Essex-Fishing

did anyone try the roding or pant over the weekend.

Went to Roding at passingford bridge Sunday 11th, not much colour in water, rain had little effect, hardly any flow in wides by bridge. gor past the 2 lots of barbed wire by the m25 widening and tried several spots over 5 hours, Had 1 perch @ 1.5lb after 30mins (maggot feeder), then not a bite. 2 guys on wides had 1 small perch, and 2 roach (maggot + float). tried float had 1 sucked maggot. not thrilling stuff. Packed in @ 2pm and walked patch park stretch, no one fishing there, saw 1 small chub moving over shallows.
first time ive ever fished the roding , not impressed, will fish the lark in cambridge until I here fishing improve, thro' forum. long way to drive but loads of fish there!.

malc
its real hard going at the moment, the river has shrunk this summer. at the end of last season about the last 2 weeks we couldn,t fish because the river was in the fields now we are desperate for rain. were do you fish on the lark, anywhere near the pumping station museum. upstream you can get double figures and downstream below the pumping station about 10ozs. roding comes good when there has been proper rain and the blackwater produces no matter how cold it is. i often fish into darkness in winter at passingford bridge for chubb and before its totally dark perch. at mitchells farm and stanford rivers there are some nice swims to tackle with a 2bb balsa float or small ledger and there is always the chance to catch something large or get your hook straightened.

andy,
Thanks for the info on the Roding only fished it once. Have walked from Traceys farm to Shonks Mill. Most of it need to be a commando to get to with 10ft landing net handle at least. but looks fishy. have also walked from shonks to Mitchells farm but not past it. Only saw 3 fishable swims past cottages at shonks mill end. Any tips on methods to use greatfully accepted, not fished a stalking river like this before. Tend to sit on seat box with 13m pole. (remnant of clubmans league fishing a few years back).
I fish the Lark at Prickwillow bridge, great in winter with loads of roach to punch, caster, hemp. Lots of esox tend to put in an appearance too.
Its a CFPAS water (25 quid a year) but can be fished on day ticket ,but rarely see a baliff unless thers a match on. CFPAS has loads of good river fishing in their book.

Do you know what the river at Bicknacre is like, and is it fishing.
would be nice to find a reliable bit of winter river fishing in essex.

sorry for confusion, about river at bicknacre looking at wrong page in club book, meant to ask about the blackwater at braintree, what methods work here?

I went to downstream at mitchells farm saturday afternoon. You couldn`t find a more depressing looking river. I only found 2 accessable swims and the closest of them involved a climb over an electric fence. Did`nt fancy risking my crown jewels on that. So tried one further downstream.

There was a little flow and a bit of colour but the level was low and it just looked dead. I didn`t get a bite not even a crayfish. Although I did hook a huge dead one when reeling in.

hogweed
the electric fence wasn,t connected unlike the one at dyers hall. the lack of decent rainfall is depressing and without the sewage works at little end it could be worse. the 7 day forcast or b@*£sh#t reckons 4 days of rain at the end of this week.
malc
i cleared 9 swims from shonks mill up to tracey,s farm and ee,s turned up and i booted them off and even thoughi have not seen them since i have left it in a natural state to keep them away.there is about 12 swims inside mitchells farm 4 at the pylons which can be fished with a pole which i will clear over the next few weeks. i never fish light as it,s more of a quality over quantity venue even though a friend of mine had 179 roach and 1 chubb. i have caught when my maggots have froze -6c but you do need the river carrying extra water regardless of the temperture. straits mill river has lot more little fish and i fish chopped worm here with the pole and much lighter tackle. if there,s a nice flow you can long trot and if it,s flooded you can fish the lakes.

When fishing Passingford Bridge section, does anybody fish the top end towards the M25. I know its a long walk but is it worth while? I am thinking of of walking upto the motorway and working my way back to the bridge using my spinning rod. Do you park in the layby or in the road
by the houses?

park by the houses always. i have had some nice chubb and roach under
the motorway bridge when there is some flow and my last carp came from there. it is a long walk from passingford bridge.i caught 42 roach
under the motorway bridge from 2ozs to 1lb and i am sure they had never been caught before. downstream from the motorway bridge is an area i have fished manytimes but not for years. i do walk this section
and in the summer you can see small but plenty of fish on the gravels as the river enters the trees near the road and metal cattle bridge.i think its worthwhile as there is hardly any pressure and whatever you catch there is a good chance its never been caught before.