Venues Report
RIVER ROTHER
Our water bailiffs continue to report really low levels, in spite of the rain that we had through August. What water went into the river ran off very quickly, despite this the river continues to fish well.
Coultershaw
It’s amazing the number of different species that have been recorded from Coultershaw in the last month, just about everything that swims in the river from minnows to barbel. Probably highlight of the month was a 20lb plus pike which was caught by an angler spinning for sea trout. For those that are interested our pike season starts on 1st October. We have had another big sea trout reported, following the fish of 6 – 7lb reported by Andy Thomas from Shopham last month a member reported a fish of 7lb 2oz from Coultershaw this month. A photo of Andy’s fish appeared in an earlier news report HERE. To see a photo of Stephen Gray’s fish please click HERE
Shopham
Most anglers that are fishing Shopham seem to be adopting stalking tactics as mentioned in the last report. A steady stream of reasonable chub is being reported with odd pockets of silver fish catches.
Coates Castle
Tactics similar to those used at Shopham are the most popular. Please note that you should not be parking in Coates Lane and accessing the river under the old railway bridge. Please use the official club car parks and access the river from these points only.
Fittleworth
After last year’s record fish there is not much activity on the barbel front although a number of anglers are regularly targeting them, perhaps it’s a bit early in the season. However there are plenty of roach chub and dace active all along the stretch.
RIVER ARUN
Watersfield
Following recent rain quite a lot of debris is moving up and down the river at the moment. Fishing at Watersfield continues to be very good with plenty of silver fish to the float, you don’t need to fish far out and therefore you are largely unaffected by the debris. It is best to use fairly substantial rigs in order to get through the bleak which are prolific in the top 4foot or so of water. Once past the bleak you will find plenty of roach dace and small chub to maggot or caster. Feed a heavy groundbait and you can also feed a few maggot and caster through a bait dropper. For those that prefer to fish a static bait then this line can produce some bigger fish to baits such as worm, sweet corn and bread. In the last month some quality chub and bream have been caught on big pellets fished over a bed of smaller pellet.
Stopham
Stopham continues to fish well for silver fish and perch on a light feeder using maggot or a small worm on the hook. One angler who has not fished the venue for a while went up there with fairly light float tactics hoping to get some of the better roach and perhaps a rudd or two which do put in an appearance at Stopham. He found it virtually impossible to get a bait through the bleak which the stretch seems to be solid with at the moment.
STILLWATERS
Hurston Lane
The amount of work going on around the ponds has not put the fish down; in fact it seems to have encouraged them as there have been some excellent catches reported in the last month. Just for a change the tench pond leads the way this month with one angler reporting an 18lb haul of crucians with a couple of fish over 2lb among them. Keeping the name of the pond intact another angler reported a short session where he had three tench all over 3lb. Thanks to the massive effort from the weed clearers there are plenty of swims available on the middle pond and the weed removal seems to have stimulated the carp with plenty of fish in the 6 – 10lb bracket being reported. If you fancy a good bag of bream then look no further than the match pond where between 6 and 10 fish up to 3lb is the norm and it is quite common to find one or two carp muscling in and giving the unwary angler a shock when they tear off at twice the speed of the bream.
Stemps Wood
There have been some phenomenal bags of carp taken from both Stemps and Cart with perhaps the highlight being 20 plus carp in one session from Cart Pond. The most favoured tactic is a small method feeder. There are absolutely loads of silver fish to be caught on smaller baits in both ponds. You can sort out the better fish by going to larger baits such as corn, meat and expander pellets up to about 6mm If you are fishing for the carp it is best to go for big baits with a bit of substance as these are not going to get decimated by the silver fish
Chichester Canal
The canal continues to fish well for silver fish and in particular roach and rudd. While fishing a recent session an angler fishing near the depth marker at Grosvenor Road saw a shoal of 6 carp in the region of 7 – 10lb cruising the far bank. He was unable to target them having set out to catch roach and skimmers. There also seems to be a lot of pike activity at the moment; a number of anglers have reported pike following caught fish or keepnets being attacked. Don’t forget that from 1st October you can fish upstream of the bypass bridge and in the basin.
Petworth Park
Some good tench, bream and crucian nets have been reported from the road swims or behind the far islands. There are also plenty of silver fish to maggot.
The Granary
Plenty of carp in the range of 1 – 10lb have been coming out with the odd fish into double figures. The best session reported in the Log book is 16 carp, well done to that angler. There have also been further reports of crucian carp coming out of The Granary. There have been a couple of 1lb plus rudd in recent weeks with the best fish weighing in at 1lb 9oz. It would be nice to think there might be a 2lb+ rudd to be caught from this lake!
Bethwins
There is still very little to report from Bethwins.
Please remember to fill in the log books when you fish a session, they make these reports possible.