Thursday on the Test

Thursday 5th March 2015

This Thursday just past saw me scheduled to be joining Peter Anderson at Wherwell. Follow the link for Peter's take on the day.

I hadn't been to Wherwell since December 2012. That was a guided day with Jim Williams doing the patient and long-suffering honours. Trout or nowt - it was definitely "nowt" in terms of grayling that day, not Jim's fault by any stretch, but mine for missing a number of takes on the "LCD" nymphing rig late in the day.

That day was an inspiration to me, in terms of an introduction to winter nymph fishing for grayling on Hampshire's chalkstreams. In my account of the day, I referred to the "homework" that I took away with me, ending up with the creation of a nymphing rig improvised with one of "Mr Trout's" 5ft furled leaders and a Fish On hi-viz bi-colour indicator spliced on the end. Early in 2013, I had the opportunity to deploy this highly effectively on a couple of occasions, much to my delight.

What was particularly annoying about the day with Jim back in 2012 was finishing up the day in a deepish pool near the car park. The light was going, but Jim had put me in the right place with the right flies and the right rig. This was the point I referred to a couple of paragraphs ago - because of my ineptitude as a nymph fisher I missed a number of takes that I would these days expect to connect with as a matter of routine.

Anyway, back to Thursday. It was a lovely morning, and I mentioned to Peter that I fancied casting a flyline for a change from nymphing with a French Leader. Peter suggested a part of the beat where I could fish the duo, and showed me the stretch of water he had in mind.

I set to work, agreeing with Peter that staying cool might be more of a challenge than keeping warm, for a change. The early March sunshine was glorious, a thought with which the Wherwell trout obviously concurred.

I was pleasantly surprised and overjoyed to note an obviously healthy head of wild brownies, as one came firstly to my nymph and then several more attached themselves firstly to my Klinkhammer and then subsequently a Parachute Adams. On the hunt for grayling, I moved on and switched to a French Leader.

This made no difference to the result, as trout were having a field day. I moved on, trying to respect the close season on the one hand but on the other inwardly rejoicing to see so many wildies on a water renowned for its stockies.

Lunchtime was approaching, and I suddenly felt a little despondent at having only trout and no grayling to my name. As I made my way back to the car park, I happened upon the pool that Jim Williams and I had finished up in, that day in December 2012.

It looked attractive. A good depth of water, with a very healthy current flowing against the opposite bank. In I went. I waded out to mid-stream, and commenced nymphing just my side of the flow of current against the far bank.

On the third or fourth drift through some deeper water than I'd been fishing that day, in good contact with my flies, a slight hesitation led me to lift the rod tip. I was in. Instantly, I knew two things - this was a grayling and a good one at that. Retracing my steps, I retreated into shallower water, and saw that a large, male grayling had taken my Orange Tag.

With a minimum of fuss, this handsome fish was safely in the net.

A very broad, muscular fish with huge "shoulders", I realised that this was probably close to two pounds in weight. My landing net has a measuring scale, but no weighing scales. I estimated this fish to be around 16 inches in old money, which is just over 40 cm in new. Given the excellent condition this fish was in, at 16 inches/ 40 cm this would certainly be within a spit of  two pounds and my best fish of 2014-15 season.

As I got around to releasing him, he gave me a display of the stunning and vibrant colours on his huge dorsal fin. Showing that any idiot can get lucky with a digital camera in "burst mode", I think you'll see what I mean...

Stunning

I think this shot also shows the excellent condition of the fish. Anyhow, needless to say I was thus able to enjoy my hot soup and wonder yet again at Peter's capacity for getting carried away and missing lunch!

I wasn't planning to stay late, chalking off another couple of fish in the afternoon. The day had turned cooler, cloudy and windy so I wasn't far behind Peter in calling it a day and heading home to Border Terriers, woodburning stove, and my wife.

It felt very satisfying to have taken such a magnificent fish from that particular pool, given that I had "history" with it. I think perhaps one more grayling outing before 15th March, and then inevitably thoughts turn to Spring, trout, and longer/ warmer days.

Natural Born Fishers

Saturday 28th February 2015

First time I've sat here and tapped away to create a post in a good while! Not because I haven't been fishing with fly or walking with Ellie and Hamish, but maybe I just got out of the habit! Anyway, I've recently had a couple of days fishing which are perhaps worthy, and the first of these was fulfilling a commitment I'd made at a Fishing for Forces event in October last year.

Now, if you're unfamiliar with FfF, please do take a moment to visit its home on the Whisky with Water. It does some excellent work, and I've already volunteered my services to act as a mentor to forces personnel later in the year. The venue for one of this year's events will be the excellent Manningford Trout Fishery, and I'm looking forward to this already. Avon Springs is also worthy of a mention here, having been generous enough to provide the venue and facilities for a number of FfF events over the previous two or three years.

Personally, I enjoy acting as a mentor at FfF events immensely. My employer is generous enough to allow me two "charity days" a year, plus other opportunities stemming from the Lloyd's Community Programme. Corporate Social Responsibility is very much en vogue, but the CEO of the Lloyd's Managing Agent for whom I work is a strong advocate of putting something back in.

So, back to last October and the promise I made at a FfF event to a member of the RAF, a gentleman by the name of Rob Somner. Rob was one of a group of Chinook engineers from RAF Odiham undergoing a "decompression week" after a particularly long deployment to Afghanistan. He'd organised his unit's attendance on the day, having become hooked on fly fishing after a previous FfF event.

Anyhow, I was introduced to Rob by a colleague of mine who was also acting as a mentor. Rob had fished Meon Springs and got to hear from my colleague that I fished on a stretch of the River Meon, and Rob was keen to try fishing in running, rather than still, water. I quickly explained that the Meon would be unsuitable for a novice but suggested a couple of other venues and promised to be in contact via email.

So, at long last the day arrived and we met at the agreed time and place before making our way to the River Test at Timsbury. I was to supply tackle, flies and......errrr.....ummmm.....expertise, whilst Rob was in charge of supplying the requisite amount of enthusiasm. Now, I'd made a point of fishing this particular beat a couple of times earlier in the month with the desired result so was confident that I knew how to take care of fishing where there be fish.

The weather was dull, grey, overcast and chilly with a strong wind so I deployed what I think of as my "LCD" nymphing rig. I explained to Rob that the method we would be fishing was relatively short-line nymphing and ran through the basics. There would be little or no elegant casting of fly line - more a wristy flick or well-timed lob to get the flies where we wanted them to be. I pointed out the indicator and explained it's function. My choice of fly was a single Orange Tag, bearing in mind this is a successful pattern and the simplicity of no dropper or second fly to tangle. The goal was very much to concentrate on fishing rather than over-complication.

After a quick demonstration, Rob eagerly grasped my 10ft 4wt and set to work. I explained about reading the water and suggested where to cast the fly, and before long we were in a nice rhythm. I wasn't fishing myself, just helping Rob find his feet with suggestions and adjustments. We were moving slowly up the beat and after an hour Rob thought he'd had a couple of expressions of interest but not connected. I told him I was pleased as this showed we were fishing the right fly in the right way.

The end of the drift

We'd been going about an hour by this time, and I'd also explained about inducing the take and how inadvertently this can prove deadly at the end of the drift. Well, with practically the very next drift, just as Rob began to lift the flies a solid take put a nice bend in his rod.

The culprit!

I was amused to see this small grayling was responsible for such a positive take and some very respectable rod-bending. To say Rob was pleased is an understatement.

Before very much longer, slightly further upstream another positive take resulted in another decent bend. I quickly identified that this was a trout, and urged Rob downstream so we could net and return it with minimal disturbance to "The Zone".

Anyway, even though it's out of season here follows a picture. The panjet mark on the gill clearly identifies this as a stocked fish, which is my justification be it right or wrong.

Salmo Trutta

No matter, after some nifty camera work on my part back it went none the worse for its experience.

Perseverance

The morning wore on, and I suggested we break for lunch. After lunch, we resumed fishing where we'd left off but pretty soon the wind was strengthening and blowing directly upstream. Indicators were blowin' in the wind, so I suggested a move to another part of the beat where it would be at our backs.

This proved to be a very wise move! Fishing was much more comfortable, and I caught a grayling of half a pound or so. The day was wearing on, and Rob was looking at a couple of hours' drive back to just south of Birmingham. We had to depart in an hour or so.

Having explained that the trout season was closed to Rob, my mistake was not going to the same trouble with the trout themselves. Fishing in a previously very productive pool brought several to hand, mainly for Rob. The trout were taking slightly downstream of him, and I explained what I thought his fly was doing to attract the fish at this point.

Much to my relief, however, this series of (stocked) trout was punctuated by the appearance of a very welcome female grayling. True to form, the lady had showed up - eventually. We hadn't been stood up, after all.

Beautiful!

I could concentrate on working the camera, and it was a further opportunity to discuss catch and release practices.

Back she goes.

And with that, after a fruitless further 20 minutes, I explained to Rob that we would move on now if we were fishing on but alas it was time to go. A thoroughly enjoyable day was thus ended, and we departed, with talk of clubs and syndicates in Rob's neck of the woods.

Rupert (my CEO) is right. It's great to put something back in - I think Rob's hooked on running water now! Oh dear, chalk up one more to the pile of us obsessed types........