Since the last report on the Royalty there has been little to report as the dreadful weather has kept all but the hardiest anglers from venturing out. The heavy rain has resulted in the river breaking it banks on several occasions down by the bypass bridge and this has been exasperated on two seperate occasions by the heavy rains coincideding with Spring Tides which always cause the river to back up anyway. Surprisingly the colour dropped out quite quickly and there were a couple of days when conditions were ideal and those anglers who ventured out were rewarded by the barbel feeding well. Rolling meat was, unsurprisingly, the most effective tactic and plenty of smaller barbel were taken although, perhaps more surprisingly, only the smaller barbel in the 5 - 9lb class were landed with few exceptions.
One angler who did manage to land a better stamp of barbel was Joe Stanley who took a new PB of exactly 11lbs from Fiddlers West on rolling meat. Well done Joe!
The largest barbel reported was landed by Jeff Edisbury of Br*ghton, who I was actually standing next to when he hooked a 13lb 14oz from Greenbanks. Despite my helpful attempts to put him off he finally managed to land the fish after a superb fight in the heavy water. Unfortunately there was an additional reason for the strong resistance that this fish put up - it was foul hooked. Still I persuaded Jeff to let me have a photo as the fish was in exceptional condition.
As the days went by the water temperature which had remained pretty constant with little variation between day and nightime suddenly plummeted as we experienced the first frost of the season and expectations for the barbel fishing likewise dropped although the odd fish continued to be taken. Having remained low, the river temperature has been climbing strongly and is now at the same temperature as it was back at the beginning of November. Indeed as I write this the rain has stopped and it is incredibly mild for the time of year and the river looks spot on. The number of anglers on the Fishery? one....
The pike fishing has varied between excellent and a waste of time but on occasions it has been really on form. Local predator angler Shaun Miller landed three doubles weighing 18lb 10oz, 18lb 4oz and 14lb 8oz in an afternoon roving around the fishery. He had another double of 16lb 12oz the next day as well.
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The largest pike reported was 20lb 2oz and was landed by Terry Findlay from the Lower Water on a lure. This is the seventh 'twenty' from the Royalty this season, the largest so far weighing a creditable 27lb 12oz.
With the mild spell predicted to continue, and the water carrying an ideal tinge of colour, prospects look good for the next week whether your target is barbel or pike.
