Itchen for some Fishin!

My last blog entry was back in March, and told of a rather special day fishing for grayling before the previous season's end. Shortly after, I was quizzed by my in-laws about why I had written a blog about my fishing trips. They seemed to feel it was presumptious of me to believe that anyone would want to read it. I explained that I was prompted to write about my grayling fishing because it had taken me a couple of years of hard work and perseverance to get to a point where I could fish for Thymallus thymallus in a slightly less shabby way than previously. Remembering the effort and time spent on the "journey" to get to that place, I tried to pepper my blog entries with links about the flies and tactics I was using, different types of leaders, and indicators, and related websites/ articles written by and about those considerably more skilled than me. Truth be told, I'm still pretty average but that's good enough to gain reasonable amounts of satisfaction and pleasure from time spent by running water, rod in hand and hip flask in pocket. It was good to share, and my hope was that it might point others in the direction of useful resources to help put some of the puzzle pieces in place. I won't lie to you - I enjoy writing too! Where's the harm in that?

Well, 2013 has certainly seen much better conditions in this part of England than 2012, which was pretty ropey. I've longed to find some affordable river fishing for trout and have been fortunate enough to obtain a place in a small syndicate fishing a stretch of the Dorset Piddle. More about that another time! I also bid for and won a day's fishing on the upper Allen - also in Dorset, courtesy of the Wild Trout Trust Auction. I became a WTT member and urge others to do likewise. More about that another time, also! The upshot of all this is that I've done a reasonable number of days' fishing after a somewhat late start; it felt like spring forgot to set her alarm clock and overslept a little, but then awoke and burst into life.

Much of May was spent in the garden, and the benefit of the time and effort invested has been most rewarding - a breathtaking display of colours and unbelievably healthy-looking borders and beds with a not-too-shabby lawn. It has proved reasonably straightforward to keep this state of affairs going throughout the summer, thanks to much good advice from my mother-in-law! As autumn approaches we still have a spectacular display of all sorts of beautiful flora, and the number of bees and butterflies this has attracted into our garden has been a source of joy.

Very satisfactory!

For most of this season, I've been looking forward to a day on the Itchen, and that day finally arrived on Friday. The weather forecast had been for heavy and persistent rain, with an end to the prolonged period of predominately dry weather finally presenting itself. I'd arranged for a recent acquaintance to join me for the day - having discovered that he was a keen flyfisher, besides being my stepson's boss at The Pig. For my recent birthday, we'd been for an evening of drinks, dinner, drinks and more drinks at The Pig.

Tariq (my stepson) enjoying a special garnish on his cocktail (thanks, Duncan!

The staff looked after us magnificently. Thoroughly recommended! During the evening, Duncan had told me about his exploits as he fished his way around the world from South Africa, so the Itchen invitation was extended and duly accepted.

A river runs through it - honest!

This beat is a little atypical of what most people perceive a Hampshire chalkstream to be; as you can see from the above shot of Duncan in action, it is most definitely left a little more to its own devices than many others! Duncan and I agreed we both liked the slightly more unkempt look to our chalkstreams. The lush, verdant vegetation was matched only by the clarity of the water - despite the overcast and wet weather as we began, seeing and casting to individual fish was going to be the order of the day.

Slightly downstream presentation...but nobody minded!

Pausing only to gather up his enormous rucksack, Duncan fell into exactly the same pattern of behaviour as I did on my first few visits here. After a while, I left him to his own devices and wandered off further upstream to enjoy my Friday well and truly "out of the office".

A study in concentration

Duncan succeeded in tempting a number of trout and grayling to take his offerings, whilst I had enjoyed my visit  upstream to some spots I'd only fished in the autumn/ winter before. This beat is stocked, but still has a good head of wild brownies as well as a healthy population of grayling. Weather-wise the day also exceeded expectations as the rain held off and the sun made brief appearances at intervals. We'd agreed a point in time to meet for lunch - which promised to be a treat in itself.

Duncan laying out the lunch

As I'd arranged the fishing, Duncan insisted on laying on lunch, hip flask and beers. I very much enjoyed the Piddle Lot 71 IPA; Tony's Top Tip for Today - get yourself some of this unusual and very flavoursome ale - but be warned, it's 7.1% ABV!

Very civilised!

Talk over lunch was mainly fishing-related. Duncan's a keen flyfisher for pike, carp, bass and just about any other species you can think of. I confessed to being nervous about pike as if I caught one I wouldn't be confident of safely handling and quickly releasing/ returning it, but was certainly up for carp and bass.

Time was getting on, so we concluded lunch and resumed fishing. Fish were rising sporadically and it was difficult to determine what - if anything - was hatching. On a wild impulse, I decided to tie on a JT Olive, albeit a slight variant, tied by Gary Hyde for me. I know this is possibly more of an early season fly, but I liked the look of it so on went a slightly longer tippet and this fly.

I was casting at rises without generating much interest when I spotted a decent-sized shimmer of grayling on a clear patch of gravel. Out went the fly, nicely cast to land gently at exactly the spot intended - then I held my breath as the biggest of the shimmer came up for a look - but shied away at the last moment. A few more speculative casts met with no interest, so I decided to have a crack with the nymph. On went one of these, in pink. In no mood to muck about and with no evening rise to speak of, I felt that I'd like to catch a few more fish in order to go home content with my day.

For me, there followed the most intriguing part of the day. Sighting fish and casting the nymph at them, I would watch their reactions and react accordingly. Where this wasn't possible I'd watch the length of sighter material tied into my leader. With the clarity of the water, though, even as the light faded I could see the brightly coloured fly and grayling reacting to it. Inducing the take proved to be highly effective, and as the light faded still further I realised I'd reached both a point of contentment and the hour Duncan and I had previously agreed would close our day.

For the record, I had one wild brown trout of about a half pound, Duncan was delighted to catch the trout in the picture below, and several others, with numerous grayling to boot for both of us. We didn't weigh the trout pictured below, but the rod is my Streamflex Plus and the reel an X-Flite 3/4 wt. Duncan got on better with this Greys outfit than with my Scott - the Scott's action was a little on the slow side for such a High Octane Guy!

Lovely!

I was fortunate to share a few days last season in the company of Nicholas Steadman, and today's sharing of the experience with Duncan made for a thoroughly enjoyable day. Duncan's promised/ threatened to take me flyfishing for pike - which might make for an interesting blog entry if I manage to keep my fingers intact!

Oh, and just to finish, here's a recent picture of a very well-groomed and scrupulously clean pair of Border Terrierists; in deference to this blog's title it's only fair!

Hamish on the left, 2, and Ellie, right, 5 and a half!

A Grayling too Far?

Following my musings last time on fishing with French leaders, and having acquired one of these, I checked my brownie points balance at the Bank of Sarah and found that I did have sufficient credit for another visit to the Test at Timsbury before season's end. I was approaching this mainly as a piece of "r & d" rather than "r & r", wanting to have another opportunity with the French leader system. Bearing in mind how tough our last outing had been, I was managing my expectations with regard to catching fish - on the basis that Nicholas had found the fishing hard. If the grayling fishing equivalent of The Terminator (think relentless rather than deadly) had gone through his complete repertoire on our previous visit here and been left scratching his head, what hope for me?

As I was tackling up, the chairman of the syndicate that fishes this stretch happened by to exercise his dogs. He informed me that I would have some company from pike anglers that day, and was kind enough to share some sightings of salmon making their way up the river in the past week. I said I'd pass this information onto a colleague who'd been thinking about the salmon fishing on this stretch, and was reassured by the chairman's endorsement of the part of the fishery I was intending to target for grayling. We both agreed that this was a lovely spot in the Hampshire countryside, and parted to our separate and very different pursuits that morning.

A word about equipment; I had nail-knotted my Hends French leader onto a fly line already spooled onto my Orvis Battenkill Mid-Arbor. This is a lovely reel, but the floating line it holds has been disappointing; using this to deploy longer-leader techniques seemed ideal.  Rather than my usual Greys Streamflex Mk1 10ft 4wt, I opted for my Scierra Flylite 10ft 4wt, which has a more "tip flex" action and I felt could suit the French leader better.

By the way, first impressions of the Hends leader were really favourable. It is tapered and knotless, very supple and memory-free out of the packet; nail-knotting it to the fly line was easy with a tool. I had attached a couple of feet of sighter material finished with a tippet ring, and using this flavour of Stroft for pretty much the first time ever I deployed a two-fly rig. On the point one of these, matched nicely with a silver beaded Olive Quill Nymph on the dropper.

I also used a technique shown to me by Jim Williams some time ago now, just to make the sighter that little bit more "hi viz". Preparations were made, off to the water I went. The day was overcast, with barely the odd puff of wind, ideal conditions I thought for getting to grips with a French leader.

There's been a lot of discussion and some controversy around French leaders. For the fly fishing newcomer, I think that leaders in general are one of the most confusing and hard to understand "technical" aspects of this great sport. From how to attach a leader to a fly line right through to what knot to use for tying on the fly and everything in between, I think the best advice for a newcomer is "keep it simple".

Anyway, back to my day! Starting at the downstream extremity of the main carrier, I found the leader performed beautifully. Admittedly, I was using a couple of reasonably heavy flies and fishing at quite short range, but I was still fishless when answering the expected enquiry from one of the promised pike anglers as he passed on the access road.

I wasn't fishless for very long after, however. After a bit of "distance catch and release" on a very welcome grayling of half a pound or so, all hell broke loose. My indicator stopped dead, I lifted the rod tip, and before I knew it something large and angry had taken off about 20 yards upstream. "Hmmm, that isn't a grayling" I thought. This resulted in my new French leader getting a very welcome "stretch" as I was soon into the fly line, with the quality/ fitness-for-purpose of my nail knot duly assured by passing both ways the entire length of the rod and beyond. With fly line and most of French leader safely back on the reel, I had glimpsed something silver and I thought "Is this a sea trout or a salmon?".

The answer soon became apparent, however. The magenta stripe gave the game away, not only that but I also realised this was a foul-hooked, very fit and feisty over-wintered rainbow. As good as wild, I was pleased to see this fine fish detach itself and swim away. I fully expect to receive an invoice for leader stretching and knot "QA" services rendered.

Figuring that the recent mayhem would have "spoilt" this stretch, I decided to move upstream to the hatch pool. I persevered with the same setup, slightly lengthening  the amount of leader and gradually getting used to the slightly different timing required when casting a long leader. I started at the downstream extremity of the pool and worked up, fishing the broken water. Meeting with no enquiries let alone acceptances, I resolved to move upstream and return to this spot later - it surely must hold fish!

Here there MUST be fish!

My upstream sojourn was brief and fruitless, by now it was about 2.30pm and I decided to move back downstream to fish the opposite bank in the above picture. I was frustrated that this pool hadn't produced any fish on two visits now, and decided a change of fly was necessary. Onto the dropper went a pink fluffy beadhead grayling bug and an induced take (inadvertent, of course) produced a micro grayling. This inspired me to "think pink" for the point fly, and to add one of these to provide better indication, as the light wasn't great.

I looked back from the opposite bank to roughly where I was standing when I took the above picture. The broken, riffly bits of water with flat spots looked especially "fishy". I was sure that this pool must hold fish. What was I missing? What would Jim Williams do? Then the penny dropped - he'd put some chuffin' weight on the rig to get the flies down, keep them there and to put tension into the rig for improved indication. This was really quite fast water with a strong current, and I couldn't believe I hadn't tried this already. Fly fishing NUMPTY!

So, pinked and shotted up, I returned to roughly the position from which the above picture was taken. Kneeling to avoid casting my shadow over the pool, I cast gently upstream and instantly felt the surge of confidence that this method would work.

First cast with the right method!

I could feel the rig bumping along the bottom and then - who said grayling were soft takers? With the above little beauty safely released, the next drift resulted in an even more aggressive take. This was no grayling, but another over-wintered feisty rainbow. Pink is the colour! My attempts to bully this fish in were ill-advised, and I was soon replacing lost tippet and flies. Same pattern on the dropper, but on the point went one of these. Thank you, Peter Anderson. This was a throwback to using the pattern that caught my first-ever grayling in 2010.

Surprisingly, the pool had not been spoilt and several more grayling succumbed to the same method, albeit a different pattern of pink point fly and 5x tippet to allow for feisty trout....

Best of the Hatch Pool Bunch!

This was turning into a very memorable afternoon. Maybe I should learn to be quicker over ringing the changes to find the right method in future? Hmmm. Maybe!

The day was running away from me, and I wanted another crack at the stretch I'd fished first, near the access road. I felt the passage not only of the afternoon (which had exceeded expectations) but also of my grayling fishing season overall, and the matter was becoming urgent.

Where it all begins....

What the picture above perhaps doesn't show is that, whilst the inside (near bank) of this stretch is quite slow-running, there is a decent current around the outside of this bend. I wanted to fish that slightly quicker water with my pink flied and split-shotted nymphing rig. This would be relatively short-line nymphing with a long leader, would it work here as effectively as in the hatch pool?

Well, the answer turned out to be yes, it would. As good as, if not better, the 10ft rod gave me the ability to control the drift and presentation of my flies, with takes continuing to register instantly. Several more fish came to the net, of  generally a better size than from the hatch pool further upstream.

Back he goes...

The Southall Shrimp pattern accounted for these beauties and I was getting to the point where daylight was fading and I knew I would be packing up shortly. Fishing even closer to the access road, I thought "This could be my last cast of the season" as the flies went in and I lifted the rod to "set" my indicator in the vertical position. Barely into the drift, the indicator hesitated and a smoothly lifted rod tip met with a satisfyingly solid resistance.

Look at the dorsal fin on that!

I held my breath, this was clearly a good-sized grayling and before long I could see the fish, a male with his enormous sail-like dorsal fin up. This was tricky - I couldn't go downstream as the road bridge was in the way. It took more time than I would have wanted ideally in quite a strong current, but he was safely netted.

Managing a hasty snap, I took my time ensuring this fellow was properly revived. My best fish of the season with the last cast of my season. Certainly not a grayling too far.

Happy trout season everyone.

End in sight?

As the year moves on and the lengthening days presage the arrival of spring, grayling fishing draws to a close on 15th March . This is the beginning of the close season for what are termed "coarse" fish, and although the grayling is a member of the salmon family, it spawns in the spring rather than the winter like other UK game fish. Although it may be wrong of me to do so, I consider the grayling a game fish.

My wife has been very understanding and supportive of my fly fishing. We took up this fascinating sport together in 2008, becoming Rockbourne regulars and using what would become an annual holiday on the Isle of Harris to fish for salmon and wild brown trout in a mixture of different lochs. Sarah no longer fishes but still holds the family salmon record with the handsome cock fish shown below.

This was taken on a fairly wild day at the beginning of September 2010. We'd fished the morning without success, and in the afternoon moved to a different loch further up the river system. Tim, our ghillie, had just commented that the wind was getting up and we'd have to go in when the fish took Sarah's orange muddler as she dibbled it back across the surface. This was literally no more than a metre from the boat - exciting, or what?

15 minutes of high drama ensued, the only time I've ever seen the fly line off the reel and some yards of backing for good measure. This was one of the first reels we'd loaded and spooled ourselves - the knots duly held, tension between angler and salmon was maintained, we put into the bank in order to land and swiftly release this magnificent fish. Tim reckoned this weighed about 8lbs, a well above-average sized fish for Harris. I recall we packed up after that and took a shaking (with excitement) Sarah to a pub for some medicinal single malt.

Not bad for a crappy phone camera.......

The best salmon I've ever managed on Harris went to 5lbs, caught the year before Sarah's. Another quite dramatic capture, although a different loch and from the bank. Heavy, heavy rain overnight had brought the water level right up, and the runoff was continuing to torrent into the loch in a couple of places. I fancied one of these spots, and trudged the half mile or so to get into position. My third or fourth cast into this oxygenated water produced a savage, rod-wrenching take and the fight was on in quite a strong current. I was grateful for 10lb breaking strain tippet, my Greys GRx 9ft 6in 7wt, and my wife for arriving promptly with the net.

Preparing for the table

This was a clean, silver fish; the fishery manager (who arrived after the capture) was adamant that we should take this one for the table, which we duly did.

It's interesting to reflect that we didn't make it back to Harris last year, holiday plans this year are already made around family commitments so neither will we in 2013.

Anyway, the end of the 2012/3 grayling season is in sight and I need to record a visit yesterday to the Test at Timsbury. Not the day ticket stretch but the next water upstream, courtesy of Lloyd's Fly fishers. I was once again to have the pleasure of Nicholas Steedman's company.

Yesterday was bitterly cold, with a nor' easterly wind bringing flurries of snow throughout and little or no sunshine. The main river was high and coloured, as were the carriers. We had a plan to start at the end of the main carrier nearest the access road and work our way upstream.

Spot the angler

This was an early start - fishing by 08.30 and the place to ourselves. There are a number of beats here, each of which comprises carrier and main river fishing, but outside of the trout season these do not apply. I think this is the start of Beat 1 on the carrier. Nicholas commenced proceedings with a small but very welcome grayling, whilst I persevered with my first attempt at fishing a French leader. What little wind there was made this baptism a challenge - but I persevered.

Probably with my first "decent" cast of the day into mid-stream, something very strange happened as my sighter stopped then moved upstream. Instinct took over and I lifted the rod tip into a fish, which soon made it's presence known as a grayling. My third visit to this fishery, and I had a fish at last! By the way, I firmly believe this is more to do with me than the fishery as I have seen plenty of candidates for selection on my previous visits.

Who'll give me a pound and a bit for this pewter beauty?

This was a great start to the day; thinking we'd found the fish at the off, surely where there was one then more would follow? This turned out not to be the case, strangely, and we moved on to an inviting looking hatch pool. Nicholas set up about 30 metres downstream and caught a fish of a pound and a half or so, whilst I rolled my heavy nymphs around the quieter side of the rough water seams. To no avail.

A pattern began to emerge, to which the rest of the day would conform. Sight fishing was difficult with the high, coloured water so we prospected the likely looking spots. Lunch came and went, restoring our spirits with hot soup and Whisky Macs.

The afternoon produced a micro grayling and one trout for Nicholas whilst I alternated between using my French leader and nymphing rig dependent upon the water being fished. The afternoon had passed fishless but interesting and enjoyable, nonetheless, until I decided about 16.00 to find Nicholas and suggest we call it a day.

Thus, agreement was reached, but as is his wont Nicholas wanted a couple more casts where we'd caught first thing and I was happy to oblige. It was an opportunity to observe how a French leader could be cast/ deployed with considerably more skill than I had managed!

Just one last cast... and another....

Nicholas' perseverance paid off, as his indicator shot forward and contact was made with a good fish. Initial excitement that this could be a very good grayling dissipated when the fish introduced itself as a rainbow trout. Quickly on the bank, we were able to admire a fish that was well-mended and in excellent condition. This fish was obviously adapting well to life in the wild and over-wintering well. It will make for some good sport when the trout season opens.

Remembering that it is called fishing rather than catching, this was a tough day. We couldn't find the grayling in any numbers but the nature of the day did not make it easy. A rise in temperature and resulting hatch would have been of welcome assistance, as would some clearer water. Despite a mainly dry last couple of weeks or so in Hampshire, more of the same will be needed before the colour goes from the water.

Talk as we packed up and made ready to depart turned to the forthcoming trout season, although there was clearly an ambition on both our parts for further grayling sorties before 15th March. Me, I was delighted to have caught a fish here after previous blanks - and on a French leader too! We'll have to see if this was the curtain coming down on our grayling season, or whether there may be an encore to relate.....

Fishing in the Footsteps of Mr Chefftree

With apologies to the Angling Legend that is John Bailey, and those responsible for Fishing in the Footsteps of Mr Crabtree, I found myself by the water at Holbury Lane Lakes with my very own "Peter". Except his name is Ben, he's ten years old, and the son of friends of ours. Ben had expressed a desire to go fishing, and I was asked if I would be able to oblige the young man. Hmmm, let me think - an afternoon spent jet washing patio versus a couple of hours pursuing some of the hardest fighting, best-tasting stillwater trout in Hampshire.

One of Tom Rosenbauer's most recent podcasts came to mind, and in a flash the arrangements were made. The weather was - for once - good as Ben and I headed through the forest towards the M27. Ben had played football in the morning, and - sustained by a hearty pasta-based lunch - was eagerly anticipating getting the most out of his time on the water in the afternoon.

Me - well, as is my wont, I had planned meticulously. Fully loaded fly vest - check. Suitable fly rod for a ten year old - check. And a flash of inspiration had come to me in church that very morning - overlining my 4wt Greyflex M2 with a 5wt line would make the whole experience more agreeable. Sorry Vicar, what was that again?

Anyway, cutting to the chase as I need to keep to the point. We duly arrived, paid for our 2 fish ticket,  tackled up, donned "cool dood" shades and headgear  and headed for the water. The emphasis today, I explained, was to be on enjoyment and having fun. Ben was a very good Peter, hugely enthusiastic, as I tried to demonstrate and explain the rudiments of the roll cast.

Apart from all this, I was just delighted to be back at Holbury. It amazes me that - at this time of year and on such a glorious day - we had the place to ourselves, practically. In the car, I'd explained to Ben the essential points about "put and take" waters - if we were fortunate to catch, what we caught would be killed and taken for the table. I was confident that we would catch, but Ben "totally got" the difference between fishing and catching.

We moved around a bit, and hit on a mutually agreeable formula of me doing the casting and Peter Ben doing the retrieving. We remained "Fishless in Seattle" and my young companion reminded me of our earlier discourse on the subject of changing flies. I recalled how I'd seen beadhead Montanas succeed in this particular lake previously, so the fly and our position were duly changed. With the sun on our back, we could more comfortably see and watch the tip of the flyline - this, I explained to Ben, would be our "telltale" when a fish took.

The change in position made things easier. Ben had previously registered a couple of "plucks" but I had seen nothing. Tempis was fugiting, and we had less than an hour to fish before "stumps". In went the Montana, and before I could give the rod to Ben I had to strip some line in. This time, I saw the end of the flyline misbehave. My lifting of the rod set the hook and instantly we were all "a quiver". Pausing only for me to get  the line on the reel, Ben took the rod.

An interesting ten minutes ensued. This was one feisty rainbow, line was taken when possible and given where necessary. Ben's right arm tired before the fish did, and so he passed the rod to me whilst snatching up the landing net in practically one movement. We were both excited, and in no time at all our quarry was netted, banked and dispatched. High fives ensued but the clock was against us - our need to get the fly back in the water was pressing.

Within ten minutes, another trout had followed the same path as the first. I was relieved, as the warmth had gone out of the sunlight and a chilly late afternoon was upon us. We weighed in two fish for 5lbs 4oz and completed our catch return. Packing up was completed swiftly, and I turned the heater in the car onto "HI" before heading for home.

For the record, Ben had a thoroughly enjoyable time as you can probably appreciate from the following picture.

Boy and trout were duly returned to grateful (and impressed) parents. I was impressed that Ben's dad knew what to do with the trout! It would be an untruth to say that no trout were "harmed" in the process of manufacturing this hugely enjoyable afternoon, but I view this as a "perk" of being at the top of the food chain.

Anyway, next weekend it's back to boring grayling fishing on the despicable River Test with that flippin' Nicholas Steedman. Apparently, I shall mostly be French Nymphing............

Thanks Ben for a great afternoon, and to Sara and Chris for asking me to do the honours with the young man. A very worthy Peter, as things turned out. The only thing missing was an opportunity for me to shout "STRIKE!!!!"....now where did I leave my pipe?

The Good, the Bad and the Grayling

Thursday 31st January

Courtesy of needing to use my "Christmas Shopping Day" by the end of January (rather than losing my entitlement to it), for the third occassion inside of a fortnight I found myself once more bound for the River Itchen.

It was my wife's idea - when I told her I was taking my Christmas Shopping Day her response was "Oh, I suppose you'll be going fishing." Genuinely, up to that point, I was going to suggest a day spent together - but I must admit I was quick to confirm that I would be fishing, as the beat closes from 1st February until the trout season opens it once more.

As I drove through the forest anticipating a better day weather-wise than the forecasters had mooted at the start of the week, I reflected on my 2012/ 13 grayling season, much of which has been recorded in this blog. Having fished for grayling four times in January is unprecedented, although owing to a brief illness interrupting me I only fished twice in December.

It has been an interesting three months. I consider this my first "proper" grayling season. Previous investment of time, money and effort in tuition, venues, flies, tackle set up etc., not to mention "stakeholder relationship management" with my wife, have paid off, I feel, to a satisfactory extent. I've also enjoyed blogging about all of this, remembering all the while that one never stops learning. The phrase "every day is a school day" springs to mind.....

I'm also getting in the mood for a bit of variety in my fishing. Both in terms of other venues to fish for grayling between now and 15th March and maybe to get out to a stillwater or two - Holbury Lane Lakes and/ or Manningford spring to mind. We have a trip to Scotland planned around Easter, to visit my mother and father-in-law, and I aim to fit in some Loch fishing whilst north of the border. Not forgetting, of course, the obliging little wild browns in Ted and Judy's burn.

At the moment, I'm not sure whether I will fish for grayling again before the 15th March, or whether this will have been my last outing. We'll have to see.

Anyway, back to the day. As I said earlier, things were looking promising in terms of the weather. There was a bit of wind as I tackled up with a fairly standard duo rig - Klinkhammer and RNPTN. I persevered with this for half an hour or so, as the wind was gusting ever more strongly. This, combined with the water being even higher and more coloured than on my previous visit, convinced me that a change of tactics was needed. I wasn't happy with my control or presentation, so decided to switch to a mymphing rig for some short-line tactics.

I've been experimenting with one of these, which is quite "hi viz" in its own right, to which I have attached one of these, which is even more so. I tied on a few feet of tippet, added a dropper, this went on the point and this on the dropper.

I also moved upstream to a more sheltered stretch of water. Yes, you've guessed it - back to the hatch pool and just above it. The Olive Quill went down well in the hatch pool and this was the best grayling taken from there.

The point fly accounted for a couple of brown trout - stocked fish, judging by the size/ colouration - so I moved on. I had been very comfortable, short-line nymphing practically under the rod-tip from the bank. However, now I needed to enter the water in order to fish what I thought would be the productive areas. This was a more exposed position, with the wind again gusting and degrading control/ presentation. So on went a no. 4 split shot and that seemed to give the "oomph" needed to counteract the wind.

I find this sort of nymphing quite rythmical and a relaxing way to fish. Even with all the hi-viz  on my leader, at times I was struggling with the bright sunlight and glare on the water to see what was occurring. The wind was gusting ever more strongly but I was reticent to add more shot so persevered.

Fishing from the same spot where Nicholas extracted a lunker the previous Saturday, and employing a heady cocktail of deliberate/ inadvertent induced takes, I manged to winkle out a couple more. This time, to the point fly.

Looking at the pictures one would think this was the most pleasant day of the "trilogy" to be by the water. It was not. In fact, it was quite hard work with the light, the high water and strong, chilly wind. A brief sortie in the hatch pool punctuated my return to the car. I had promised to be home early as more fun and frivolity was planned for the evening. Stop it, you lot - we'd prebooked to go and see "Les Miserables" at Odeon Leisureworld in Southampton.

Tony's Top Tip for Today: if you haven't seen "Les Mis" yet, then cut along and do so. Russell Crowe and Hugh Jackman are fantastic but....Sacha Baron Cohen steals the show. In the words of that great philosopher Nike - "Just do it"!

Now, where did I leave my mule????????

A Tale of Two Saturdays - Part Two: For a Few Grayling More

Saturday, 26th January

So here we were again, Nicholas Steedman and me, on the River Itchen in Hampshire. On the hunt for more grayling, following on from last week. The wintry conditions  had disappeared, in this part of the country anyway - the previous day/ night, the north of England had taken an Arctic battering. Thankfully, this hadn't affected Hampshire where - along with Herefordshire and Hertfordshire - hurricanes hardly ever happen.....

I'd had plenty of food for thought following our last outing. There had been time for me to listen several times to one of my favourite podcasts, in order to pick George Daniel's brains about nymphing rigs, in order to go for something a little more appropriate than my other leader setups.

Just a brief word about Orvis, Tom Rosenbauer, and his podcasts. Although these are inevitably biased to North America, I thoroughly enjoy downloading and listening to these on my iPad. I have a 1.5 hour + train journey each way on my daily commute to and from London, and Tom's podcasts are a darn good way to pass the time, along with Scrabble and various other tablet-based diversions.

Anyway, back to Mr. Daniel and his words of wisdom. I have George's book, the Kindle version, and this is another source of mental sustenance whilst at the tender mercies of Southwest Trains. Between listening and reading I was able to prepare a different setup for short-line nymphing as I sensed this would be a required approach for my next day by the water. It was this approach that I planned to deploy first, anticipating a return to the hatch pool.

Spot the difference from last week?

Oh, and I'd remembered to charge the battery on my wife's Lumix, in order to better document our second visit on consecutive weekends. As well as to bring a long-handled landing net for fishing the hatch pool.

At drift end...ready to lift n flick?

While I started off nymphing below the weir, trying to work the quieter seams and slacker water, Nicholas moved upstream to fish above the weir. In the first picture, once again I think you can make out the sighter in my setup, being a couple of feet of this material, tied onto my leader, finished off with a tippet ring and a suitable length of tippet. Nicholas observed that my fly choice was unlikely to tempt grayling and so it proved, with an out-of-season brownie coming to my net and being swiftly returned. I changed my fly. But, at least I would be able to tell Gary that I'd given his creation a "swim".

Nicholas fishing a little upstream from me

Already from these pictures it's clear the conditions were very different from last week. The river was much higher and nowhere near as clear, although water clarity improved during the day.

Nicholas into a fish in the hatch pool

Yes, the snow had definitely gone and the previous two nights had seen heavy rainfall in Hampshire, but the day was clearer and brighter than we'd experienced for a while. There was a wind, though, and this made it feel colder although once again Whisky Mac and hot tea was on hand.

Nicholas had his eye on parts of the beat that we hadn't fished the previous Saturday and went off to those reaches to investigate. After a brief wander upstream to no avail, I returned to the hatch pool with a heavy fly on the point and another of Gary Hyde's creations on the dropper....the tung-beaded PTN tempted some nice-sized grayling.

Lightly hooked, but in the bag nonetheless

I particularly liked the spots on the beauty above, and was enjoying having the dropper fly eaten. Briefly, I considered taking this fish as I've never eaten grayling and takeable this one most certainly was. No - back you go. It's amazing how hefty that 5x tippet looks.....

Nicholas returned with tales of more willing grayling - and we fished together for a couple of hours, chatting and being sociable. We discussed Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, and some vilification he suffered on the forum for catching and "chapping" a grayling on one of his River Cottage episodes. This was interrupted by Nicholas hooking into a lunker which put a nice bend in his 2wt, as per the picture below.

In control, as the pulse quickens.....only just

This resulted in a long, slender and very beautiful fish of maybe a pound and three quarters coming to the net. I was pleased to do the honours but - between the three of us - we made a horlicks of it, the lady made her excuses and decided not to wait for a snapshot. Never mind, we have the memory.

I think by this stage of the day it had become apparent to Nicholas that little or no business was being done "dead drifting", and the customers seemed to respond to an "induced take" approach.

Moving further upstream, I hooked and lost a couple of fish before getting one to finally stick. This was my fish of the day. Interestingly, this one took so early in my drift that it was tantamount to "on the drop", which happens a lot on small stillwaters at this time of year.

Stop it, that tickles!

A closer view

The wanderlust manifested itself again - Nicholas went downstream and I gravitated back towards the hatch pool. Once again, the light began to fail and I was beginning to feel the pull of a planned dinner at The Pig that evening, causing me to up sticks and see what was occurring.

I found Nicholas further down the beat, enjoying some sport with yet more willing grayling. As testament to his dynamic approach, he was by now experimenting with more of a downstream approach. Our move back to the cars was interrupted by a sighting in the clear water of a very decent sized fish, and a crack was duly had at it. The result was never in doubt......

Number 35 for Nicholas?

And here is a closer look at this very handsomely spotted grayling:

What a difference a good camera makes

And - after that - it really was back to the cars for a last cup of tea before heading home. The weather and conditions couldn't have been more different from the previous Saturday, but it was well worth the effort for a few grayling more.

A Tale of Two Saturdays - Part One: A Fistful of Grayling

Saturday, 19th January.

Snow and ice had gripped most of the country but there was - once again - grayling fishing booked and paid for; even more so this time as I would be taking a guest. I waited patiently for Nicholas to arrive, appreciating that he had a much longer distance to travel than I did. I was eagerly anticipating - complete with fully charged hip flask - fishing for grayling in this alien Arctic landscape. I was also looking forward to fishing with Nicholas, whom I'd met once before a couple of years ago, and I know to be an accomplished grayling fisher. I think it's an excellent way to learn, fishing with others, especially those who are a few pages further along in the book.

On arrival, Nicholas was quickly layered and tackled up. Walking the beat, we spotted a couple of fish which were duly ignored as out-of-season trout and not our quarry for today. We moved on, upstream and onto the hatch pool, which we liked the look of. I watched Nicholas set about his task enthusiastically, marvelling again at the beauty of our wintry setting.

This was to prove a productive spot for heavy nymphs. The flow in this pool from over the weir is strong, a question of keeping in contact with flies and watching/ feeling for takes, which seemed to suit Nicholas' French leader set-up, complete with a very visible sighter. Of course, this was more a short-lining approach with most of the leader remaining on the reel but it was clearly very sensitive and effective.

Well-insulated and focussed - spot the sighter?

This was demonstrated in no time at all as a succession of grayling literally took the bait and our Saturday action was in full swing, on a river that was clearer and lower than on my previous visit.

First of the day

Nicholas explained that he likes the simplicity and flexibility of his leader arrangement. He felt he could do anything he needed with it, from this short-line nymphing tactic to longer leader nymphing, dry fly and so on. He was to demonstrate the reality of this throughout the day. I was particularly taken with his sighter, which was sensitive and readily visible without being garish.

Another one to hand

I also noted Nicholas's lanyard, having thought that I was travelling light with just a small chest pack slung out of the way behind me. Nicholas clearly had everything he needed on his lanyard, apart from his fly box which was tucked away in a jacket pocket. Incidentally, I was in possession of my wife's Lumix and hoping for better-quality pictures; sadly I had neglected to charge the battery and it died fairly quickly after the above were taken. Back to my camera phone........and a mental note that a long-handled net would make life easier in the hatch pool.

This was an incredibly pleasurable day, memorable not only for the weather but having spotted amorous trout cutting redds in the gravelly shallows below the hatch pool. The hip flask provided regular warming sustenance - full of Whisky Mac, which was particularly green gingery and most welcome. The hip flask itself is memorable, as it was a leaving gift from my colleagues at Lloyd's of London in 2010.

The afternoon saw us further upstream, working towards the upper limit of the beat. I filled Nicholas in as best I could on my experiences on this stretch of river to-date, confessing that there was still a significant part of it which I was yet to fish. I explained this by saying I was reticent to leave fish in order to find fish, generally speaking.

Grayling were relatively obliging and - pleasingly - we were managing to avoid out-of-season trout once we moved on from the hatch pool. Watching Nicholas fishing, and comparing his approach to mine, was an education, and I persevered with my nymphing rig - similar to the one I used on my previous visit. Whilst I bought fish to my net, I reflected on the need to perhaps be a little more dynamic in fitting the right approach to the given conditions.

Back to the crappy camera phone.....

Nicholas' approach was to mix n match short line and longer line nymphing, and deploy a dry fly to some particularly hardy rising fish. All with great success. Such a shame I hadn't checked my camera battery, but I think you get an idea of the conditions. It was actually reasonably comfortable, being well-layered and insulated, not to mention sustained by the Whisky Macs and cups of tea.

As the afternoon wore on, we moved back downstream to the hatch pool. More grayling obliged, talk of flies, other venues, and plans for the rest of the grayling season saw us through to a point where the light was failing and a long trip home was in front of Nicholas. There was, however, still time to sight fish and have a crack at a couple of lunkers on the way back to our cars.

We parted, looking forward to a return visit the following Saturday - same place, same time. But what would the weather and conditions be like?????

New Year Grayling

I set out this morning more in hope than expectation. The weather as I drove through the forest to the M27 was abysmal. My weather app foretold worse was to come, but I'd booked and paid for the fishing. She Who Must be Obeyed was elsewhere, Ellie and Hamish were well-walked, and I was telling myself that I was just going to try a couple of things out. Who was I trying to kid? The Itchen is well-named; it has become an obsession - a classic case of an "itch" that needs to be scratched. As I progressed through the worsening weather, I considered that this was my first opportunity to wet a line in 2013, and I was prepared to blank and head home "early doors".

There had been plenty of fly fishing "talk" this past week, with two work colleagues. Opposing viewpoints on the difference between "wanting" and "needing" things generally, fly fishing tackle specifically. I love working with the two gentlemen concerned, very different characters but both very good sorts. Sadly, neither of them is a grayling afficianado. One is Strictly Trout, the other is more catholic in his tastes, but even his "broad church" doesn't welcome grayling. It isn't like they're gay priests, for goodness sake!

Moving on, like my last outing to this stretch of water, tackling up took place in driving rain. This time, a difference in wind direction meant the water was going into the boot of my car. First item on the agenda was a slightly different set-up for the duo method - shades of my last trip, the weather screamed at me not to go down this path but I needed to try it. What was different - the leader taper, that's what.

Groundhog Day?

I walked the beat and was struck by how similar the day was to my last outing. Only this time, the wind was blowing downstream, making attempts to cast my duo rig upstream quite interesting. Unlike last time, I realised after five minutes that I needed to "wheel out my big guns" and go down the nymphing route. Luckily, this was concept number two that I was looking to prove - a new nymphing set-up. Complete with split shot; shock horror, is this fly fishing?

Steeling myself, I walked on and on, passing the fruitful glides that had on previous occasions welcomed the duo so eagerly. On and on I went, to the top of the beat and the dark water that had hitherto yielded no fish whatsoever to my meagre offerings.

The Dark Side, Luke?

Swapping reels for the one loaded with my nymphing rig, I decided it was time to bling up and get "jiggy with it". A departure from hitherto successful flies, but once again this pattern spoke to me from the fly box. I liked the sparkly dubbing - this was cloudy, cloudy water.

Before long, I was lobbing with aplomb and leading the fly quite nicely. Touching bottom a few times convinced me the shottage was right, all I needed now was a fish. Another drift, leading the fly, touching bottom? Lift into it anyway, on the safe side...why is the bottom moving? Oh - a fish! Being a generous chap, I practised "distance catch and release" techniques on this one; as soon as I saw it, excuses were made and leave taken.

Encouraged by this, I pressed home the attack. Another lob, leading the fly....my indicator stopped dead. I lifted the rod and felt welcome resistance; this time the hook was well-set and a fine grayling christened my net for 2013. Progress indeed, and my spirits soared.

Not the greatest camera work but you get the idea?

Back to lobbing fly and shot, striking as the rig touched bottom, and perseverance +1. Weather alternating between poor and abysmal - why aren't I at home in front of the woodburner? Actually, I'm well-insulated and quite toasty, thank you.

Very pretty, better photo! :-)

This was the method for today and I was glad I changed. I'm sure better fishers than me would have caught more, but I was a very content with how productive the afternoon had become. I experimented with different lobbing techniques, but I was mindful that tungsten beads do shattered rod-tips make, and I love my 10ft 4wt Greys Streamflex muchly.

One or two of the fish were quite challenging, in a powerful, swollen current with big dorsal fin deployed. One fish in particular took a while to revive, but was duly released to settle back into his watery home.

Gently does it.....

It amused me that two of the smallest grayling I've ever seen saw fit to eat my fly during the course of the afternoon. These were swiftly released, thanks to barbless hooks, and I made a note to look these fellows up in a few years time.

The weather was still abysmal, but I was totally engrossed in the fishing and suitably attired. Abysmal, but not as bad as the forecast!

Best of the day!

The last fish of the day - as it turned out - was the best. Another big dorsal fin in a strong current, but the hook was well-set following another heart-in-mouth stopping of the indicator mid-drift.

I did hook one further fish, but in the act of slipping the hook I was left with an utter Horlicks of a leader - I glanced at my watch and decided that Ellie and Hamish deserved another walk,  so it was home time for one happy boy after a day that exceeded all expectations.