River Colne, Denham Meadow

Every Year I try to plan a visit to somewhere special, whether it be Anglers Paradise, Tanyard Fisheries or in this case thr River Colne in Denham, Buckinghamshire. To me it is special as it it where I caught my first every chub, at 5lb 2oz no less, as well as my PB chub and as far as I'm aware a record for the Colne at 6lb 12oz, maybe for the Boyer stretch as least!

As I mentioned before I was a bailiff for Boyer's 20 odd years ago and came to know what was then known as the Dog and Duck stretch of the Colne  as it was situated behind the Dog and Duck pub. The Pub, like so many is now a restaurant, changing hands and cuisine every couple of years. Back then it was not unusual to catch 20 - 30 3lb chub in one day as well as all the other species. There were numerous reports of large Chub, Barbel, Bream and Pike as well as the odd Tench and even trout. 

After all these years I had never found a stretch of river like it and had been looking forward to fishing it again ever since my permit had arrived. I had heard rumours that the Cormorants had decimanted the stretch and the fish stocks had been seriouly depleted. Living nearby I had noticed how few cars were parked in the Boyer Car Park, none the less I wanted to give it a go hoping I could prove people wrong. 

Sadly my first walk along the river hinted that my colleagues were right. All I had seen were two Bream, although of a decent size and a solitary chub of a couple of pound. I had thrown in some small pieces of bread but nothing touched my floating loose feed, where were all the shoals of Dace that once would have turned the water into a feeding frenzy? Also of the dozen or so swims only a couple were actually fishable. The once popular willow swim, once home to large Barbel was amass with thick weed with a small channel clear on the far bank, any fish hooked would have to be guided through 50 feet of thick weed. My heart sank at how a river could change so much.  

The Willow Swim, Beautiful but for now avoided. 

A few weeks ago I decided to try the river on the chance that a second look might show something more positive. I did see four decent chub in the swim where my first Chub came from but sadly the swim was now unfishable due to the thick weed and maturing trees and plants linning the river. On that day I only caught two Perch, accepting defeat I was going to wait until later in the year when the weed and undergrowth may have died down. That was until I received a phone call from Boyers saying that the top half of the river was being re-opened. 

Where once was the swim of my first ever Chub

I needed no more incentive, that afternoon I was on the meadow looking at the top half of the River Colne, a stretch that I had never fished even back when I was a bailiff for Boyers. There was a lot less weed and some of the glides looked deep and inviting, the Colne still had it's charm, question is were there any fish? I walked the river a few times and all I saw was a solitary chub, however I did meet some fellow anglers who told me that they had never caught a Chub from the meadow stretch, not what I wanted to hear, however they did have a lot of joy with Barbel. That certainly softened the blow! I also spoke with another man who had just recently caught a 2lb+ Perch on the spinner as well as a 13lb Barbel from the bottom stretch, he again mentioned that he had success with Barbel but only at night. He also said that he had never caught any Chub but the river was full of Perch and Pike.

With a new found optimism I fished the Colne, my plan was to trott maggots using my centerpin from upstream and work my way down stream making note of different glides, holes, overhangs etc and in places drop a few pieces of smoked polish sausage as pre-bait for later. The first swim was weedy and narrow. I through some maggots into the water watching them in the clear water but nothing took interest. I moved down to what had already become my favourite looking swim, this time the maggots we seen zig zagging under water as fish were chomping on the offerings. My first cast and I guess to be expected, my first Perch! 

Small, but still pretty!

In fact the Perch were coming with every cast. I even swapped the float for a small bomb in the hope I could catch something else. As I was trotting with a quivertip rod it is easy for me to be mobile and still change tactics. It wasn't long before the quiver signalled a bite and another Perch. I was hitting as many bites on the quivertip so went back to trotting and as hoped I was back in...to more Perch. I was begining to think that Perch were the only species until something smaller took my next cast. A plump Minnow took my double maggot which just so happened to be a PB at 6g as  my digital kitchen scales show. 

Despite the shoal of Perch in front of me another shoal had moved in, for a time I went back to my childhood catching Minnows, some of which were stunning.

I moved downstream in the hope of something bigger but all I caught was Perch, albeit a little bigger. The heavens opened up and the battery in my kitchen scales died. I decided to call it a day, pleased that I had had a succesful day and learn't a few things about what was a new venue for me. Knowing that I was soon to go to Tanyard Fisheries it was time to watch a few Carl & Alex videos to get some tips! I look forward to telling you all about it soon! 

My productive swim.