Another Orange Tag Saturday

So, two weeks to the day after Nicholas Steedman's Orange Tag Heroics, yesterday I found myself once more heading through the New Forest towards the M27. This - via Rownham Services for coffee and a breakfast bap - would take me to the M3 and then up beyond Winchester, to Hampshire's fabulous River Itchen.

At the time of my previous visit with Nicholas, the river was higher than I'd ever seen it before and a little coloured. The intervening period had seen more wet weather, but the river was lower and the water clearer than two weekends ago. Since the middle of December an absolutely biblical amount of rain has fallen in Hampshire; I reflected that I'd been blessed with dry, clement weather on my fishing days during this period.

The river was still much, much higher than normal with a significant amount of extra water being carried and a very strong flow. Wading would be a challenge in these conditions, and I sensed I'd need to get the flies right down to where the fish would be, tight on the bottom, making the most of their intelligent design and conserving energy.

I opted for a longer tippet than I would normally use, and my point fly would be an Orange Tag without doubt. I considered what to tie on the dropper and remembered a post I'd read recently on the forum about flies for high, coloured water. I had a shrimp pattern very similar to the Dirty Pink, so on it went.

Since my last outing, I'd been giving some serious thought to the indicator/ sighter I was going to fish with. I'd sourced a couple of French Leaders from Dave Downie, and had been very impressed with them for a number of reasons. I had one of Dave's clear leaders sitting in the draw as a spare, so I'd carefully removed the sighter from this and attached it to the end of a Hends Camou that I would be fishing with today. This would prove to work very well, giving me greater flexibility to change depth without adding or removing tippet. Less fannying about and more time fishing!

Like Nicholas on our previous outing, I was up and running very quickly, the Orange Tag once again doing the business. I was also delighted when one grayling decided to opt for my dropper fly, as that seemed to vindicate my fly selection. I started off determined to keep count, but as usual once I was into double figures my mind wandered and I thought "Oh well, who cares!"

Big enough for the scoop net!

Some of the initial dozen or so were good fish and needed the net. The one above was a particular handful, although by the time we met I'd thoroughly "quality assured" all my knots so wasn't overly concerned.

I was struggling to make much progress up the beat, as every few steps the clear water would reveal yet more grayling and it would have been bad form not to have a cast or two.

What a nice scoop net! Brodin?

In the end I got a grip and willed myself upstream, ignoring the fish until I came to the first of two places on this beat that I especially like to fish.

A Vision!

This proved hard work, but I was able to persuade some grayling to come out and play. This was where I'd been fishing when Duncan landed his monster, and it had provided some excellent sport then, Today was not quite so prolific, and I decided to move on to try my other favourite.

Recognise this?

Don't tell anybody, but one look at this flow and I reached for the split shot. I popped a single No. 1 about six inches from the point fly and got cracking. A couple of small grayling on the point fly were followed by an upstart escapee rainbow that took a shine to my Dirty Pink.

Then...next cast into the drift through the hatch pool. I detected a slight hesitation and lifted the rod tip. Strange...is this the bottom? Hang on, no - a couple of wobbles and a sensation of something solid but not quite stationary - not the bottom but a fish that was staying tight to the bottom. But definitely not the bottom. I lifted the rod tip and applied a tad more pressure, to try and provoke this fish into action, and grudgingly it started to respond. By now, I realised I had something quite substantial attached and was once more quietly confident that my knots would hold, but in such a strong flow this could be a challenge.

Shortly thereafter, I caught a glimpse of the fish itself and realised that this was a very respectable-sized (male) grayling indeed. I was very calm, and thankful for the use of my Snowbee 3 in 1 net, with the long handle deployed and a generously-sized  frame and bag. In he went, without incident or much further ado.

Caught!

This was the cue for feelings of relief, as the last couple of fish I'd hooked into of this calibre I  hadn't managed to land. It was also another opportunity to use my Panasonic Lumix FT5. I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to operate this camera one-handed. Once again, I was also to be delighted by the quality of the pictures it produced.

Being released

I don't carry scales so couldn't weigh it, but this was a handsome, long and muscular fish. It hadn't been a long or arduous fight and so a quick recovery and release saw him kindly holding station a couple of feet from me. This was an opportunity to try my very first underwear underwater shot.

Swimming away - happy!

By this time it was early afternoon and I would not be "having a late one" so began making my way back to the car. I did have time, though, to bother a few more of the local inhabitants, many of whom were pleased to see my Orange Tag dead-drifted past them.

Another decent fish

I'd had a really good, hugely enjoyable day and was playing the fish immediately above (which had also needed persuading to budge from the bottom) when my phone rang. Thanks to the wonders of Bluetooth earpieces I was able to do two things at once - talk to one delightful lady whilst welcoming another into my Snowbee 3-in-1.

Away she goes - the water cleared as my day wore on

As I packed away, I was left reflecting on a very successful day's fishing. As explained, I'd adopted a different sighter/ indicator with my French Leader, and was better able to alter the depth at which my flies were fishing quite dynamically throughout the day. I guess that - instead of using shot - I could have tied on a heavier fly, but who's to say that my presentation would have been better/ more effective?

Last fish of the day!

I was glad I packed up when I did as shortly thereafter a squall of some force swept strong winds and heavy rain through this part of Hampshire. As I finish this entry, today has brought some particularly mucky weather with it. Time to put another log on the woodburner and reach for some Tom McQuane....