Seven Meadows and Stannells

Seven Meadows and Stannells

Accessibility to the stretch of river

Although there is an official car park in Stannells Meadow which enables anglers to park their vehicles immediately behind all the pegs along this stretch, anglers fishing Seven Meadows need to park either in Stannels or at the top end of the stretch near Lucy’s Mill and walk to their pegs. Stannells car park is down a lane next to the entrance to Stratford Race Course.

As you turn into the racecourse, move over to the extreme right hand side and before the entrance to course you will find a gate. Follow this lane through two more gates until you come to a large open field next to the river.

Barbel ub to 10lbs

A well-known chub fishery, the Seven Meadows stretch immediately below the weir to where it rejoins the main river is also well-known locally for barbel which run up to 10lbs, particularly where the water starts to loose its pace. The remainder of the length is good for all silver fish.

Naturally, depths vary from four to six feet along the one mile stretch although the channel between Sausage Island and the bank right at the top of the length by Lucy’s Mill Bridge is popular for good catches of tench. At times of high water, most anglers fish the slack water which runs alongside the island.

The stretches of river with the woods on the far bank are good for chub and roach, as are the Sixth and Seventh meadows at the bottom end of the stretch where the water slows and is generally deeper.

Fishing technique at Seven Meadows and Stannells

Throughout most of the river’s length the majority of anglers fish a stick float with only the barbel stretch below the weir being popular for fishing the feeder. When fishing the stick, it is usual to follow the ‘inside line’ where the river has a bit of pace. Alternatively, another popular method is to run a waggler along the far bank.

As a general rule of thumb, anglers fishing the stick float use a 2lb 8oz main line to 1.7lb bottom and about a size 20 hook. It is usual to fish about four feet deep with a No 4 stick shotted shirt-button style with No 8s evenly spread down the line.

Anglers using the waggler follow a similar setup for the line and hook but bulk weight the float and string out three or four No 10s. Again they tend to fish about four feet deep, normally against the far bank.

Favoured baits tend to be bronze maggot and caster, although for the barbel meat baits are an obvious and popular choice, as are specialised commercial barbel baits.