Having not wet a line on running water since back in September, and following a call from Codenamemilo suggesting a day's fishing might be an excellent way to see in 2009, ( happy new year, by the way, to all forum users ), all that remained was to select a suitable venue. With neither Ian nor myself being keen carp puddle anglers, and pools and canals being frozen over anyway, a river seemed the only real option.
The Birmingham Anglers Association stretch of the River Severn in Stourport has a fine reputation as a winter roach venue, and so it was that we met up at 8-15 on Friday morning, in the car park next to the river. No need to walk too far here, as the section starts immediately below the car park. Armed with trotting tackle, flasks of hot beverage, and well wrapped up against the predicted temperature of just 3 degrees above freezing, we selected a couple of swims about 500 yards downstream.
The river looked in perfect condition, nice level, steady pace, and just a hint of colour in the water. I elected to use a 13ft match rod, 2bb stick float on a 3lb main line, fishing bronze maggots on a size 18 hook. Ian's setup was an 18ft Bolo rod, 7x No 4 stick float, and bronze maggots on a size 20 hook.
Feeding loose maggots with every trot through, I was soon swinging the first fish of the day, a roach of about 4oz, into the bank.
Ian was having a bit of a struggle to get his float running through as he wanted it to, so I made a quick visit to his peg to see if I could help. A couple of adjustments to his shotting pattern saw the float bury on it's next trot down for his first roach of the day.
Back in my own swim, warmed and fortified against the cold with mugs of Baxter's Royal Game soup, regular feeding and holding the float back against the flow continued to produce roach, though none much above 4oz.
Ian meanwhile was enjoying cracking sport with a succession of beautifully conditioned fish to around the 1lb mark.
Unfortunately, sport slowed considerably after about 1pm, and we decided we'd call it a day at soon after, though Ian ended his session on a high note with four more pristine fish in as many casts.
Walking back to the car park, our verdict was that we'd had an excellent day's sport in view of the weather conditions, and the trip had been well worth it.
We're both now looking forward to some warmer weather, and the opportunity to get some casting tuition and try out our new fly gear, as we make our first foray into catching coarse fish on the fly.

Tight lines all!

Regards, Castaline

Some good winter roach fishing in that general area.Was that along the Switch Back at Ribsford?

No mate, just literally a few hundred yards downstream of the bridge in the centre of Stourport. Close enough to the funfair that we could have played "name that tune".