Herts and Essex Angling

 A little bit about the River Stort...

...The River Stort is a slow flowing, navigable canal and the Bishop's Stortford fishing stretch is from the town centre all the way to Spellbrook Lock. As well as it being a club water (of BSDAS), day tickets are available for just £3. They can be purchased at Stansted Angling Tackle Shop or on the bank from one of the bailiffs - additionally make sure you have your EA rod licence with you. It was purpose built for navigation and so there will be narrowboats and other vessels making there way up and down the canal - not forgetting the canoe club who race past at 100 mph! It varies in depth but is never too deep and in fact is only a few feet in places. There are quite a lot of underwater weed beds and various types of reeds growing near the bank as well as in the centre of the canal. This does however provide cover for the fish and some natural food for them too. As do the many locks and moored-up boats that frequent the whole stretch from Bishop's Stortford to Sawbridgeworth.

 It is a pleasant river to fish on and the only 'passers-by' are dog walkers or joggers who always give a freindly 'hello'! Don't dismiss the river as a place to fish, it really is great. There are so many different fish species, all of which can be seen clearly when fishing or just passing by. Roach, rudd, perch, pike, dace, chub, bream and carp all inhabit the waterway, as well as some rarer inhabitants including tench and brown trout. The River Stort has it all!

Roach, rudd and dace - There is an abundance of silvers in the river, many of which can be seen clearly swimming in schools and feeding. The silverfish absolutely adore a little bit of bread punch and will confidently feed on your hookbait and loose feed. Because the water is clear you can see the pieces of bread disappear as they sink and get eaten by the fish - and it should only be a matter of time before your float dips under! I love using stick floats when I can, especially ones with a full body. I would mostly fish with a full-bodied stickfloat needing 4xNo.4 shot to cock it. This is a nice sized float and will detect bites from very wary and shy fish. Maggots and casters will also work well but this will tend to attract perch too. I have actually seen floating casters being taken off the surface by - what looked like - small chub and dace. I tried to float a caster where they were taking them but had no luck.

This is a typical River Stort fish, a roach of a few ounces caught on a very small piece of bread crust.  

Perch - I love perch, in fact they are my favourite species of fish ahead of rudd and tench. What's more is that the River Stort is teaming with them too and are all ready to be caught! Conventional methods include float fishing with a maggot or two, or using a small lobworm/earthworm. This will certainly catch you perch if you're doing it half right, most of which will be in fin perfect condition and look brilliant. You can however use a small spinner or a spoon. Make sure either of them are no longer than a few inches long so that the perch will take them. Other bonuses to have on them are, a mixture of colurs - preferably red, gold and silver - as well as some red wool or feathers at the end, to imitate a roach's tail. Make sure you do have a wire trace, because no doubt the pike will be just as interested in it as the perch are, and that one bit of wire trace could potentially save a pike's life. On another note, I found a crayfish claw (like a crab's claw) in the bottom of my keepnet once, I know I didn't put it in there, so it must have come out of one of the perch's mouths! So it does go to show that even a perch of less than half a pound will eat a whole crayfish!

Six small perch all caught on maggot, the biggest being about half a pound, although my hand is covering it up. 

Chub -  Chub are a lovely species of fish to catch especially in a fast flowing small stream, something that the River Stort is not unfortunately. The chub do grow up to specimen weight in the river - some have come out at supposedly 5lb, what a whopper! However I've never caught one of serious size. Of the backwaters that you are allowed to access, most of them have nice chub in them. Legered bread, slugs and cheese paste will do the business anywhere and should produce the goods. Otherwise they can be caught on the main river on conventional methods, however don't mistake a large dace for a small chub, because that dace could be a P.B. - remember chub's anal fins are convex as opposed to a dace's anal fin being concave.

Carp -  River carp are always popular fish to catch and can grow to surprisingly large sizes on the River Stort - easily into double figures. An 18lb common is the biggest I've heard of, and was caught in a small backwater. However, I have seen smaller carp cruising near the surface nearly every time I go to the river. In fact once, I was fishing on the backwater opposite the canoe club (which is owned by the BSDAS) whilst playing a roach and a double figure mirror carp swam lazily right under my net and brushed the underside of it with its dorsal fin. There certainly are carp in the river but they are harder to catch than stillwater carp. They are also a fan of floating crust and a koi carp has been caught this way at Twyford Lock. I have also had two very fat, round but small carp feeding in my swim whilst fishing with bread. So bread is a positive option.

Bream - I have only caught skimmers and bream hybrids on the river and no real slabs. They were caught on maggot and sweetcorn cocktail baits whilst using a small crystal waggler and 4lb line. All bream respond well to grounbait specifically tailored for bream and mixed with a brown crumb mix and your hookbait. Instead of balling in your groundbait use a cage feeder or small in-line method feeder. An alternative and equally good hookbait for bream is chopped worm, I caught plenty of bream with chopped worm in Devon once, and there's no reason why it won't work on the river too. Bream are lovely fish to catch especially on the river.