All through the summer most of the Navigation has provided constant pleasure to anglers with some good size nets.

Local angler Mark Fisher had good day on 24th August with this pair of beauty's weighing 7lb & 12lb.

The Stort Navigation has being fishing well throughout July and the feedback for August, is that anglers are catching some decent quality fish and in good quantity. John Armes the river bailiff, often chats with anglers to find out what is been caught. He confirms that bream really seem to be showing at the moment and in good sizes, along with decent sized perch, roach and chub. Many more carp are being landed near to the mooring entrance at Lawrence Moorings. This whole section of water has improved dramatically since the dredging took place, claims John. The other hot spot John recommends is along the section opposite the boats beyond Sheering Mill Lock or the spinney area further long the Stort towards Harlow. 

If you have not fished the Stort recently and want to give it a go, take along some bread punch and worm. These 2 baits are almost guaranteed to catch you fish. Remember, if you are already a member of the club, a day ticket is free.

Images showing the dredging work along Lawrence Mooring sections back in November 2006

It is 14 days since the start of the session and what a start it has been. We have received reports that the Society's stretches of water have been fishing extremely well, with good weights of bream and roach. Tench, chub and carp all of a reasonable size have also been landed.

Local angler Chris Hunter had a great surprise last week. Having already caught several good bream during his session, his float suddenly disappeared and he was into something big. Fortunately Chris had line to 8lb and managed to seduced this 14lb carp into his landing net. Using little more than bread at Sheering Mill section (opposite the boats). it clearly indicates quality fish are there to be caught.

It has been well report at committee level, that since the dredging of the Stort Navigation in December, there has been a noticeable difference to the quantity and quality of the fish being caught within the Sawbridgeworth area. We are seeing some cracking roach being caught, along with a good head of skimmers. Tench are appearing more frequently and so are chub all to a good size. Several seasoned anglers on the committee believe that by the start of the season, the Stort Navigation by Lawrance Moorings will be the real hot spot to fish.

Young Geoff Owen emailed the club to say he had a fantastic day's fishing opposite Lawrance Moorings on March 11th with a good bag of silver fish plus two 3lb tench.  

With the season drawing to a close, reports by local members have acknowledged several very good session with quality roach, bream and tench.  

With river levels running high, after heavy rain (January 2007), anglers are reporting difficult conditions. The flow of water passing through most stretches of the Stort is making bite registrations hard to notice. Even so, quality roach, chub and bream have been caught during this period.

Young James Hunter a junior member of the club, recently emailed the society and asked if we would like to show a photo of his recent catch, while out fishing with his dad at the weekend (16th September 2006). Caught on bread, James reported that the 5lb pike he hooked into 'put up a big fight'.

Congratulations to James and well done for taking the initiative by sending in your photo.

If anyone else would like to see their images online, email us by clicking here.  The only conditions that apply, is that any fish caught must be on club waters and a description of what, when and how you caught them is added to the email.

We have recently received notification that  British Waterways will commence dredging work along the River Stort. Starting in early September 2006 work will commence over a length 500m south of Feakes Lock to 500m north of Tednambury Lock, a distance of about 5km in and around the Sawbridgeworth area.

We have received notification that an angler has recently upset a member of the public while out walking their dog. After some investigation the angler is now known to the committee and the matter will be dealt with. We would like to take this opportunity to remind all members that the river and towpaths are there for all to enjoy.  

Please make sure all members take their club cards with them if they are fishing the Stort Navigation. The society has a new river bailiff who will be regularly patrolling the river and will be issuing day tickets to none members or those who cannot produce a club card.  

Tree felling is being carried out along the tow path throughout most sections of the society's. This should help access to some swims where overhanging branch make casting difficult. 

Work on the weir section affecting the water levels between Station Road and Sheering Mill should commence soon. BW intend to raise the level of the spill way to restrict the flow which should increase water levels.

Many anglers have reported water levels have drop since the work carried out between Station Road and Sheering Mill has been completed (7th February 2006). Mike Brown responsible for the clubs water management quickly notified British Waterways. In a statement British Waterway acknowledged the water levels had dropped, resulting in the work they carried out on the weir opposite Lawrence Moorings. As a result BW have confirmed it will make the necessary adjustments to reduce the flow of water passing over the weir.  This they believe will raise the water levels back to a similar height prior to the weir repairs.

The work being carried out on sections between Station Road and Sheering Mill have now been reopened (5th January 2006). British Waterways contractors are still to complete minor repairs and remove site construction units. We are also receiving reports of quality Bream to 4lbs and a good head of roach are being caught at Station Road section end and opposite the boats just beyond the club hut on Sheering Mill sections.   

Members have reported (9th November 2005) that good quality roach are being landed throughout the clubs river sections.  The best method seems to be large pieces of bread punch up to 10mm in size with weights of 30lbs being caught in a 3 hours session.

Great fishing is to be had at Harlow Mill.  A recent club match (2nd October 2005) saw several good sized Bream, Tench and Roach.  The two methods that seem to work well were either red maggots or worm.  The section to try is from Harlow Mill bridge heading towards Sawbridgeworth for the first half mile.  

We are receiving regular comments (16th September 2005) from anglers who are catching good size Chub along the section of river down at the Spinney. 

British Waterways have begun engineering work (5th September 2005) to the Weir on the river sections between Station Road and Sheering Mill sections opposite Lawrence Moorings.  Further repairs will be made to the tow path Bridges on this section and the one just past the club hut.  Repairs are said to continue till late October.  Unfortunately tow paths along this section have been closed until further notice.

The fishing season has once again started and the river looks truly amazing at this time of year.  Signs of small roach between the Sheering Mill and Station Road sections have already been reported.

Several chub have been seen patrolling the bank down by the bridge near Feakes lock.  

More details to come once confirmed reports are submitted.  

To submit a report email sawbridgeworth.anglingsociety@ntlworld.com