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Best swim on the best river .

I have several favourites on several rivers.

As far as barbel are concerned my personal favourite has to be this swim on the Dorset Stour at Throop Fishery. Certainly no secret, it is available on Day Ticket after all, and been given several names over many decades. In terms of numbers of barbel it's far from prolific but since I retired back to Dorset around 7 years ago it has produced every one of my float caught Throop barbel usually while trotting for chub (almost need all the fingers on both hands to count them!).

Here it is in full Autumn glory:

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It can be fished from either bank and ideally needs waders to fish it "properly". I have many images of me fishing it but this is one of my favourites taken by Dave Taylor:

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My profile picture shows a good double from the swim from a few years ago. My last trip to Throop this season produced another fine fish.

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Steve Sorrell said:
Mine has to be the last swim on Upper Benyons on the Kennet. Early 90's when there was no fishing on the opposite bank, big downstream overhanging willow.......rolling meet into the roots.....and Bang!

Steve
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I recall that spot too Steve - a sunny afternoon expecting nothing but had 3 on corn. Great swim👍
 
Another favourite, another river. For several years I had the luxury of fishing the Upper Loddon pretty much anytime of the week, day or night, and took full advantage.

This swim was typical of quite a few and, at times, very productive. Many heart racing moments and lots of fun with barbel to mid teens particularly in darkness. This swim was also a consistent producer of fish in daylight hours as well. The images are from the summer of 2013. Great memories but this spot has changed beyond recognition over the intervening years as has the barbel population.

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We tried a different swim on our favourite stretch of the river Lot today. It looked perfect but the fish were fickle, plenty of missed bites and a couple of barbel lost through light hook-holds.
In the end Alistair landed just one barbel of 5 lbs and I had a bream of 3 lbs and finally a decent barbel of 6 lbs. Each of these fish dropped the hook in the net!
Spring has finally sprung here, the river looked great, the birds singing and the temperature touched 19c. Fantastic scenery for a coarse angler......

Perfect swim March 22.jpg

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Steve, I had exactly the same experience on Wednesday on the Charente. Lots of tentative bites with the bobbin shooting up then quickly dropping, even with small baits. I only hooked one and the hook had come out between netting and landing the fish which is most unusual. And if I didn't use a feeder there wasn't a bite. Luckily I had plenty of my home made 'three for a quid' feeders handy.
 
The Cherwell at Somerton. A deep right angled bend in the river over gravel, with a gravel bank formed by the flow and a scoured, clean river bed. I caught my first 4 pound chub and my first barbel in the swim and it was always a banker for chub. Never had another barbel from it but I did hear of a big fish getting hooked by a chub angler who failed to land it. The swim is still there but very choked now with bankside growth and a few trips for old times sake have failed to produce a bite.
 
Mark Anderson said:
Hi men,

Season over , so was think of stuff to get us thinking . We all have a favourite river , and a favourite swim on it . I will start it off , his is ours , barbel bend on the never to be forgotten river Windrush . Had it not been smashed by our furry friends I doubt we would have ever wandered very far 😕.

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Hatter
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I spent many happy hours on that river too Mark, fishing for barbel and trout. Caught a few barbel on free lined worm when trout fishing as well, you could see them dash out from under the bank to intercept the worm in the fast flow.
 
One swim for me that sticks out is/was on the upper Trent. There was a small section of river controlled by, and I think this is correct. The Leicestershire and South Derbyshire Miners Welfare AA. They also ran Willesley lake at that time. It was a good walk and only one field between Derby AA controlled waters, but the Chub fishing was fantastic. The swim was just off a bend that let you run a stick float down with out doing any work. Half way down the swim was a obstacle in the water causing a good crease that you trotted down to. Once the float was at the correct spot, you just held it back slightly and the float would move into the inside of whatever was causing the crease and it would be Chub on! Not massive Chub, but 2-3-4lb fish at fairly regular intervals. Bronze maggot stained hands showing everyone who knew, that you'd had a good day.

The swim is still there, the crease isn't as visible as I remember though, and I never see anyone fishing down there now. The Chub of the size I used to catch have gone. It's mainly small fish now.

Back in those days the area was a fishing Mecca, what with the T&M canal close by that fished very well too.
 
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