Venues Report
RIVER ROTHER
At last the Rother has a decent amount of water in it, a week or so ago one of our bailiffs reported that the river was about 2 feet up on recent levels and within about 18 inches of the top of the bank. Hopefully the levels will now hold through the autumn and winter without becoming excessive.
Coultershaw
We are now getting into the time when our barbel anglers reckon that Coultershaw is at its most productive for their chosen target. As the weather gets a bit cooler then the barbel (and other species) will tend to take on as much food as they can find to help them through the winter months. Now is also time to break out the bread for the big chub, they seem to be more interested in a big (and I mean big) lump of bread than a little bunch of maggots.
Shopham
We have a few members who mainly fish for sea trout and Shopham or the opposite bank of Coates they find to be one of the most productive areas. This has proved to be the case over the last month or so with the area of the riffles at Shopham being the most productive.
Coates Castle
See Shopham above.
Fittleworth
Still no activity on the barbel front, however we are just coming into prime barbel fishing time, so hopefully a report of a barbel or two in next month’s report. Still plenty of silver fish if you take a light approach, although I would expect these to slow down a bit as the weather gets colder.
RIVER ARUN
Watersfield
Good sized chub, bream, carp and roach continue to be tempted by static big pellets that anglers are hoping will attract the barbel. There have also been some notable catches on feeder fished maggot. These bigger fish are coming from the middle of the river, while fishing relatively close in normally on a float continues to produce loads of smaller roach, dace and chublets with a 10lb mixed bag being about par for the course.
Stopham
Now is the time to think about taking the pike fishing gear up to Stopham. There are still plenty of silver fish and perch around on light tactics and the pike will be around if there are food fish in plentiful supply.
STILLWATERS
Hurston Lane
Match Pond
Good mixed bags continue to be reported with bream and carp predominating but also a good number of silverfish and quite a few perch being reported. The bream are anything up to 4lb with up to 7 per session not being unusual. The carp are averaging around 4lb with the better ones at around 7lb.
Middle Pond
There have been a lot more anglers fishing the middle pond over the last month or so and they are reporting plenty of carp coming out with the best just into double figures. There are also plenty of silverfish showing in the middle pond to smaller baits and a perch of just on a pound was reported a week or so ago.
Tench Pond
With the colder nights of the last week or so fishing in the tench pond is definitely slowing down as it does each year at this time.
Stemps Wood
There are still plenty of fish coming from both ponds. Nelson has recently carried out remedial work on some of the platforms and we would again stress that anglers should not pull up boards or alter the construction of the platforms in any way.
Chichester Canal
A recent match fished on the canal at Grosvenor Road started well but the fishing was disturbed around mid to late morning by a high level of boat traffic. Not only the narrow boats but a regular stream of canoes and row boats went through the stretch and the fishing never really recovered. This was of course a Sunday so you can expect it to be a bit quieter mid week. You can expect the fish to be seeking the shelter of the deeper water in the basin over the next month or so which we can now fish together with the canal stretch north of the bypass. This is also a fairly reliable place for a bit of pike fishing.
Petworth Park
Definitely slowing down now as the cooler weather arrives with only 2 or 3 bream per session with the occasional tench being the norm. It is noticeable that the size of roach seems to be improving. At a recent match the average sized roach caught was significantly larger than last year at this time
The Granary
As it has been getting a bit colder, the fish are not quite as active at the Granary although it is still quite possible to have half or dozen or so carp in a session. A second rod or even a pole or whip with smaller baits will still produce plenty of rudd to keep you active while you wait for the carp.
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.