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The Royalty.

A

Adrian Williams

No Longer a Member
Is it just me or are there others out there who just don't get all this hype about the Royalty?
I'm not a complete philistine and recognise it has allot of history and all that, I even owned a pre war Wallace Wizard at one time, and went to the trouble of having it restored by Edward Barder no less, but, historic fishery or not, when I finally got to fish the place for the first time a couple of years ago I was surprised to find it was little more than an over manicured man made landscape in the middle of a town and was bordered on one side for a couple of hundred yards by an industrial estate.
Living in Shropshire I recognise that I am spoiled with the quality, quantity and heterogeneity of my local fishing, but even acknowledging that, I still felt a little disappointed, a bit like a kid who just realised that the Christmas present they thought was an iphone was actually an ipod touch.
 
when i fished there last year it was like a circus, big line outside the tackle shop for cards, guys running down the lane, blocking the lane even so no one could get by. yes its a nice place if you look away from the bypass & idustrial estate. but i dont think id rush to go back.
i think the hype is down down to the media/tv/video/dvd productions made there so it must be good (mustn't it?).
give me a nice quiet piece of the teme, severn , lugg, or wye with lots of hills buzzards & silence anyday.
i too love shropshire adrian.
 
Neil Partridge said:
give me a nice quiet piece of the teme, severn , lugg, or wye with lots of hills buzzards & silence anyday.
i too love shropshire adrian.
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Or one of the other stretches of the Hants Avon! Not fished it for a few years but there are some superb stretches that in their own way compare with all the rivers you've mentioned - just no hills.
 
I just don,t get it, why hundreds flock to fish the place, yep, plenty of barbel, but its fished intensly, everyday, certainly through the summer, even in winter it gets busy, must be one of, if not the most heavily fished bits of river in the country, not my scene. A flowing commercial hole-yuk.
peter
 
Adrian back in 1951 after reading Mr Crabtree Goes Fishing I pestered my grandfather to take me to the Royalty Fishery, thinking in those days that members of the Royal family fished the place hence its name. But of course not true. The scenery certainly did disappoint, but not the fishing and the history. I fished it a few times in the 50 and 60's. Today I wouldn't bother. Having said that when I first fished the Wye back in the 50's Ross was a lovely market town, today its a run down place that could do with a good clean up and a lick of paint. Sadly its true we should never return to the places of our youth. Except to the wilderness of the Highlands which is still very good as is Redmire that has never disappointed me.
 
I've not fished the Royalty, but have fished Throop a couple of times (a comparable reputation, I'm lead to believe); very different places it would seem. I'd have to agree, though, that I'm happy fishing my local stream.....
 
Sorry to disagree Ade but for me the Royalty means fantastic days and fantastic memories throughout the 80's and 90's. I will always love it.

And didnt Ray Walton accidentaly kill Mr Crabtree by the pipe swim, hallowed ground I say.
 
If you were a Severnsider you might think differently Tony.
I was born on her banks and apart from a few years in the RAF I've lived all my life within a few miles of her.
For all of her 220 miles she is little less than magnificent. From her peaty uplands, the home of wild brown trout, through to the wilds of Montgomeryshire with it's miles of unfished shallows and dark mysterious pools where pristine chub rub shoulders with surprisingly large grayling while the silver tourists wait for the rain to aid them on their annual migration. Onwards into the rich pasture-land of Shropshire and the infamous barbel alley and beyond.
On into Worcestershire and beyond where in a forlorn effort to tame her she has been dredged and straightened and forced into a great canal.
Carry on down below Tewksbury and on to the tidal reaches she takes on the proportions and mannerisms of an inland sea. Many a rookie mariner has found themselves in trouble here and had to be rescued by the men and women of SARA.

Then there are her stocks, the salmonoids of the upper reaches give way below Welshpool to the machmans staples of roach, dace and chub, which along with the free biting shoals of mid sized barbel have given many a visiting angler a red letter day of a lifetime. Down below Worcester the vast shoals of bream slowly move upstream grazing her depths like flocks of sheep following the wind. Meanwhile the odd solitary giant barbel lurks waiting to make the day of the ever hopeful men of patience who roam her banks in the shadow of the Malverns.
Then there are the predators, the ambush specialists, long lean muscular pike with huge heads out of proportion to their body's, compete with the strange vampires of the deep, the ones the old men call the pike perch but we educated types know as the zander, the large eyed predator much prized on the continent for it's firm white flesh grows to record size in these waters and is hunted by wild secretive men who haunt rivers in boats with names like predator hunter and Prowler. Once you get below Tewksbury and into the tidal reaches she takes on the proportions of an inland sea. Here all manner of sea fish are caught from the humble mackerel to the magnificent Tope.
Imo there is no contest and given the choice between a day on the Royalty and a day on the Severn I would choose the Severn every time.
 
Adrian Williams said:
If you were a Severnsider you might think differently Tony.
I was born on her banks and apart from a few years in the RAF I've lived all my life within a few miles of her.
For all of her 220 miles she is little less than magnificent. From her peaty uplands, the home of wild brown trout, through to the wilds of Montgomeryshire with it's miles of unfished shallows and dark mysterious pools where pristine chub rub shoulders with surprisingly large grayling while the silver tourists wait for the rain to aid them on their annual migration. Onwards into the rich pasture-land of Shropshire and the infamous barbel alley and beyond.
On into Worcestershire and beyond where in a forlorn effort to tame her she has been dredged and straightened and forced into a great canal.
Carry on down below Tewksbury and on to the tidal reaches she takes on the proportions and mannerisms of an inland sea. Many a rookie mariner has found themselves in trouble here and had to be rescued by the men and women of SARA.

Then there are her stocks, the salmonoids of the upper reaches give way below Welshpool to the machmans staples of roach, dace and chub, which along with the free biting shoals of mid sized barbel have given many a visiting angler a red letter day of a lifetime. Down below Worcester the vast shoals of bream slowly move upstream grazing her depths like flocks of sheep following the wind. Meanwhile the odd solitary giant barbel lurks waiting to make the day of the ever hopeful men of patience who roam her banks in the shadow of the Malverns.
Then there are the predators, the ambush specialists, long lean muscular pike with huge heads out of proportion to their body's, compete with the strange vampires of the deep, the ones the old men call the pike perch but we educated types know as the zander, the large eyed predator much prized on the continent for it's firm white flesh grows to record size in these waters and is hunted by wild secretive men who haunt rivers in boats with names like predator hunter and Prowler. Once you get below Tewksbury and into the tidal reaches she takes on the proportions of an inland sea. Here all manner of sea fish are caught from the humble mackerel to the magnificent Tope.
Imo there is no contest and given the choice between a day on the Royalty and a day on the Severn I would choose the Severn every time.
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Do you work for the Tourist Board !! ??
 
Well put Ade, but I have been, lower, middle and upper, nice enough on the upper I grant you, but nowhere near as nice as the H. Avon.
 
I like it. It's a nice day out fishing well known swims with history, it is what it is. I prefer Throop mind you as it gave me my first barbel.

Still prefer the Loddon though.
 
You cant really compare the Severn to the Hamps Avon. The Severn has poor water clarity on most of the stretches, so stalking is pretty much near impossible, where as on the Hamps Avon you have a realistic chance of spotting big fish and in some cases watching them take the bait. That all said and done the Severn is much easier to catch Barbel from and some days you can expect quite a few. The Hamps Avon is completely different and the Barbel and Chub are harder to catch but they are alot bigger than those out of the Severn and take alot more thought to try and out witt them so they take your hookbait. I fished the Severn from a young lad and fished it in its better years when big multiple catches were quite common.This has been my second season fishing the Hamps Avon & Dorset Stour since moving down south from the Midlands and although ive not caught as many Barbel & Chub, the ones i have had have been big fish..The Royalty will suit some and not others, but to be fair to the place you have a much more realistic chance of catching a very good Barbel than you do off the Severn..
 
The Hampshire avon will always have a special place in my heart, i have fished many rivers but for some reason this river has "something" about it, i have to say i do love the royalty, "circus" and all! i know the industrial park and the close proximity to the town can detract from the surroundings but i seem to blank that out and just enjoy fishing a place that has specimen sized fished of a multitude of species! 30lb pike and carp, double figure river bream,two pound roach,double figure barbel, seven pound chub, and 4lb perch, not to mention 20lb salmon and 10lb sea trout all in a fishery a couple of miles long!! sounds like a theatre of dreams to me!!
 
How dare someone course a river through a town and industrial estate!
It's horses for courses really, and yes, though it's not my cup of tea it isn't really that bad!
I was on there today, the first time for many years, and I was probably looking at two fourteen pound fish in the same swim, with some smaller ones backing them up too!
It all depends on what you want from your fishing.



Damian
 
It's a terrible place, I wouldn't go if I were you!

And it's expensive, and there's no fish, and it's in Christchurch too.

You won't catch me there!

I can catch 50 carp a day on my local puddle and it's only a fiver (no unhooking mat needed).

Barbel fishing's over rated, they all look the same.


Jeff
 
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