Tactics for tomorrow

[Zerkalo]

I'm going to fish the Severn at Stourport tomorrow so this is primarily for those who know how it fishes but any input is welcome. I have heard it fishes well late season when the Roach move into the slower water, hopefully it's not too late in the season. Just wondering how I should approach it being a bit of a novice river angler.

I have put a pint of hemp to soak, not much, but wondering if hemp is even worth bothering with at this time of year?

Other bait I will have is 2 pints of maggots and a pint of casters. I will also have a bag of Dynamite Caster Groundbait. Is it worth feeding much groundbait?

It looks as though the river will be rising tomorrow, possibly a bad sign, it's meant to be quite low at the moment. I want to fish a stick float so I can use my new 17' Acolyte but will the fish come in close or should I set up a waggler rod as well?

Sorry for the basic questions but I have only fished it in Summer and aside from the first time I fished it when I had a few Roach among the Perch, it has mostly been Perch there and to be honest that is what I expect tomorrow, a handful of Perch, but you never know.

 

[smiffy]

Can’t say I know the river at Stourport at all but it’s always worth taking hemp. Great holding bait. Same goes for groundbait. I probably use more groundbait in the winter than summer because I tend to fish rivers when they are holding colour. And that’s on our silly little rivers?
I’d probably set up a stick float,little nugget of groundbait every put in and fish maggot on the hook in coloured water. Fish hemp and Caster/maggot in clear.
I’d set up a groundbait feeder aswell if they want a static bait if holding colour.

You know what you’re doing? I don’t think two pints of maggot is enough by the way?

 

[Zerkalo]

Yeah on the two pints of maggots it may my make my session a short one! Thanks for the good info though, I have a feeling it will be quite clear but is forecast to rise during the day so probably a load of rain upstream in Wales.

 

[carphauler]

Feed a small amount of hemp and caster, fish caster on the hook, maggots will pick up anything, caster should be more selective.

 

[Fugley-fisher]

Hi mate, you could try 2 lines one loose feed hemp and maggots /caster dozen bits of hemp same of caster/ maggots, and the other a couple balls of ground bait, fish over it see what response you get then top up if the fish stop coming or the stamp get smaller.


On my river at mo loose feed alone has not got the fish going two or three orange size balls to start without any particles, if that works I'll put my loose feed in the ground bait and feed it a hand full squeezed every few fish. Good luck mate.

 

[robert d]

I'm going to fish the Severn at Stourport tomorrow so this is primarily for those who know how it fishes but any input is welcome. I have heard it fishes well late season when the Roach move into the slower water, hopefully it's not too late in the season. Just wondering how I should approach it being a bit of a novice river angler.

I have put a pint of hemp to soak, not much, but wondering if hemp is even worth bothering with at this time of year?

Other bait I will have is 2 pints of maggots and a pint of casters. I will also have a bag of Dynamite Caster Groundbait. Is it worth feeding much groundbait?

It looks as though the river will be rising tomorrow, possibly a bad sign, it's meant to be quite low at the moment. I want to fish a stick float so I can use my new 17' Acolyte but will the fish come in close or should I set up a waggler rod as well?

Sorry for the basic questions but I have only fished it in Summer and aside from the first time I fished it when I had a few Roach among the Perch, it has mostly been Perch there and to be honest that is what I expect tomorrow, a handful of Perch, but you never know.

Cant wait for the Acolyte review ,i havent fished a river in years but id ping a few maggots ,casters,and hemp but only one sort at a time to see which they preferred and of course the hemp sinks quicker and may keep them on the bottom . If the bottom is snaggy i would not feed hemp ,just maggot or caster and try and catch higher up . Good luck Zerkalo i hope you have a really productive day . By the way as i said im really out of sorts on river fishing as its been over 30 years since i fished a river but that was my tactics then . If it was a cleanish bottom i would put hemp in and fish over the top with hemp on the hook but mainly maggot or caster on the hook on most occasions ,if i remember correctly i had some larger hemp for the hook ,also bread used to work well ?. Please correct me if im out of date ? lol

 

[Zerkalo]

Only got a pint of casters, what it was, asking my dad to go to the tackle shop for me, he ends up picking up the bill so didn't want to ask for too many. So tomorrow might have to be a 'practise run' just to scope out what it's like. I have said to my dad I expect to catch a handful of Perch and for it to be difficult, so I'll be overjoyed if I catch a few, especially if Roach turn up. I don't think I have done more than 5lb there in the Summer with this being one of my best bags when a shoal of Skimmers turned up!

 

[TrickyD]

Never fished the Severn, but I have been watching a lot of Clive Bransons vlogs on youtube, he fishes it A LOT, and he always seems to use groundbait, one way or another. If it's rising then try and find a swim with a slack close in, and if using a 17' rod, make sure you have enough room to manoeuvre it, don't want that rod broken as well.

 

[Zerkalo]

Last time I went it seemed as though they had done a lot of peg clearing there which is good. Will have a look for Clive Branson videos, in fact just searched for Clive Branson Stourport and it's came up him fishing the Stour just down the road from the weir I fish again so this has my attention! Love to see top anglers fishing the Stour!



Am watching it now to see how he gets on as I have found it difficult fishing.

 

[Fugley-fisher]

This time of year unless there really having it, a pt of maggots a pt of casters and half pt flouro pinkies 2pts hemp do me for two sessions maybe three. With a bag of sensas or sonubaits black river, and brown crumb.

 

[TrickyD]

The vlogs are quite long, and a lot of time it's just him fishing, not much talking, but you do get a few ideas.

 

[Zerkalo]

I've got some River Ace left over so I'm going to mix that with the Dynamite Caster I've got. Plan to feed it little and often rather than ball it I think. I find I get through less bait on slower stretches of river like Stourport as you have a 'longer' trot.

Watching that Clive Branson vid on the Stour he only has a couple of Perch, does seem to fish better there when there's water on otherwise he should fish the weir where I fish lol as it's only up the road! Would love to see that. His mate had a few Chub though.

 

[davej]

I would also take bread, prawns and sweetcorn as it's a bit warmer now.

 

[Zerkalo]

Can't seem to find Clive Branson at Stourport only at Bewdley?

 

[Silverfisher]

If it’s the bit in the town it looks fairly deep and slow (at least it does in summer) but should think it’s a bit fair quicker now after the reason rains. Have you found any recent reports on the river around there to give you a bit of a clue?

Bigger rivers can be a bit brutal this time of year presumably as the fish have more places to go than on smaller ones and the greater amount of water takes longer to warm up. That said we are just coming into a warmer spell so at some point over the next few days something should happen.

All that said try find as slow water as you can find as generally the fish won’t want to chase the bait around like they do in warmer weather. As others said if you use groundbait to set the swim up you shouldn’t need masses of loose feed. I find 2-3 pints of loose feed enough in slower water when it’s warm let alone now as with baits like hemp it can hold fish in relatively small quantities so when you add groundbait as well don’t need masses of bait. Whether to ball in at the start or through the session is a hard one to judge. Best to put in a bit from the start then let the session lead you and add more as you need. As for rig I’d be surprised if it’s slow enough for waggler so probably be a stick job likely with strung out shotting seeing as there’s unlikely to be any bits to bomb through although if it is quick a bit of a bulk can help at times. Way past the days of hemp working on the hook and even caster can be tough now so probably be a maggot job.

Really interested to see how you get on. Be nice to hear a decent big river report for the first time in a while as seems most such places have been rubbish since it’s gone cold. Just hope this slightly warmer weather does some good but unfortunately the wet comes with it lol

 

[Zerkalo]

That seems like good advice. I can't find a single report of anyone fishing there, don't even know where to look for match results. Can't see a single video on youtube there other than a couple of Pike ones.

I have been told by a few people to look for slack water and use a heavy stick with a bulk shot, I think I know a peg with a tree that makes a bit of a slack and it's generally a bit slower down the sides there so hopefully will be ok.

It looks like it's going to slowly rise through the day, potentially not good, but does not look that high. Although when I drove past the river at Bridgnorth the other day, I said to myself, "wow, the river looks high", but got home and checked the levels on this site and it said low, difficult to tell from the road there.

River level information for River Severn at Bewdley - GOV.UK

Check your risk of flooding: get current flood warnings, river and sea levels, check the 5-day forecast or use flood risk maps

flood-warning-information.service.gov.uk

I don't want to set myself targets for tomorrow, as I expect it to be very difficult! Like you say, it's really wide there as well as the BAA stretch being a couple of meadows walk from the actual town (I'm told there's a free stretch but don't know where, or if it's the bit I walk past to get to the BAA signs), the fish could be anywhere!

 

[Silverfisher]

It does seem to me that on big rivers when the waters fairly warm say 80% of the fish are in about 60% of the river so not too hard to locate plus they can be drawn in but at this time of year it's seems 80% of the fish are in about 20% of river so take a lot of finding and are rarely willing to move lol

 

[carphauler]

That seems like good advice. I can't find a single report of anyone fishing there, don't even know where to look for match results. Can't see a single video on youtube there other than a couple of Pike ones.

I have been told by a few people to look for slack water and use a heavy stick with a bulk shot, I think I know a peg with a tree that makes a bit of a slack and it's generally a bit slower down the sides there so hopefully will be ok.

It looks like it's going to slowly rise through the day, potentially not good, but does not look that high. Although when I drove past the river at Bridgnorth the other day, I said to myself, "wow, the river looks high", but got home and checked the levels on this site and it said low, difficult to tell from the road there.

River level information for River Severn at Bewdley - GOV.UK

Check your risk of flooding: get current flood warnings, river and sea levels, check the 5-day forecast or use flood risk maps

flood-warning-information.service.gov.uk

I don't want to set myself targets for tomorrow, as I expect it to be very difficult! Like you say, it's really wide there as well as the BAA stretch being a couple of meadows walk from the actual town (I'm told there's a free stretch but don't know where, or if it's the bit I walk past to get to the BAA signs), the fish could be anywhere!

I was going to to do a recce down there re parking, pegs etc, haven't got round to it yet, looks like there are a few parking spaces behind the old leisure centre where there's a football pitch, it's then a short walk to the BAA stretch.

 

[Zerkalo]

I park by the fairground basin and walk across the bridge in the town centre! The old leisure centre would be a much shorter walk if still there, BAA site reckons it's gone though.

 

[carphauler]

I park by the fairground basin and walk across the bridge in the town centre! The old leisure centre would be a much shorter walk if still there, BAA site reckons it's gone though.

That's why I said check behind it, there appears to be spaces here.