The River Nadder – Harnham Mill

Another area which can produce good bags of quality dace in high coloured water conditions is in the small pool below Harnham Mill. The local angling club managed to obtain the stretch below the Mill from The London Angling Club. It was probably the best deal they ever did. When the river is at normal levels and had the slight tinge to it, the weir pool above the Harnham Mill produces good catches, but is very popular with local anglers and visitors to the Mill.

You need to be there early to guarantee getting a swim and you will need to go behind the fence and sit on the wall with the water being about 6ft below you. It is awkward fishing but well worth it. It becomes a raging torrent after prolonged rain and can take a week sometimes to return to normal colour and levels.

I must return to when we have high water flood conditions. This can occur a few times during the late Autumn and Winter. The depth of the pool below the mill is only about 2ft in normal conditions, but in high coloured water it can be twice as deep.

 In normal conditions it is not a very good area with only a few fish giving themselves up. In flood conditions it comes to life and can produce really good fishing. You will find two or three swims just to the left of what we used to call the beach.

You need to sit on the towpath to fish the swims unless you own a pair of waders. Again the large shoals of dace come up into the pool seeking shelter from the raging main river. Large pieces of white bread flake usually sort out the larger dace with the odd roach. Grayling do not seem to like the dirty water and do not show much. You will have to hold your bait on the bottom without your float pulling under. The bites are unmissable as the float slides away. They don’t want moving bait, so it has to be nailed to the bottom.

I enjoyed the method so much when I had sussed it out I never did try ledgering, which might work. The dace were always clunkers around the pound mark with the odd roach to about a pound and a half. If you didn’t know how and when to fish the spot you would never know the fish were there. We had many 30lb plus bags from those swims. After a few days the shoals would again find their way back downstream of the Mill. Most anglers were oblivious to the phenomena and by the time they heard of the exploits it was too late.