Walked a good stretch of the River Chew today with Red and his dog Sid. Weather bitterly cold with strong NE winds. The water was coming down to a normal level (what is normal in the current climate!) with a touch of colour. Most of the section you couldn't sight fish as the water was slower and deep. We saw just one small dimple rise. The area we walked had very little cover though so any fish would have been spooked long before we had clocked them. We moved on to another section and to our surprise saw a dozen or so stocked Rainbows jostling for position in the flow. These were hauled up in a section shrouded in trees. They were the lucky fish from last season who had not been caught, washed downstream or predated. Couldn't see any wild fish but that was probably because they were well hidden in the deeper holes of the undercut banks. Also saw a pair of Goosander on this stretch.
On my way back to Bristol stopped off at the Chew lower down and lucked upon Rich Denning from Keynsham AA. He was just netting, would you believe it, a Rainbow of about 2.5lb he had just caught ledgering for Chub. This is one of the ones that had been washed down from the stocked stretch. It didn't surprise me that the fish had taken up residence a fair way from where it was put in as the Keynsham stretch offers cover in abundance.
Nice looking fish. I usually fish the the Bathampton stretch above the compton Dando bridge, which has been good fishing recently. I was just wondering if you've ever taken a fish from the river chew for the pot? Not sure how clean the river is?
ReplyDeleteI would imagine there is no problem with taking and eating a stocked fish from the Chew. Water quality is generally OK no worse than some of the lakes. The only caution would be after a flood when wet weather sewer overflows tend to discharge into local water courses - although I am not sure there are any on the Chew. I would never take wild Brownies, unless badly hooked, but would encourage the taking of large stocked Rainbows which should never be in the river in the first place as they have a detrimental impact on the wild Brownies and other native fish stocks. This is my own personal view and I know clubs like to stock to supplement local fish stocks. Cheers Mike.
ReplyDeleteThere are Grayling in the Chew and they're a great indicator of a clean river as they're much less tolerant of pollution than other fish (I think it has something to do with the size of their liver).
ReplyDeleteI agree their presence in the Chew is a good sign but I have noticed in the years I have fished the numbers I catch go up and down each season but that might be because I just fail to locate the shoals as the river changes. Mike.
ReplyDelete