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.