Beauchamp Court; River Severn

This brief article describes the Barbel Society's Beauchamp Court fishery. I have described the fishery from the access peg to the upstream limit, leaving the downstream section to people who know more about it than I do.

THE ACCESS PEG

Called the Access Peg for an obvious reason, it's the first peg you come to when you walk down to the river from the style.

This peg fishes well all the year round. I have spent about 20% of my time at Beauchamp fishing this peg and have caught most of my big barbel including my PB from it. One Sunday afternoon I was lucky enough to capture three barbel here - all just under double figures.

The peg shallows up towards the downstream end. Nobody I know is sure why this peg fishes so well because it does not appear to have any significant holding features. My theory is because the barbel are normally taken at least a third of the way across the river is that the barbel are travelling through the swim to other areas. Also a snail bed is located here so maybe it's a natural feeding area as well.

This swim is my first choice when the river is in flood. The first winter flood is generally a waste of time because of the large amount of rubbish in the river. Even when the river is above the two posts shown in the above photograph it is possible to fish the crease upstream with a 6 ounce lead and a bow in the line. The best bait at this time is a large chunk of PLM which can be flavoured with for example curry powder or oil. To stop the PLM from flying off I use a hair-rig with rig tubing over the hair and stop the bait with two large pieces of spaghetti mounted side by side.

THE STALKING PEGS

A little way upstream are six adjacent pegs that I use (when the fishery is quiet) for stalking. Like most of the pegs at Beauchamp white markers posts guide you to the pegs. These pegs are shown in the photograph below:

Spot the pegs!

First of all I visit each of these pegs and deposit six hookbaits and perhaps some small feed pellets or hempseed etc. I then have one cast into each swim leaving the bait in position for 20 to 30 minutes. If no bites transpire I deposit a little more bait (if I intend revisiting the swim that day) and move onto the next swim and repeat the process. The upper two stalking pegs are relatively close together so you may choose to fish just one of them.

Baits for this type of fishing are not particularly important, but it is vital to use a back-lead, in fact back-leading will increase your catches in any Beauchamp swim.

Close-up photographs of each stalker swim are shown below:

FEP 2006

Most of the remaining swims were opened up during this year's fishery enhancement program. I have not fished these as yet, but I will be concentrating my efforts on them this season. The following photographs show some of the new swims. These photographs where taken during the close season, i.e. before the new nettle growth was removed.

Ron Lander

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