Stillwater · Mixed · Essex

Chigborough Farm & Fisheries

Chigborough Farm Fisheries venue image
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Chigborough sits in the Essex flatlands near the Blackwater estuary, a cluster of lakes carved out of old gravel workings and given over to fishing.

Good · Rainbow
Pheasant Tail Nymph · 14-16
Goodlive now
Good summer conditions for Chigborough Farm & Fisheries
Useful ripple, fishable wave. Fishable ripple — drift the productive shore.
66% confidence
What moved it
  • WindW 9 km/hLight breeze
Today’s fly
Pheasant Tail Nymph
Pheasant Tail Nymph14-16
Upstream, sub-surface
Conditions on the water
Live gauge
Wind
Light breeze
W 9 km/h
N
W
from the west
WaveRipple
Water temp—
Air temp16°C
CloudBroken
Pressure1021 hPa
Rain · recent0.0 mm

Some readings unavailable — check directly before fishing.

How to fish it · for rainbow
When
The damselfly is on at Chigborough Farm & Fisheries. Buzzers may also come into play as the day develops. The ripple should help fish move and feed more confidently.
Where
Start with Damsel Nymph (10-12) on a figure-of-eight with occasional strip. Rainbows respond to more active retrieves — try short strips between pauses. If that does not produce, switch depth or speed before changing the pattern entirely. In the ripple, a bushy searching dry (Hopper, Shipman's, Elk Hair Caddis) outperforms flush emergers — it stays visible and holds the surface tension.
The plan
Plan A

Start with Damsel Nymph (10-12) on a figure-of-eight with occasional strip. Rainbows respond to more active retrieves — try short strips between pauses. If that does not produce, switch depth or speed before changing the pattern entirely. In the ripple, a bushy searching dry (Hopper, Shipman's, Elk Hair Caddis) outperforms flush emergers — it stays visible and holds the surface tension.

Plan B

Fish early and late, try deeper during the heat of the day with a fast-sinking line.

Watch for

Evening tends to be the best period in summer — stay late if you can for a sedge or spinner fall.

Bank

Bank fishing near inflows, dam walls, and weed beds. Move to find feeding fish.

Through the year
0–3 scale · July highlighted
J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Daphnia SwarmHatch
2
3
3
3
2
Daddy Long LegsHatch
2
3
2
Lake OliveHatch
2
3
3
3
3
3
2
Silverhorns & LonghornsHatch
1
2
2
2
1

Numbers are intensity 0 (none) to 3 (peak) — a guide, not a guarantee.

Ranked for today
Rainbow fly box
What's coming
Plan ahead
5-day outlook
Condition match
88%
Cloud100%
Wind100%
Temp60%

Conditions are ideal for Chigborough Farm & Fisheries — wind, cloud and temperature all line up.

Other water nearby · 5
Chigboro Fisheries
1.0 km
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Hanningfield Reservoir
17 km
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Norton Fishery
40 km
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Thornwood Springs Trout Fishery
43 km
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Rib Valley Fishing Lakes
52 km
Rainbow trout · Brown trout
Gallery · 1
  1. Terrain map of the venue
    Terrain map
About this water

Chigborough sits in the Essex flatlands near the Blackwater estuary, a cluster of lakes carved out of old gravel workings and given over to fishing. It's mixed-character stillwater — the sort of place where the rainbows are willing and the browns make you earn it. Being lowland and shallow-ish, the water warms quickly in spring and the buzzer fishing comes on early, then can go quiet and sulky through the bright middle of a summer day. The trick, as ever, is to fish the edges of the day. A still evening with sedges fluttering off the surface is when the place shows you what it can do, and you remember why you bothered driving out to Essex at all. Best read by wind, light and water temperature.

  • Fishery
  • Mixed
Why this score
  • Wind conditions (ripple) closely match what this water fishes best in.
  • Cloud cover (mixed) suits the fishery well.
  • damselfly is in its seasonal window, boosting the chance of targeted feeding.
Related guides
Small Stillwater Playbookstillwater tacticsThermal Layers & Troutreading depth and temperatureTrout Near Londonaccess guide
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