weed in rivers (severn)

[Neil Partridge]

i understand its probably occuring in other rivers, but after having a night out saturday & a short (fishless) evening session yesterday onthe middle severn, the weed coming down is a nightmare, you know the stutt, that thick silky blanket type, totally clogging everything & pulling your rod all over the place.
what im wondering is does anybody know how long we have to put up with it or would a good flush through help shift it.
im thinking of going higher up the river next week with a view to bypass it a bit. what do you think.

 

[Mark Gaskell]

weed

higher you go the less you will find,needs two good flush throughs,one to get it on the move the other to shift it,ribbles full of the same stuff(rasrta weed), but not much rain promised !

 

[Martin Gregory]

We fished above Shrewsbury on opening night and get wiped out within minutes of casting. If you're going to try higher up the river it would have to be MUCH higher up.

 

[Paul Hayes]

Hi Guys
We get this on the upper Trent most seasons and yes it's a nightmare and there is no simple answer. I have had to change my way of fishing to try and beat it it.
Try fishing the following method. Instead of having the rod pointing skywards and casting downstream, try casting slightly upstream have the rod low pointing down stream and let quite a large bow develop in your line. Instead of bites being wrap arounds they will register as drop backs. You will still have to re-cast but it shouldn't be as often. It's not foolproof but it works.

Paul

 

[Roger Carswell]

I've just returned from the river and whilst it was not really a problem my feeder was regularly draped with silkweed. I've fished the Severn for over 50 years and this stuff usually appears in shallow water after a sustained sunny period. I don't know why we're seeing it so early in the season because we certainly haven't had much sun, but then nothing surprises me about the river nowadays - every year seems to raise new issues. I blanked this evening downstream from Atcham - this would have been unheard of a few years back. I know the first few weeks of the season can be slow but this year seems to be particularly bad. I've witnessed a lot of long faces over the last couple of days. On the positive side - it's so bad it can only get better!!!!!