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Cherwell

Alex Gowney

Alex Gowney

Senior Member & Supporter
I was sorry to see one of the best stretches of the Cherwell is no longer fishable. The stretch at Enslow, know locally as Long Meadow, was one of the very best chub stretches at a time when the Cherwell was one of the country's top chub rivers. The sign on the stile now reads "Private Property, Keep Out" so now we can't even walk along it as I did a couple of weeks ago. The old Banbury and District AA sign is still there, so faded it is hardly readable. I imagine the landowner must have concluded that, as nobody was willing to pay for the fishing rights any more he would stop it altogether. A great shame, even though the stretch had become very difficult with bites hard to come by. I will miss it, having fished it since the early 80s.
 
Alex Gowney said:
I was sorry to see one of the best stretches of the Cherwell is no longer fishable. The stretch at Enslow, know locally as Long Meadow, was one of the very best chub stretches at a time when the Cherwell was one of the country's top chub rivers. The sign on the stile now reads "Private Property, Keep Out" so now we can't even walk along it as I did a couple of weeks ago. The old Banbury and District AA sign is still there, so faded it is hardly readable. I imagine the landowner must have concluded that, as nobody was willing to pay for the fishing rights any more he would stop it altogether. A great shame, even though the stretch had become very difficult with bites hard to come by. I will miss it, having fished it since the early 80s.
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So, is there a public footpath that goes alongside it? If so, the public right of way (permisive) will still stand. As for the fishing, best have a chat with the land owner. You never know.
 
No footpath Chris, and if I'm honest I wouldn't pay peanuts to fish it now. It seems bereft of fish, like much of the Cherwell, and I prefer to remember it as it was. It just seems like the end of an era, but I guess many rivers are like that now. To me and my friends who spent so many happy and prolific times there, it just seems to rubber stamp the total demise of our river.
 
Alex Gowney said:
No footpath Chris, and if I'm honest I wouldn't pay peanuts to fish it now. It seems bereft of fish, like much of the Cherwell, and I prefer to remember it as it was. It just seems like the end of an era, but I guess many rivers are like that now. To me and my friends who spent so many happy and prolific times there, it just seems to rubber stamp the total demise of our river.
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I've never fished the river, but having read a lot of the late great Tony Miles exploits on the river, it's always really sad reading about the rivers demise.
 
Joe Winstanley said:
I've never fished the river, but having read a lot of the late great Tony Miles exploits on the river, it's always really sad reading about the rivers demise.
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It was a fantastic river Joe, to qoute Trefor West, the whole river from above Banbury to it's junction with the Thames in Oxford, was one long continuous chub swim. It always had plenty of chub that were exceptionally thick set, broad shouldered fish that seemed to weigh much heavier than Thames chub for their dimensions. I remember catching a chub at Rushey, on the Thames, that, had it been a Cherwell fish of those dimensions, would have been a six pounder, but it weighed 4lb.10 oz. For the longer history of the river, Dick Walker once found a dead chub on the bank that had had most of the head eaten away, yet still weighed over 8 pounds.
 
I used to fish the GX stretch at Kidlington, not prolific for barbel but I had my first ever double there, 12-05 in 1993. Loved it there, but it went downhill fast.
 
Paul Whiteing said:
I used to fish the GX stretch at Kidlington, not prolific for barbel but I had my first ever double there, 12-05 in 1993. Loved it there, but it went downhill fast.
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That was a very big fish for the Cherwell at the time Paul, big anywhere back then in fact.
 
Hi men ,
Paul we dabbled around the stretch only for chub , but bumped into a few barbel anglers . I do remember seeing a really big fish actually just down from the carpark , and caught barbel from another bit by the bypass .

Hatter
 
I rarely ever saw another angler. There were a couple of locals who knew me, they'd come down but always be waiting for extra water. I did ok but only now and again. I once fished up near the A34, absolutely hated the traffic noise which gave me a headache. But I had three barbel plus several perch over 2lb, best of all six roach over 2lb, all to open-ended feeder and maggot. A days fishing doesn't come much better than that.
 
We used to fish at Shipton on the Ruislip bit. In the early 80's it was full of quality fish, loads of Chub, Bream and Roach. I caught my first brace of 2lb Roach there in a big bag of chub wandering around trotting flake.Every so often we would hook something that smashed us completely. I was wading one day and one of these fish came upstream past me and I saw it was a barbel,game on. From then on we Barbel fished it and nearly always caught,some evenings two or three. In the 90's the fishing slowly went harder and harder,and we started getting blanks. I had them to 12lb 3 oz but that was the last fish we had. I suspect that our methods back then were a bit crude compared to the other anglers that started fishing the stretch. Would anyone on here know who controls the fishing at Shipton on the bank furthest from the canal. I would love a day back there with a mate trotting just to see if there are any big Roach about
 
Mark Swaby said:
We used to fish at Shipton on the Ruislip bit. In the early 80's it was full of quality fish, loads of Chub, Bream and Roach. I caught my first brace of 2lb Roach there in a big bag of chub wandering around trotting flake.Every so often we would hook something that smashed us completely. I was wading one day and one of these fish came upstream past me and I saw it was a barbel,game on. From then on we Barbel fished it and nearly always caught,some evenings two or three. In the 90's the fishing slowly went harder and harder,and we started getting blanks. I had them to 12lb 3 oz but that was the last fish we had. I suspect that our methods back then were a bit crude compared to the other anglers that started fishing the stretch. Would anyone on here know who controls the fishing at Shipton on the bank furthest from the canal. I would love a day back there with a mate trotting just to see if there are any big Roach about
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I think it may still be Ruislip Mark, or more likely, nobody. The river has declined to such an extent that I don't think anybody would pay rental for the fishing any more. It has become pretty neglected at Shipston, with some swims completely unfishable due to fallen trees in the river. The odd swim looks OK and at least this year you can see the bottom, most summers it runs a turgid brown. The Cherwell is a prime example of how the EA have let a former top river go to the dogs and I know a few of the Oxford guys on here worked tirelessly to get something done. The Windrush is also a river declined beyond all recognition.
 
Alex Gowney said:
I think it may still be Ruislip Mark, or more likely, nobody. The river has declined to such an extent that I don't think anybody would pay rental for the fishing any more. It has become pretty neglected at Shipston, with some swims completely unfishable due to fallen trees in the river. The odd swim looks OK and at least this year you can see the bottom, most summers it runs a turgid brown. The Cherwell is a prime example of how the EA have let a former top river go to the dogs and I know a few of the Oxford guys on here worked tirelessly to get something done. The Windrush is also a river declined beyond all recognition.
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Same thing has happened on my local River Dane in Cheshire, all we get from the E.A. is we don't have the funding to properly investigate.......... They did one token electro fishing session, at a spot where we told them not do it, as the local canal which runs parallel, had a bank collapse within the last 12 months and dumped thousand of fish into the Dane!

Its now getting to the stage than many small UK rivers, should be classed as failing eco systems!
 
Heard a story today from a Cherwell farmer sounds like it could be right. Apparently Richard Branson was given two otter cubs as a present. I seem to remember his house was at Shipton on Cherwell before he moved. Anyway the semi tame Otters escaped and he offered the locals a couple of first class tickets to the US to anyone who could catch them. One of the otters was caught but bit the bloke badly. Any of you Cherwell anglers know any more info on the story ?
 
Mark Swaby said:
Heard a story today from a Cherwell farmer sounds like it could be right. Apparently Richard Branson was given two otter cubs as a present. I seem to remember his house was at Shipton on Cherwell before he moved. Anyway the semi tame Otters escaped and he offered the locals a couple of first class tickets to the US to anyone who could catch them. One the otters was caught but bit the bloke badly. Any of you Cherwell anglers know any more info on the story ?
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Not heard this story Mark, but his recording studio was in Shipton on Cherwell. I think his actual house was in Kidlington but not sure. Somerton now has a couple of resident otters I believe.
 
My first ever fishing trip was on the Cherwell at Chipping Warden where my Nan still lives. I caught a ton of minnows with my uncle, was likely 6 or 7 years old at the time. I fished it quite a bit as a kid spending summer with Nan and Grandad and walking across the field to the river every day. Happy memories although not a lot of fish were ever caught. I always said I would go and give it another go but never did.
 
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