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Hi one and all! Been to look at the river today around Radwell Roadbridge and saw plenty of Barbel. The most surprising bit though was the Chub swimming with them - one alongside an easily recognisable double figure barb was just massive! My wife and I spent 15 minutes watching this particular fish move up and down under the bridge, eventually getting it to take some fresh prawns we had just got from Sainsbury's. I know putting weights to fish, especially from above is difficult, but I would bet my mortgage that this fish is well in excess of 9lbs, maybe bigger. I have seen big Chub there before, and I have seen two very large fish on the bank caught by another angler, even helping to release them after capture, but they were nothing compared to this one fish. I managed to get right down to the edge and had a prawn taken pretty much off the surface right in front of me, and I have never seen anything like this before. I know what Carp look like, even grass carp before anyone suggests either of those, but this was a Chub, and by far the biggest one I have ever seen. I wonder where they go at the start of the season though? Every year there are big fish to be seen there, but come the 16th they disappear. There were about a dozen Barbel there too looking like they were grouping to spawn, and one or two decent ones among them.

Riving fining down well, much clearer than of late and looking good. Looks like a lot of the marginal rushes have been swept away though all through the Ouse valley around that area. Lets hope we see sensible levels and good conditions for the summer, and some good catches could well be on the cards.

Guys

the stretch at Felmersham (on the other bacnk from Vauxhall / Verulam) you are talking about is actually mine - I took the lease 10-years ago and it is just fishing for three people and it is not syndicated. We have the stretch from the old Red Barn down to about 100-yards above Felmersham Road Bridge. There is no public right of way on that side of the river so it is nice and quiet. Vauxhall have one short stretch the other side, and Verulam angling club now control the old Shefford stretch. It is bailifed and the farmer also keeps a good eye on it as there has been some damage done previously to the fences, banks and sheep in the field.

Harry Chub, you mentioned putting some pallets down, but the farmer that owns the Vauxhall section has always made sure that nothing structural is done there - previously there were some stages but they got broken in the floods as they were not suitably fixed and caused problems with a drainage ditch, so I would go careful there as he is not overly happy with some of the things that have been happening there through last season. He had to turf off some idiots who drove down to the river bank through part of his crop, he had some arguments with another group who night fished and lit a fire (which caught part of his crop!!) and was very unhappy. He owned the Red Barn stretch and was about to remove the fishing completely until he got an offer from another farmer to buy it from him. The old Red Barn stretch is now Odell Angling Club only which is a shame as there was some excellent fishing there but the access is limited and tighlty controlled.

Hi Harry

It is nice to have the stretch as you say, its a reasonable mixed fishery and it's relatively quiet. We used to fish the Ivel quite a bit (I did a chapter in the last Barbel Catchers book) but it got very crowded. When the opportunity arose to get this stretch, we decided it was worth a go and took it. We had fished the Vauxhall bank for 3 seasons or so before hand for the Chub and big Bream, having moved off Red Barn due to the pressure that section was getting, got to know the farmer and it was right place, right time. The fishing was not the primary reason for getting the stretch though, it was something we had wanted for some time as a way of escaping work, crowds and all the other %@%$ that goes with living these days.
One problem you may want to think about fishing that particular piece of river is car safety - there was a spell of several years when every car parked on the roadside got broken into including my dad's who was fishing opposite us one day, so just make sure you don't leave anything on show. If you want any info on that area send me a pm.