Earlier in the week, Tuesday to be precise, I returned to Wherwell with Jim to enjoy another day of guiding and instruction in the art that is fishing for winter grayling on a Hampshire chalkstream. Wherwell is one of southern England's premier grayling fisheries and draws anglers from near and far, although on Tuesday we had the place pretty much to ourselves bar a couple of other well-insulated souls braving the cold.
Jim's blog on the day's proceedings accurately journals the challenge we were presented with. We stayed highly mobile, looking for any sizeable fish to target, but struggled to find any worth a cast for much of the time. We had an opportunity, though, to brush up on a variety of different approaches and for some further, slightly more advanced, casting tuition. It is interesting to cast one's mind back a year and conclude that Jim doesn't stand still. His attention to detail is exemplary, and he continues to evolve and improve the techniques that he teaches.
I've taken away some "homework", to do with a particular nymphing rig, which I will tuck into over the Christmas break. Some very good tips and hints were exchanged - well, Jim gave them to me - about not needing to set up two rods but still being able to change rapidly from duo to nymphing and back again with the least amount of fannying around. I'm sure that, left to my own devices, I'll be able to reintroduce an element of unnecessary "fannying", as is my way............
Whilst we "blanked" in terms of grayling, contact with fish was made. One brownie in the morning, clearly a stockie, meant that we could relax a little. Shortly thereafter we did spot a decent grayling - the picture of me kneeling down on Jim's blog isn't in supplication to the River Gods but trying to avoid my shadow spooking a lunker.
The early afternoon was mainly remarkable for the swan fighting, resulting in the death of the weaker of the two combatants. I was struck on the one hand by the brutality of this, and I have no idea whether this was a territorial dispute or some kind of "love triangle", but on the other hand reflected on nature's "survival of the fittest".
Shortly after the swan murder I found myself in possession of a seriously bent rod with a seriously big and angry trout having eaten my fly, but the violent head shaking must have created enough slack for it to slip the hook, and t'was lost.
Later in the afternoon my mood was lightened by an enthusiatic take on the nymphing rig from a beautiful wild brown of about half a pound. As well as putting a really respectable bend in my rod for a fish of that size, it made me smile to see a wild fish on a stretch of river where one only usually encounters stocked trout.
The latter part of the afternoon was spent nymphing in deep pools, which produced a couple of takes that didn't stick, no excuses - my bad. Eventually we lost the light and had to pack it in and depart. I know that Jim felt it was a disappointing day as we really struggled, but we weren't the only ones to find Wherwell a challenge this week.
So, next weekend I'm back on that delightful stretch of the Itchen, with another day lined up in between Christmas and New Year. I also have a rather interesting selection of malt whisky to sustain me through the festive period and beyond......omitting the word "single" as Monkey Shoulder is actually a rather good blended malt.
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| Aperitif through to after dinner/ book-at-bedtime |
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