Sea Trout: The section has taken some knocks in recent years. Against the back drop of a warming climate we've had multiple years of either summer drought or flooding during their winter spawning time, potentially washing away spawning beds. It's with cautious optimism therefore that we can say that 2024 has been the best year since lockdown. Summer conditions were reasonably cool, while flow rates have been good. 2024/5 winter spawning conditions look good for the time being. A number of anglers have caught and returned more than 10 fish each. Congratulations to Stewart Allum, Bill Durrant and Billy Gardiner Cross. That takes some doing! A special mention in despatches for Pete Radford for a splendid 8lb specimen taken at the top of the tidal reach, on a day where multiple fish were caught and returned. Even your permit secretary got in on the action. A first ever sea trout, between 3.5 - 4lb taken from the mill pool in early June on a single hook gold mepps 3. Photo on the Sea Trout Catches page.
We hope this develops into a trend. We are committed to doing all we can to encourage it. We had several sessions this August removing obvious blockages from spawning streams in the catchment, in addition to our early summer working party on the Barcombe Mills island and around the pool. We will be putting some extra time into maintenance and vegetation clearance during 2025.
We do have some limited availability for new sea trout permit holders going into the 2025 season. Get in touch with me via the email address at the bottom of the main website if interested.
Coarse: I had the pleasure of carp fishing the first part of opening day with Dan Hickman and James Parsons. 7 or 8 carp between us in the 8 - 15lb range. I think its fair to say that judicious pre baiting as well as excellent swim selection meant James caught the baulk of them! A cracking opening morning. Myles Eade and Adam Rush also reported good catches early season. By early July I'd had reports of carp being caught from along the entire extent of the lower and middle Ouse. Carp did spawn late this year putting the breaks on any catches after the third week of the season. Unlike last year where I carp fished into November I'd returned to my normal chub habitat by early autumn so I may not have the best intel for the latter part of the summer.
As mentioned on the chub pages we've always known the Ouse has a good head of chub in the 3.5 - 4.5lb range with the odd bigger specimen turning up every season. Its been quite pleasing to see that range shift as the years have gone on with multiple fish being caught around the 5lb mark this year. The first example of this was on opening day when committee member Callum Brown banked this absolute cracker of 4lb 13oz. Putting aside any jokes about Callum having wide screen mode on his camera, I would have put this specimen at well over 5lb all day long. It surely will be with a bit of autumn / winter conditioning.
Others who have hit the magic 5lb mark include Bill Durrant and Alistair Irons. Always great to hear that new permit holders are achieving some success on our river - Well done Alistair.
Other notable coarse catches include Dan Hickman and friend netting over 100lb of bream from the mid tidal on feeder tactics during December, replicating Matt Baker's feat from the bottom of the fishery last year. It just goes to show that you can really bag up even during winter if the conditions are mild and you've located a shoal.
The pike dead bait season started 1st November with a flurry of big teens and fish into the low 20s. We had the usual period of winter flooding to contend with during late November and early December. I was on the river between Christmas and New Year - It looked in good condition, a little low if anything with few fish reported... I'm sure this will be remedied with expected storms hitting Jan 1st! Well done Dan on this beautiful looking fish that just topped 20lb.
Other events of note: New permit holder Garrrett Murrell has asked me to extend his thanks to bailiff Perry Williams and Brian for coming to his assistance when he fell in at Hamsey. Serves as a reminder to all of us that banks can be steep and undercut in places. Take care!
I had the pleasure of spending some time bankside with Danny Minnikin on a mild day in November. We wetted a line - without success but had a fine old time and a good brew, chatted poetry, punk rock, musical performance and lyrical inspiration as well as carp tatics with tales of epic carp stalking adventures on the tidal and at Vuggles. You look like you might be composing something in that shot Danny! Great to see you.
On behalf of the committee happy New Year to all our permit holders, stockists, land owners and friends. Keep an eye out for further updates early in the New Year.
Dave H Permit Sec