Royalty Report March 12th. 2008

Over the last couple of weeks the barbel fishing has been very unpredictable with some anglers catching 5 in a seeion whilst others fishing nearby have found themselves blanking. None of the big Royalty barbel have been banked despite there being a few more anglers on the bank since the last report. The silver fish have been feeding heavily and a number of good bags have been reported to both float and feeder tactics along with plenty of bream in the 5-6lb bracket. The pike have also been feeding well with fish to 22lb reported over the last fortnight. One angler has managed 14 pike so far this week and is fishing again today.

A few good size spring salmon have been sighted and one estimated at 15lbs was lost at the net by Elaine Savage. A few well mended kelts have also been landed on the fly and there are already plenty of sea trout showing throughout the fishery. These sea trout, whilst out of season, are as fresh as a daisy and mostly in the 3-5lb bracket. Hopefully this points to a better season with this species than everone experienced last year.

Have a good Closed Season and we look foreward to seeing you all again in June when the river re-opens after a much needed three month rest.

Mark Fardon with a 10lb barbel taken from a bank high Royalty    Mark with a fat 5lb barbel taken on the same day

Alan Mason with a 7lb 4oz barbel taken when being guided by Ray Walton        Richard Booty with an 8lb 8oz barbel from below Edwards

Bryan Kneis took this lovely marked 8lb pike from the Parlour            I persuaded Les Brown to let me post this as it's another for the future

Bradley Evans of Royalty View with a 7lb 2oz barbel from the Railway         Bradley again with an 8lb 7oz barbel from Mugs Hole

Bryan Kneis with a nice pike from the Little Weir                                   Shaun Miller with a cracking 6lb 3oz bream from the Piles

Shaun's angling partner Josh Dare with a 4lb 13oz bream                    Shaun & Josh with another brace of bream from the Piles

James Boydell and a 6lb 7oz barbel from Fiddlers West                    James with one of three sea trout taken & returned from Johnsons

Ian Batterbee with a 7lb 6oz from Trammels                                        'Lazy Luke' with a hard earned 10lb 4oz barbel from the Railway

Ian, again, with a chunky 9lb 2oz barbel from Foxes                            Richard Booty with a fabulious looking 11lb 10oz barbel

Rob Stack with his first ever barbel weighing 15lb 4oz (first cast fish!) and followed up by a 10lb second barbel on the same day

Shaun Miller continues his bream bashing exploits..........                     only to catch a flounder on maggots!

Ray Walton with a 12lb 8oz barbel (Spot the swim?)                            Ray with a 10lb 10oz barbel taken from Fiddlers

Mick Spanswick with an 11lb pike 'poached' from the Parlour            Awaiting picture of 14lb 7oz barbel - Dave Martin

Wes Adams with a lovely 20lb + net of dace taken from the Parlour in a couple of hours

Royalty Report February 7th. 2008

With the river levels being up and down along with the temperature, relatively few barbel anglers ventured out onto the Royalty in the past couple of weeks. Those that did experienced sport that varied from painfully slow to instant success with barbel up to 15lbs being reported. As January ended and we moved into the first week of February sport picked up to the point where yesterday (Thursday) every angler fishing managed at least one barbel with a number taking braces with fish to just under 13lbs. Full details will be published as soon as I receive the pictures and accurate weights.

The bream fishing has been very good over the last week on the Piles and pike continue to be taken from the slacks on the fishery. Catches to five fish in a session have been reported and these have fallen to both live and dead baits although the former have been the most successful.

Last Saturday a catch of 30 roach to 1lb 8oz was reported from the Cinder Path and the Little Weir is reported to be 'stuffed' with silver fish.

Overall as we enter this weekend the river looks in excellent shape for the first time in a while and, so long as the water temperature doesn't change drastically we can look forward to a few days good fishing.

Dave Basher with a 13lb 12oz barbel from Harrigans                            Jeff Edisbury with a 9lb 6oz barbel from Fiddlers West

Jeff again with a beautiful 11lb 7oz barbel                                               Ray Walton with a Spam caught 10lb 14oz barbel

Bright*n based Jeff with yet another Royalty double at 11lb 8oz        Shaun Miller with a 10lb 8oz pike from the Clockhouse Stream

Jeff with a 12lb 1oz barbel taken from Fiddlers West                            Jeff with his best fish in January weighing 14lb 2oz

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Ray Walton with a 12lb 10oz barbel which he took at last knockings    Ray again with a 9lb 3oz barbel from Muggs Hole

Andy Loble with a 19lb 2oz pike from Watersmeet                                Shaun Miller with a lean pike from the Little Weir

Ex regular Liam Wookey with an old friend "Emma". Apparently he is targeting Ashley Bends this season       Jon Perkins with a 9lb 8oz pike from a flooded Royalty

Trevor Ridley kindly responded to my request for photo's - I had none at the time! - with these two barbel weighing 6lb 6oz & 7lb 8oz.

Royalty Report January 7th. 2008

During the cold weather there have been few anglers venturing out onto the Royalty. Indeed during the week preceeding Christmas there were actually two days when there were no anglers at all on the Fishery. As suggested in the last report, conditions back then looked to be improving and one angler who took advantage was local barbel legend Ray Walton who landed a number of barbel including two weighing over 15lbs each, the best going 15lb 12oz. As usual all of his fish fell to Spam rolled along the gravel runs and under the remaining weedbeds. Other anglers were also successful with the barbel including a nice brace captured by Darrell Pike. More recently the odd barbel has been reported despite the cold weather including one of 6lb 6oz caught by Trevor Ridley from the Railway on rolling meat.

Whilst the barbel fishing has been slow other species have been more willing to feed including an unseasonal 15lb 3oz common carp caught by Paul Martin and which fell to a Teme Severn Lamprey boilie - wrapped in the same paste - fished in the Railway.

A number of excellent sized bream to over 8lbs have been taken from around the fishery with the area around the mouth of the Little Weir down to Watersmeet and the Piles being the most productive areas. Having said that, big bream have been taken from all over the fishery over the last week unlike the roach and dace which have shoaled up and need searching out for any significant sport. For anglers just wishing to make a haul of mixed silver fish they could do worse than fish the Little Weir's main pool which has plenty of fish in it at the time of writing.

The pike fishing continues to throw up some excellent fish with the best reported for publication being a 28lb 12oz beauty captured by Mr D Forster who came down from Heathfield, Sussex with his son for a days piking. They also had other pike to 9lbs from the same swim. This is the fourth largest pike reported this season from the Royalty which appears to be once again throwing up some truly exceptional fish, one or two of which appear capable of, at least shaking the current fishery and river record, if not even beating it.

The river is currently up slightly and carrying some colour but there is little in the way of rubbish coming down and hopefully the water temperature will start to creep up with the wet and windy weather that has been forecast for this area. If this happens and then remains constant for a bit we can expect to see the barbel getting their heads down and feeding well around the fishery.

Ray Walton with a superb 15lb 12oz barbel from the Car Park                    Paul Martin with a welcome but unexpected 15lb 3oz common carp

Darrell Pike with a barbel of 10lb 14oz                                                         Darrell again with a 12lb 1oz barbel taken at last knockings

Ray Walton returning a 15lb 7oz barbel to the water

Royalty Report November 30th. 2007

Since the last report few anglers have ventured out onto the Royalty possibly due to the cold weather which saw the water temperature plummet to 40 degrees F. Anglers who were targetting pike continued to catch but most of the fish were low doubles with none of the really big fish making an appearance. The odd barbel came out to fish based boilies,  but trotted maggot continued to be the most effective method. During this week the water temperature lifted steadily until by Wednesday it had reached 50 degrees F and the barbel started to feed more confidently than they had for two or three weeks. Unfortunately there were few anglers on the fishery to take advantage of the improvement in conditions! Doug Terre spent an enjoyable few hours trotting the Car Park for roach and dace and he managed to hook three barbel, the best of which was estimated at 12-13lbs but was unfortunately lost at the net. On the same day Ray Walton landed a lovely young 6lb barbel from the Road Bridge area and a chub from the House Pool, both on rolling meat. The next day saw Doug back in the same swim this time with the intention of targetting barbel on the float and a short session was rewarded with a barbel weighing 8lbs exactly. Further downstream Ray Walton was weaving his meat magic on a 13lb 3oz barbel which simply couldn't resist the temptation of his lump of Spam bouncing along the river bed.

Other barbel reported have included an 8lb barbel taken by Pete Kibby, a catch of three barbel, best 12lb 4oz, taken on maggots from the Pipes by Mike Brownett who alternated between trotting and ledgering, an 8lb barbel from the same area on trotted maggots landed by Jim Siford and a 5lb 13oz chub caught from the Railway on luncheon meat by Mr Hoadley. Jon Perkins landed seven perch, four of which went 2lbs, from the House Pool on livebait along with a few small pike.

With the weather continuing to be wet and mild conditions look spot on for the coming week and, if the fish continue to act as they have recently, trotted maggot should continue to be probably the most effective method. Very few fish have come out to pellet other than the odd good bream recently and boilies have only been taking the smaller fish. Meat continues to catch but presentation seems exceptionally important for this bait at the moment. The barbel do seem to be more shoaled up than you would expect at this time of year so a mobile approach to try and locate them would be a sensible approach. Having found a barbel willing to feed it should be worthwhile concentrating in that area as you may well enjoy multiple catches.

Doug's barbel shows briefly before diving back to the riverbed.        Doug Terre with a beautiful young 8lb barbel

Ray Walton with a really stocky 13lb 3oz barbel

Mike Taggart with a cracking 9lb 13oz barbel from Greenbanks

Royalty Report November 7th. 2007

Firstly can I take this opportunity to apologise for the lack of Royalty Reports over the past three months which was primarily due to a lack of time following on from the decision to open Davis Tackle all day on Wednesdays which was traditionally the time when I used to compile the reports. As can be seen from the tables below all the returns submitted have all be recorded and the information is finally available to view along with a selection of photos relating to those catches. It is intended that the reports will once again become weekly /fortnightly depending on the time of year although there wont be one next week as I will be away fishing at Redmire!

Sport with the barbel over the last week or so has been rather patchy with few falling to static baits or indeed rolling meat. What has proved to be very successful, especially in the Stumps and below the Point, has been trotted maggot which has counted for a number of catches of 6 - 8 barbel at a sitting. The heaviest barbel reported weighed 15lb 14oz and was caught by Dennis Nye from the Boat House. Almost matching this was Mike Spurden who landed his best barbel of the season from the Gate Swim at 15lb 12oz and he informed me that he has this season taken barbel from the same swim weighing 11lbs, 12lbs, 13lbs, 14lbs and 15lbs! Other double figure barbel reported included a 12lb 2oz barbel landed by Mr Connell on pellet, a 14lb 4oz beauty caught by Mike Spurden, a twelve pounder captured from the Railway by Mark Billingham from Selsey, another from the same swim weighing 14lb 1oz and caught by Andre Wintersgill, a 10lb 15oz barbel captured by Joe Crudgington who was visiting on work experience from Sparsholt College, one of 10lb 4oz  landed by Sean Hoadley from the Compound, a 10lb 6oz barbel taken by Dave Cartwright from the Stumps and a 14lb 2oz specimen landed by Jim Gregory of Belpher.

The pike fishing has been very productive with plenty of double figure specimens coming from all over the fishery. Live bait has been the most productive method but both dead baits and lures have also taken their fare share of fish. Indeed the largest pike reported so far weighed 26lbs and was taken by local angler Shaun Miller on a lure from the House Pool. Shaun is having something of a good season with the Royalty predators as he also banked a 23lb 8oz pike from the Boat House. Perch continue to be captured in large numbers and, whilst there has been nothing to match the 4lb 11oz beauty taken by James Barton earlier this season, with the average size being over two pounds these are providing great sport.

The bream are providing good sport to anyone targetting them and there are good shoals in Trammels, the Railway and above the Road Bridge. They are proving absolute suckers for the method mix approach at the moment.

Over the last few days the fishing has been quite tough and the river is running low and clear. Hopefully the rain forecast for later this week will improve the fishing particularly with regard to the barbel.

Royalty Report October 2007

Royalty Report September 2007

Royalty Report August 2007

Royalty Report July 2007

 James or Lee with a nice bream                Ian Hardy with a lovely looking 11lb 2oz barbel from the Railway

 James or Lee again with a good bream                            James or Lee with a nice barbel

 The James Lee duo with another barbel and another bream

 Another barbel for the James Lee duo                            Joe Harrop with a new pb weighing 13lb 4oz

 Justin Morgan with a 7lb 8oz barbel taken at dusk                               Liam Wookey with a hard won 8lb 14oz barbel taken during a storm

 Mark Hill with a nice one for the future weighing 4lb 13oz                    Mark with another young barbel weighing 2lbs

 Mark and a small pike that was partial to luncheon meat                    Mark and 6lb 2oz of hard won barrbel taken from a full Trammels

Yet another barbel taken by Mark - this one went 7lb 14oz                Mark and a 12lb 2oz mirror carp0 from the Compound

 Mike Drinkwater with a very clean 5lb 14oz chub from the Parlour        Nick Nadin with a very chunky 7lb 2oz barbel

 Paul Hayden and a 7lb 4oz barbel                                                        A lovely chunky barbel from the tail of the House Pool

 Paul Martin with an unexpected 24lb 12oz mirror carp from the Railway

 Spiros Papaglimis with a nice 5lb 2oz chub from Fiddlers West           Local angler Stuart Andrews with a 7lb 9oz Railway resident

 Stuart again, this time with a near 2lb perch                 Trevor Ridley, was also amongst the fish with this 9lb 2oz barbel

Warren Thornhill with a 7lb Parlour bream                Wesley Boyd with a 10lb 8oz barbel from Nelsons

Royalty Report 12th July 2007

Since the last report the Royalty has continued to produce both large and small barbel in good numbers. Whilst sport dipped slightly when the river was carrying the excess water a week ago it has picked up again to the quality experienced during the early days of this season. Five thirteen pounders were reported during this time along with two - different - 14lb 12oz barbel, exceptional weights for fish that are spawned out and at their lightest weights of the season. Also encouraging has been the continued good sport being provided by the smaller barbel up to approximately two pounds in weight. These are back in good numbers and this can only bode well for the future of barbel fishing on the Royalty.

The silver fish continue to feed extremely well and anglers fishing maggot feeders have enjoyed excellent mixed sport from roach, dace, chub and barbel, particularly around the House Pool and below the Pipes. The roach really are making an excellent comeback and appear to be in superb condition, falling to maggots, bread and the smaller sizes of halibut pellet from all over the fishery, but in particular from the slack below the mouth of the Little Weir and off the tail of the Piles. Likewise the fishery appears full of chub in the 8oz - 1lb bracket which have been falling to similar tactics to those which are successful for the roach. The only downside is that the pike are very active at the moment and anglers have frequently been bothered by their unwelcome attention once they have got the silver fish feeding well.

A number of carp to over 25lbs have been landed with most of them proving to be accidental captures by anglers targetting barbel.

Weed growth continues to be way behind what we would expect for this time of year and this is certainly helping anglers both spot and target individual specimen barbel as they drift across the gravel runs between the smaller than usual beds of streamer weed. Overall prospects look excellent provided we don't suffer from the flooding that rivers elsewhere in the country have experienced recently.

Detailed below is a summary of the catches that were reported to the Fishery Manager:-

John Cady with a beautiful 13lb 12oz barbel from Trammels                One of the Reading boys with a nice perch

Unfortunately I don't have weights for the fish landed by the three visitors from Reading who caught some great fish whilst here

A Parlour barbel and a Parlour bream were amongst the fish they had.

Another lovely perch followed by a Railway bream

One of the many good roach that have been taken during the last couple of weeks. Another good barbel from Foxes

Trammels produced both of these fish as well as the following two for the Reading anglers

Allan Smallbones with a 7lb barbel from the Compound.                    Allan again, this time with an 8lb barbel

Andy Mills with a 7lb 10oz bream                                                               Catrina Ferris with a lovely 10lb 7oz barbel

Colin with a fantastic 13lb 5oz barbel                                                       Darryll Pike with one of a catch of six barbel from the Compound

David Redfern enjoyed a great days sport rolling meat whilst being guided by Ray Walton

David with a 7lb plus barbel which fell to rolling meat.                        David with the best fish of his trip which weighed 9lb 13oz.

More photo's of Darryll's enjoyable day in the Great Weir Compound. He landed six barbel to 10lb 11oz despite getting sunburnt!

Geoff Bowman with a nice 5lb 11oz chub from the Parlour                    Sue Bowman with a real lump of a bream weighing 6lb 10oz

Graham Blackmun with a powerful looking 13lb 2oz barbel                Jeff Edisbury continues his excellent catch rate on the Royalty 10lb 8oz

Ian Clarkson with a spawned out 12lb barbel                                        

                                                                                                                    Les Mamoany with a fantastic looking river pb 24lb Common Carp

Royalty Report 27th June 2007

Unlike most of the country the Royalty has not suffered from the excess rain that spoiled so many anglers sport since opening day. Indeed the first hint of colour didn't really show until Sunday and even now the river is only carrying about a foot of extra water and the colour is spot on. The barbel seem to have spread out around the fishery now and have been getting their heads down and feeding on anglers baits at last. There have been plenty of good barbel landed with the best weighing 14lb 12oz which was taken from the Car Park. At the time of writing this I am still awaiting the pictures and full details but will put them up as soon as they are received. Two anglers were lucky enough to land barbel weighing 13lb or more; Malcolm Matthews took a beauty weighing 13lb 4oz from the Railway on rolling meat whilst Nick Legg tempted a barbel weighing 13lb exactly on halibut pellet from the Boat House. Other doubles include a 12lb 2oz beauty landed by Ian Clarkson, a 12lb 12oz specimen, which was part of a three fish haul landed by Brain James from Bournemouth on pellet, two eleven pounders landed by Dennis Nye who has also taken a numer of smaller barbel since the season opened, a lovely looking clean 12 pounder landed by Hugh Goldsmith, an 11lb 2oz barbel which fell to a hair rigged pellet fished in Foxes by Ian Hardy from Milford, a new PB and first ever barbel weighing 10lb 2oz taken on luncheon meat by Kevin Taylor from Holland on Sea, a ten pounder from the Green Gate landed by Stan Collins from Bexhill on Sea on 21mm halibut pellet, a barbel weighing exactly 10lbs fell to a pellet fished by Alan Smith of Chelmsford, Essex around the Point and a 10lb 8oz barbel caught by Alan Cast of Uxbridge who fished the feeder in the Green Gate swim, a 10lb 4oz barbel taken from the Stumps by Tom Lambert and a beautiful 10lb 8oz fish taken by Danny Hannibuss. The last fish was one of a catch of ten barbel taken on Sunday during the pouring rain by Danny, Lord Jez Brown and Phil Plant. Lord Brown kindly supplied pictures of most of their catch along with his own unique report of their day which can be read here.

The roach, dace and small chub continue to be caught from all over the fishery to both float fishing and feeder tactics whilst the bream shoals have moved and can be found in great numbers in the Parlour and Trammels where they have been landed to 7lb 8oz. Pike, which are out of season the the Royalty until 1st October, have been causing something of a problem attacking silver fish as they are being played. Stephen Jenkins from Bulphan in Essex actually landed three pike including two doubles which took his ledgered worm fished past the Boat House. Using the same tactics he also landed on of the Royalty's resident tench weighing 6lb 8oz - one of three six pound plus tench landed from the Royalty last week!

A summary of the reports submitted to the Fishery Manager appears below:-

Alan Smith with a lovely 10lb barbel                                                        Alan again, this time with a hard fighting 5lb barbel

Charlie Grossman with his 2nd barbel weighing 4lb 8oz                    Dennis Nye with a 7lb 12oz barbel

Hugh Goldsmith with a really clean 12lb barbel                                    Ian Clarkson with a 12lb 2oz barbel from above the Boathouse

Darrell Pike with an unexpected mirror carp of around 8lbs                Nick Nadin with a 7lb 2oz barbel taken on rolling meat

Malcolm Matthews with a superb 13lb 4oz barbel                                   Nick Legg with an old favourite weighing 13lbs exactly

Phil Plant with a Trammels reisdent weighing 7lb 9oz                               Bob Dean with a 7lb 10oz barbel caught from above the Pipes

A great picture of Stuart Andrews with a lovely 8lb 2oz barbel                Danny Hannibuss with one for the future weighing 2lbs

Another of the same size landed by Lord Jez Brown                            Danny with his second weighing 8lb 4oz taken on rolling meat

Jez with a lovely 6lb clean 6lb barbel from the Compound                   A cracking photo of Danny with a 10lb 8oz barbel from Watersmeet

Lord Brown with yet another barbel weighing 6lb 12oz                                This is getting boring! - Jez with a 9lb 4oz beauty

Phil Plant landed this 5lb 1oz chub from Watersmeet                                   Tom Lambert with a really hard fighting 10lb 4oz barbel

Royalty Report 20th June 2007

The season finally kicked off again on June 16th with anglers forming the traditional queue outside the shop from quarter past five in the morning! The Royalty looks in beautiful shape with all the bank work completed and plenty of water flowing through the fishery. One new addition is the installation of a fence along the West bank from the old Green Gate right up to the Parlour. This has been erected to end the occasional problems with dogs and people 'sky lining' anglers fishing along this stretch and has been deemed a great success by those anglers who have fished there already this season.

The barbel fishing has been fairly slow as many of the fish have only recently spawned but they are showing in numbers particularly through Trammels, Edwards and the Great Weir. The best barbel reported so far weighed 13lb 1oz and was caught by local angler and reigning Bargates Masters Champion Kris Adams who fished a halibut pellet in Jacks Corner to tempt this excellent fish. Other doubles reported have included an 11lb specimen taken by Steve Ryan of Yeovil from the Railway on a boilie, a 10lb 6oz  which fell to a boilie fished on Trammels by Darrell Pike and a 10 pounder landed from the Green Gate by Stan Collins of Bexhill on Sea on a 21mm halibut pellet. Barbel in the 6-9lb class have been taken from around the fishery falling to pellet, maggots and boilies. The barbel fishing appears to have picked up today with a few doubles and one angler having landed six by lunchtime. Full details will be published as soon as I receive the catch returns.

The perch fishing has continued where it left off last year with quality fish showing all over the fishery and in particular on the Piles, Railway and Car Park wall. Specemins to 3lb 8oz have been reported along with a new PB of 2lb 7oz taken by Brett Chandler of Bournemouth on a maggot feeder fished at the Lower Stile.

Good numbers of roach and chub are being taken on trotted maggot along with plenty of small barbel and the odd bream. The bream are still spawning and consequently catches have been somewhat patchy. The best bream reported weighed 7lb 1oz and was caught by Stuart Andrews of Christchurch on a pellet fished in the Railway.

Bradley Evans shows father Mel how to do it with an opening day 8lb barbel

Darrell Pike and a 10lb 6oz barbel from Trammels

Kris Adams with the largest reported barbel of the weekend at 13lb 1oz

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