For those that don't know, this section of this beautiful Hampshire chalk river is through the summer an exclusive dry fly only water, but in the late autumn through the winter they open up for the coarse angler to target the massive grayling, roach and other coarse fish that inhabit the main river and the carriers.
This is a fantastic way to start the new year, all I take is a float rod a few bits and bobs, plenty of maggots some bread and a few grains of corn.
The day started overcast with a few showers, and on first inspection the river looked sock on for producing some fish. My plan for the day was to start on the fast carrier stream and put a fish or two on the bank before picking a swim on the main river and working it for most of the afternoon to try and pick out one of the big roach the venue is famed for.
The main river
I began as planned on the fast carrier hoping to put a few grayling and maniac trout on the bank. After trying a number of swims I had only managed one very small brown trout, so I decided to head onto the main river and try my luck there.
The first swim I tried eventually yielded a brown trout of about 2lb and a couple of graying at about 1oz each. These have to be the smallest grayling I have ever caught! I then preceded on down the river trying a couple of likely looking spots, before coming to a lovely looking swim which was about 3ft deep one rod length out with a clean gravel run straight down to a fallen tree branch the screamed fish. The 3rd trot down with double maggot saw the float vanish and I found myself connected to what felt like an express train, after 10 min I finally managed to net a lovely sea trout that must have gone the best part of 5lb. With the fish safely returned, I had another couple of runs down which resulted in one more bite and a grayling of about 8oz, and moved on down river again.Now I had planned to fish a feeder for a few hours with liquidized bread and flake on the hook, but when I settled myself down I discovered what the 'Forgotten Something' feeling was. I'd left my loaf of bread. Well, I sat down for a while and tried to fish the feeder using maggot and corn on the hook. As it was it proved fruitless apart from a couple of minnows, so the feeder rod was put away and I decided to concentrate on fishing the float.
For the next hour or so I worked my way back up river trying a couple of swims and catching another sea trout of about 3lb, a rainbow trout, a brown trout and a smattering of grayling.
The last hour and a half saw me settle on a clear shallow run just above the island, Mark and Ken were both fishing a couple of swims upstream and had banked a couple of trout and grayling each. I decided to try feeding small balls of liquidized bread at the same time as the maggot and this proved to be the right decision as I started to catch a few roach, dace and chublets in amongst the inevitable trout and grayling-unfortunately none of those proved to be the leviathan's I was after, the biggest being about 12oz, although I did lose a large fish which looked like it was a roach but as with all these things, I can but wonder.
Unfortunately, none of us managed any real monsters, but all three of us managed to catch plenty of fish, and had a fantastic New Years day.
The beautiful lady of the stream, just a small one for Timsbury
