It's a very safe bet that almost nobody reading this blog has fished Beat 5, certainly not in recent years. Most of you won't have even tried Beat 4, at least not beyond the short left-bank stretch below the Green Concrete Bridge, where we've put in several ladders, steps and some deflectors. If you want some 'commando-style fishing' or at least a quiet and more adventurous beat, then cross over that bridge and follow the river down Beat 4 to where it forks, and on your rig

I don't know how long it will last, but finally today, the river rose to a decent level (33cm) from the painfully low 23 or thereabouts that it has been, for far too many weeks. It's even risen a bit higher still this eening. I was lucky enough to have chosen today to visit the river again, and it was such a pleasure to find a decent flow almost everywhere. Admittedly the very strong easterly wind and the bright sunshine, combined with very murky water, all provided excuses

Some of you will probably find it difficult to remember how bewildering our lovely river could be when you were first getting started. You could wander along a beat and miss two thirds of the fishing spots, assuming you could find your way to the beat in the first place. We have a lot of new members this year, and it's clear that some are experienceing that bewilderment that we did many years ago. So here's a few pointers on how to get going. 1. Look at the Beat Map . Do

Saturday morning saw Nigel leading yet another squad of keen volunteers down the river below the Tractor Bridge. There we installed no fewer than four ladders, and extended a deflector that was doing quite well, but should be even better now. This time we had two new club members joining the team, eager to explore parts of the river in more detail, and to meet fellow members and pick up tips. I think they probably worked out that most of us were there to chat and share o

I don't know if you realise how many different species of fish we have in our river, especially as we only record catches of Rainbows, Browns and Grayling. Of course at the moment we're not supposed to be catching anything except Rainbows and Browns, as all coarse fish are out of season. I'll attempt a list of what we've seen: Trout: Rainbows, Browns (both stocked), Wild Browns, allegedly the odd Sea Trout has been seen, but very rarely. Grayling, Chub, Bream, Roach, Rudd,

This season has got off to a racing start with loads of members taking advantage of the bank holiday weekend and decent weather (mostly). We've probably had more catch returns yesterday and today than for any other single day for many years (and there are still a few people yet to submit them ;-). I'm sure most of you have found the river amd its banks in a particularly good state, with more new ladders and steps than you can shake a stick at. Hats off to Stuart for manag

..... like an old fool, they say, and we had a whole bunch of them down at the river today to celebrate their special day - April Fool's day! Seriously, who would spend the best part of the day digging more steps at Share Farm and pinning trees into the river? Well, Andy, Chris, David, Ian, Keith, Matt, Niall, Nigel and I did just that today, and very enjoyable it was too, enhanced by the usual coffee and doughnuts, and some lovely home-made fennel-flavoured sausage rolls f

So what do you do between the end of the Winter Fishing season and the start of the new Trout Season on 3rd April ? Tie Flies? Reorganise your fly vest? Buy more essential kit? Some of us have spent a lot of the last few weeks (and will continue for a few more) engaged in Board Games. One very old favourite from our childhood seems to be particularly popular - Stakes and Ladders. The way it works is that you lug all the playing pieces down to the river, and there you either

Some of the more dedicated members of our club who join in the work parties may be familiar with the enthusiastic help of one of our younger members, Dexter Francis. Well, not only is he very helpful in restoring the banks, but he's been using his club membership to good ends as well. Congratulations are in order for Dexter who has recently completed, and been presented with, his Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Award. He completed four sections: Volunteering Physical Expedition Ski

With just a week left until the end of the Coarse Season (on 14th March) and indeed of our own Winter Fishing Season, there have been a few more members taking advantage of the low river levels and the dry weather. Not many Grayling have been caught unfortunately, but there is a strong consensus that although catches have been fewer, the Grayling caught have been much bigger than in previous years. Not sure why this is, but it'll be interesting to see what happens in future

We've just had 3 fishable days on the river - perhaps for the first time this year, at least it feels like that. Of course it'll be raining again tomorrow, so maybe we shouldn't cast too many clouts just yet. To celebrate the brilliant sunshine and warm winds on Wednesday, we had another small but perfectly formed work party to repair some of the steps vandalised by the winter deluges at Share Farm. We put in a new ladder where the steps had ben completely eroded, down to

I know it's hard to believe, but yesterday (14th) was a beautiful day on the river, or at least the riverbank. It was so sunny, it made it difficult to take a photograph. It wasn't too sunny, or cold, to put off Andrew C, Andy W, Chris, David C, David M, Dexter, Ian, Keith, Matt nor me, from getting together to enjoy coffee and doughnuts, and Andrew's excellent homemade sausage rolls (thanks to Andrew's wife). We also did a lot of work as it happens, widening the track all

I realise that age dims the memory, but I'm finding it hard to remember what it's like to fish the Teise, despite having a Winter ticket. Keith got so desperate last week he braved the 60cm torrent, armed with some extra-heavy squirmies, and actually manged to land a very nice Grayling. Brave man. I'm not sure it's a course I can really recommend for most members, as the banks will be slippery, the current strong, and who knows what changes have been made to the river-bed

It looks as if this will be yet another week when the weather has conspired to prevent any fishing on our lovely colourful river. It's a respite from the Winter Fishers for the poor fish of course, so long as they can find somewhere to cling on as the torrents scour their way down the riverbed. I trust that the Refuge on beat 3a is doingt its job for the little fish who found their way there. The level did drop almost enough to fish a week ago, but it was still a bit high (

It is with great sadness that we learned yesterday that the venue for our Fly-Tying evenings will be closing at the end of this month. It's a very sorry state of affairs that so many pubs are disappearing all over the country, and especially sad that the Brown Trout in Lamberhurst will be joining them. They have been extremely hospitable to our fly-tying group, as well as serving excellent food and beer, and we will miss them. Meanwhile Keith is now on the hunt for another

It's weather like this that sorts out the real anglers from the fair-weather ones, and the mad ones from the sane ones. Why would anyone willingly plunge into a swollen, murky fast-flowing river on a day like this? I suppose Nigel knows the answer, as he organised the work-party (after a couple of postponements), and another six of us answered the call. We firstly freed a tree that had fallen across the river below the Landslip Pool, then guided it, and another big tree, d

My wife told me today that I wasn't yet sufficiently full of Christmas spirit, so she led me to the veg garden and and told me to to get rid of some of the weeds. "What's Christmassy about that?" I asked, and she took a garden tool out of the shed and gave it to me, and said "Hoe, Hoe, Hoe". Anyway, now that that's out of my system, I wanted to mention a few top tips for your Xmas stocking: specifically, your Xmas stockingfoot waders. You might recall my suggestion last Xm

Actually, it's too late now, as you've just missed the last work-party before Xmas, but don't worry: there is a whole set of work-parties already planned for 2026, specifically designed to help you work off that Xmas over-indulgence. Here they are: Wednesday 7th January Saturday 17th January Saturday 14th February (Feel free to bring your spouses/partners/lovers - just not all 3) Wednesday 25th February Saturday 21st March Wednesday 1st April Saturday 11th April You

In case you didn't visit the river last week (and you probably haven't done since then), here is a short summary of the excellent work done by the South East Rivers Trust mainly on beat 3c during that week. It was expertly overseen and supported by Nigel who deserves great praise for devoting a whole week to this. Furthermore he even wrote up the text below, so I didn't have to, so here's a taste of what they got up to. "The South East Rivers Trust (SERT) returned to ou

Looking at the current state of the river, and the forecast weather, I suspect a few more of you will be visiting the Reservoir before too long. Apart from the usual perils of getting flies stuck in trees, freezing to death, or falling in, there is another risk you need to be aware of. In the Summer, you can drive right down to the end of the Reservoir, as we did for a work-party a few weeks ago. After the recent rain, and for the foreseeable future, that area is probably n