 40lb behind on a commercial or even 10lb behind if you KNOW that the largest fish in the lake is say 7lb and someone has already had it! lol

Perhaps it is the lure of the ‘unknown?’

Could do without the walks though: I fished Maudsley (21? A flier anyway) and hardly ‘ran to it’ but looked like Red Rum after a good run out! Steam rising off me. Barbel first chuck then not a bite.

Good enough for second in section in a Winter League I was filling in for but then FIVE HOURS to contemplate the march back!

:-/

Mark-“one out of the frame” how many times has that 1 chub cost you??? What’s the point in working your t*ts off for a stone of roach for someone to nick it with 2 lumps on the feeder?? hardly deserved is it? At least nowadys on a lot of commercials 40lb can be made up in an hour.What do you go fishing for? to catch fish,1 in 5 hours is like torture been there time and again.