Photos of river scenes

[Terry Simner]

What's the parking like to access the baa stretch, and is a bit of long walk,always meant to drive down for a look when on way to bridgnorth but never seem to get round to it

Which bit of the BAA Mark? The nearest BAA official parking on the right bank is a mile upstream by the Unicorn, down at Burt's (unofficially), or further down at Coombys. On the left bank you've just got the NT car park across from the River & Rail at H/Loade, Alveley Country Park (at altitude), then Arley!! That's why I love that bit, well besides it holding some clonking barbel

 

[Mark Pevy]

Which bit of the BAA Mark? The nearest BAA official parking on the right bank is a mile upstream by the Unicorn, down at Burt's (unofficially), or further down at Coombys. On the left bank you've just got the NT car park across from the River & Rail at H/Loade, Alveley Country Park (at altitude), then Arley!! That's why I love that bit, well besides it holding some clonking barbel

I meant for the alveley bit terry,i know all the others and have fished them,think thats the only stretch i haven't on the baa

 

[Terry Simner]

I meant for the alveley bit terry,i know all the others and have fished them,think thats the only stretch i haven't on the baa

The only stretch they have at Alveley is between the bottom the Sidings left bank (i.e. opposite Burt's) down to Arley (and beyond). There's parking at Alveley Country park, (and it's a nice walk down from there to river, but a bitch coming back) and parking at Arley (obvs). Above the footbridge at Alveley is WSP.

 

[Paul Bullinger]

One of my favourite spots on the Upper Bure, Norfolk
Roll on the Glorious 16th June!

 

[Deleted member 2708]

Looks like summer has arrived on the river Lot at Cajarc......

Sorry the rods are weird! Panorama setting cannot always cope with diagonal straight lines. There were a couple of fish, see report....

Wonderful setting to camp for a couple of days!

 

[Clive Kenyon]

Finished Mole-Patrol early yesterday so went hunting some new swims on the Charente, off the beaten track.

Quite a complicated swim. It is mainly fed by a weir to the right supplemented by a small waterfall straight ahead, near the mill. Then there is the mill race coming in on the far side and on the nearside a small river at the tail of the pool.

 

[Clive Kenyon]

The Vienne close to home. I took the dog for a walk to check on some swims I fish in summer

Carp above the weir and barbel below it.

 

[Alex Fowers]

Morning walk along the Dove today.

 

[Jim Ufton]

Are you still seeing otters on there alex

 

[Alex Fowers]

Are you still seeing otters on there alex

I did see 2 the last night I fished before the end of the season. They were both on the stretch behind nestle.

 

[Clive Kenyon]

Had three days on the beautiful River Lot and met up with our BFW River Lot correspondant Steve Arnold who is fortunate to live between two of our favourite holiday destinations and just a short drive from the river. Sadly the dry spring meant lower than desirable flows and my first session resulted in only catching bream and then only after dark.

The camp site is delightful with a long river frontage, and not too expensive at €12 per couple in a caravan, tent or motorhome.

The next day Steve kindly collected me and chauffeured me to one of his favourite swims and then promptly demonstrated his own bream catching prowess. I ventured into Cajarc that evening for a beer and pizza. For a town you can walk around in less than 10 minutes it packs a great deal of vibrancy and ambience.

The following day I drove to a nearby river that I discovered about 8 years ago and haven't fished. It is much smaller and more intimate than the Lot. Sadly there was nowhere with the flow, depth and access required because of the water shortage. A few kms down the valley the Cele meets the Lot and below that is a small place called Bouzies that ws walk to from the camp site at St Cirq Lalopie which is the best place in France IMO.

Parking was €6 for 24 hours and once the fee was paid I had a look around.

Spot the missing species. About 80 metres upstream of a bizarre platform built for disabled anglers that is at least 10 foot above the water line I found a decent place to fish.

With a couple of hours I had two barbel. The biggest shrunk from just over 8lb to just under 7lb overnight. It was only when I got home I realised that I had used a lot heavier sling to weigh it and needed to deduct more weight from the scale reading.

I had taken my carp net and retaining sack / sling rather than the lighter stuff I use back home where accidental carp don't go to 40lb+

So, a big thank you to Steve for driving me around, showing some good swims and explaining how the hydro water releases affect the fishing. Hope to do it again soon.

 

[Deleted member 2708]

Had three days on the beautiful River Lot and met up with our BFW River Lot correspondant Steve Arnold who is fortunate to live between two of our favourite holiday destinations and just a short drive from the river. Sadly the dry spring meant lower than desirable flows and my first session resulted in only catching bream and then only after dark.

The camp site is delightful with a long river frontage, and not too expensive at €12 per couple in a caravan, tent or motorhome.

View attachment 19358

The next day Steve kindly collected me and chauffeured me to one of his favourite swims and then promptly demonstrated his own bream catching prowess. I ventured into Cajarc that evening for a beer and pizza. For a town you can walk around in less than 10 minutes it packs a great deal of vibrancy and ambience.

The following day I drove to a nearby river that I discovered about 8 years ago and haven't fished. It is much smaller and more intimate than the Lot. Sadly there was nowhere with the flow, depth and access required because of the water shortage. A few kms down the valley the Cele meets the Lot and below that is a small place called Bouzies that ws walk to from the camp site at St Cirq Lalopie which is the best place in France IMO.

Parking was €6 for 24 hours and once the fee was paid I had a look around.

View attachment 19361

View attachment 19359

Spot the missing species. About 80 metres upstream of a bizarre platform built for disabled anglers that is at least 10 foot above the water line I found a decent place to fish.

View attachment 19360

With a couple of hours I had two barbel. The biggest shrunk from just over 8lb to just under 7lb overnight. It was only when I got home I realised that I had used a lot heavier sling to weigh it and needed to deduct more weight from the scale reading.

View attachment 19363


I had taken my carp net and retaining sack / sling rather than the lighter stuff I use back home where accidental carp don't go to 40lb+

So, a big thank you to Steve for driving me around, showing some good swims and explaining how the hydro water releases affect the fishing. Hope to do it again soon.

Great to meet up with you Clive! I am so relieved you got a decent barbel from the Lot this trip, conditions are in the summer heat doldrums now and I have to keep an eye open for any flow being released from the Entragues and Cajarc dams/power stations.

If I see on RiverApp a decent (100 m3 +) release of water at Entragues it will be at Cajarc several hours later. Cajarc then usually releases about the same amount to maintain the water level in the town stretch.

This lump of water usually reaches Bouzies about 10-12 hours after leaving Entragues. I try to time my fishing to intercept this at various swims along about 20 miles of the river.

Sometimes this all works out and I actually catch a fish!

Best approach in the summer is to check RiverApp for an evening release of water at Entragues, choose a likely swim way downstream to throw some grounbait in during the evening. Then return around dawn to fish, hopefully that lump of water will be timely in arriving. If I have not caught by 11 am I go home for lunch and a sleep! When I do catch..... lunchtime is a eaten with a celebratory glass of chilled white wine.

Actually, I usually have the wine whatever!

It does work out favourably often enough to be repeated many times throughout the summer.

It amazes me that the local fishing info board does not show barbel. To our good fortune methinks!

 

[Clive Kenyon]

It is a shame your river app isn't like one of those hive things where you can turn the heating up or put the lights on from anywhere with your app. Then you could have turned the valves up while we were fishing.

Last month I fell foul of another information board failure. The ebro barbel according to the board run to 1.5kg, the same size as the mullet I target there. So when I discovered 2 eight pounders in the swim my 2.5lb hook lengths and 3lb main line were found to be wanting.

 

[Deleted member 2708]

Clive, next time you camp at Bouzies take your bike down the dirt track leaving the village at the bridge. After a few minutes cycle you will find a weir, lock and pontoon that gives access to some nice swims. River boats using the lock are a nuisance high summer, but it's good the rest of the year.

 

[Clive Kenyon]

Hi Steve. Yes, I have been there, but not yet fished it. I have ridden the towpath from St Cirq to Bouzies and explored the other roadside bank from St Gery back down to St Cirq. After leaving Cajarc I went off piste in the 3.5t camper along the towpath leading upstream from St Gerry. Not to be recommended from a motoring point of view (don't tell the wife), but there are some cracking swims there. The weir / lock upstream of St Gery is worth a look too as is the weir just below where we fished.

 

[Dave Taylor]

A few images of warblers, mayfly and chub from the D. Stour taken these past 2 weeks.

 

[Clive Kenyon]

The Charente just a few kilometres downstream of Angouleme.....

While I was saf on the bank having lunch I noticed a bream swim past just a rod lenth out. Then a tench went by the same route followed some few minutes later by a common and then a mirror carp. By the time I had finished my coffee the tally had increased by perch and roach. Although the surface water was moving quite fast, when I threw some squeezed bread in the pieces dropped almost vertically after the first couple of feet.

 

[Deleted member 2708]

.......and back at one of my most scenic swims on the river Lot....

No fish today, I am guessing they are spawning about 300 metres upstream! But I just like sitting here anyway!

 

[Clive Kenyon]

I would be happy to blank there too

Have you seen the fish spawning Steve? Up here they spawned about three weeks ago a few days after the mini canicule started. It is all done and dusted here.

 

[Deleted member 2708]

I would be happy to blank there too

Have you seen the fish spawning Steve? Up here they spawned about three weeks ago a few days after the mini canicule started. It is all done and dusted here.

No, I would have to get my inflatable canoe out to get to the nursery area above the bridge.

A couple of years ago I found the weedy shallows where hundreds of gudgeon size barbel were swimming around my feet.

They were in water about 1' deep, in the extreme shallows were a mixture of bleak and what were probably junior gudgeon.

I managed this bit of video of them in a couple of inches depth, what species do you identify there!