A great day and a special fish to top it offTime definitely goes quicker the older one gets. It had hardly seemed like a year had passed since FishingMagic’s first Grayling day on the Lower Itchen Fishery north of Southampton in February of last year. Here we were again though , some old faces but some new, to cross swords with that most sporting of our fishes – the grayling.
Last year the fishing gods had not smiled on us as heavy rain in the days before the fish-in had meant the water had coloured up badly, far from ideal for a fish that feeds solely by sight. This year the rain had stayed away and the river should have been clear. The beauty or, some would say, the frustration, of river fishing is that you never quite know what to expect, so it was surprising to find the river again flowing coloured and carrying a fair bit of debris. We were to later find out that the drains and ditches were being cleared on the stretch above, allowing some dirty but hopefully not cold water into the river. For those who have never visited the Lower Itchen Fishery, the upper beats are classic grayling water comprising of riffle and glides interspersed with deeper pools. The lower beats see the river deepening as it backs up against the mill which marks the bottom boundary.
The grapevine said that the best grayling were coming out of the top beats of the fishery so it was no surprise when a line of cars headed up the track to the very top of the fishery. Any resemblance to a circus convoy was purely coincidental but Warren ‘Wol’ Gaunt did seem to have a very large tent in his boot. I could not have had a better start with a grayling of exactly 2lb coming to my second trot down. I might have given it half an ounce less but as Andy Nellist, committee member of the BRFC, said it went two, it was good enough for me. Daft as it sounds, I got a bit nervous with Andy watching my weighing procedure but it seemed to pass muster. Later on I took another slightly larger grayling at 2.2 and ten or so more around the pound mark before heading downstream well satisfied with my morning’s work for what proved to be an unsuccessful crack at the river’s good roach.
It’s hard to know who has caught what when everyone is so spread out, but it seemed that everyone fishing the top beats found some good grayling with a smattering of twos thrown in. Top rod was undoubtedly Mike Townsend who put together a fine bag of more than half a dozen chub and as many good grayling including his first 2lber. Well done Mike and a just reward for having set off from home at 2am to make it for the start. They are keen these DVSG boys! Special congratulations to Claudia who finally got her hands on a her first chub. I’m not sure what the chub thought about losing Claudia’s chub virginity for her but Claudia was happy enough.
Those who stayed on the lower beats seemed to struggle for grayling but the chub were more than happy to act as substitute with that wily Neil Maidment getting 13 on trotted maggot. It is fair to say the Fish-ins do have a hard core of regular attendees but they are certainly open to all. It was great therefore to see some new faces, especially Roger Hill, who has only just taken up coarse fishing after a long career solely as a trout angler.
It is hard to do justice to a day’s fishing for 15 people in a few paragraphs after the event. It is perhaps enough for me to say that I, and I hope everyone else, enjoyed the day immensely, not only for the fishing but also for the opportunity such days allow for meeting friends from the FishingMagic community. There is a little postscript to the day which the by line to this piece hints at. Thinking the day was over, we had all gathered back in the fishing cottage to toast the day with a glass of mulled wine before heading home. A certain Mr Nellist had other ideas. I will leave it to Andy to tell his remarkable tale in his own words… My Day by Andy NellistIt had been another lovely day on the Itchen and I’d had 15 or so grayling with most over a 1lb and the biggest 2 lb 1 oz. With dusk only an hour away my swim had completely died and I decided to move to the first beat to see if I could add a few fish before the light failed.The first swim produced nothing and in the second I connected with a snag on my first run through and lost my hooklink and olivette. I decided to breakdown my float rod and spend the last half hour fishing on the tip for roach in the pool by the car park. With Mike Last watching I baited up my size 14 Drennan Carbon Chub with a piece of flake and filled my feeder with liquidised bread before casting half way across the river where it runs out of the pool. My rod was propped at a fairly steep angle against the railings so that the tip was silhouetted against the sky above the trees on the far bank. Sash came over and whilst we were chatting, just 5 minutes after casting, my tip rattled. Two minutes later, with my hand still hovering over the handle, the tip nodded and a swift strike met with solid resistance. The fish moved about for the first few seconds and then everything went solid. Thinking the fish had snagged me I applied as much pressure as the hook, my 5.5 lb WB Clarke Match Team line and 12′ Carbonactive Feeder would allow. The response of the snag was to move slowly upstream! For the next few minutes I continued to play the fish as it moved almost at will around the swim and it seemed pretty clear that I was attached to a barbel and a good one at that. With my light gear I was aware that my best chance of landing the fish would be to keep applying pressure and not allow it to build up a head of steam, so I continued to apply as much pressure as I dared with my rod hooped over. When I commented to Sash that the fish was probably a good barbel he thought we should let the others know and went to the gatehouse where everyone else was enjoying sausage sandwiches and mulled wine courtesy of Nigel.
Now surrounded by a crowd of FM’ers I continued to play the fish and with the light going Paul Martin kindly leant me his head torch so that I would be able to see the fish when I got it to the surface. The fish meanwhile continued to hug the bottom appearing contemptuous of the pressure I was applying from above. Suddenly the fish rose from the bottom and as the she appeared in my torch light I exclaimed that it was a “flipping big barbel” or words to that effect! I’m not sure whether I had suddenly become selectively deaf but at this point everyone appeared to have gone very quiet. Paul passed me my landing net but the fish descended back into the depths. After another minute or so I managed to get the fish back up and this time she came to the surface. As Paul helped to manoeuvre the net into place I allowed the current to pull the fish into the folds and lifted the net from the water. The fish was in immaculate condition and it was obvious that she was well into double figures and the scales confirmed a weight of 12 lb 8 oz. Paul made a phone call and confirmed that this was a new river record, beating the previous best of 10 lb 12 oz set in November last year. After letting her recover from possibly her first capture she was released back into the pool. It was a capture I will never forget and it was made particularly special by so many FM’ers being there.
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