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Welcome To The River

The Seven Angling Club has access to around a mile-and-a-half of pristine river running through farmland south of the village of Sinnington, which is a couple of miles west of Pickering in North Yorkshire. For the past few seasons the club has not stocked the water, so it is to all intents and purposes a wild brown trout fishery. The fish are not huge – 12” is a good specimen – but are natural and can be stunningly coloured and will put up a fight that belies their size. There are also good numbers of grayling and you may take the occasional small chub.

While there are no formal ‘beats’, the river can be roughly divided into four sections, each with its own characteristics.

The bottom section consists of a long run of straightish water, culminating in the weir pool.

There is a good head of fish along the entire stretch, with some big fish in the weir pool itself. While the river is not stocked, there are usually a few larger escapee browns and rainbows in the pool from a nearby fish farm.

Directly above the weir is a length of slow, deeper water that is not wadeable but has good access from the bank. This was where most of the stock fish used to be put in, and there is a chance that some of these fish – 1lb-pus – may still be lurking, in addition to the natives.

As you work upstream the deeper water gives way to the shallower, faster and more sinuous part of the river. The water has many fishy features, with multiple glides, runs and riffles and deeper pools along the banks (watch out for the tree roots…) providing an ideal habitat for the fish.

The top stretch of the beat is narrower and more jungly with a lot of overhanging foliage and parts of it are not for the faint-hearted. You might want a shorter rod here – seven or even six foot – to avoid the obstacles. There are plenty of fish in this part of the river.