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

Just in case you haven't had enough depressing numbers and statistics from today's budget, here are some more. I hope we'll see quite a few of you the AGM on Thursday, but in case you can't make it, here are some of the statistics from the 2025 Trout Season on the river. This shows the catches by Beat, and in the 2nd tab there are some graphical representations. If you have trouble downloading the spreadsheet, email me and I'll send you a copy directly. Meanwhile, down

I was amazed to see how clear the water was at Share Farm on Wednesday, partly due to the unseasonably low level (20cm), but even so the top end of the beat was like a Chalk Stream. It'll be horrible and murky again by now, but give it time and a dry spell and it may return. You may be wondering why I was at Share Farm when it's out of bounds now that the Trout Season has finished, but the Workparty season is well under way and we had unfinished business there. If you re

Not only have some fairly big Carp and PIke been apprehended since the Winter season started, and a few very respectable Barbel, but Beat 3a became home to a huge dead Ash tree recently. I was too slow to snap the whole tree (after it had snapped itself, you understand), but you can get an idea from this pic of what was left after Nigel and the rest of the Work-Party had butchered it. Several big logs were cut out of the trunk, after it had been gently lowered into the riv

We've been remarkably lucky with the weather this October, especially compared to some years. We've also been quite lucky that the level has been maintained at a healthy 30cm ish most of the time, even if the flow has been a bit slow. We've seen some of the clearest water in recent memory, at times during the past few weeks. I've also received perhaps the biggest number of catch returns on a single day since last April, on Tuesday of this week. I suspect there could be a

Less than 2 weeks before the end of the Trout season on the river, so make the most of the benign conditions (subject to the rain arriving tomorrow and thereafter). After 31st October the trout are off-limits, except at the Reservoir of course. If you've signed up for Winter Fishing, you can carry on fly fishing for Grayling, but try to avoid the trout, and return them very carefully if you do find any that haven't read the rules. Other things you can do after 31st October

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