River Itchen Grayling Day 24/02/07

[Bully]

........careful mate, she is after your money!!

Right, just off...

 

[Coops]

Well I'm home. Just! The wheel bearings collapsed on the rear end of the car and and I limped home the last 30 miles praying it would hold together and not toss me off the road. It weaved and wobbled and made a horrible noise, but I managed to nurse it back.

Great day other than that. Thank you to Nigel and Neil for the organisation and refreshments. bacon butties, soup, samosa's, fine ale, fishing.....what more could a man ask for? A grayling perhaps, but chub and spottie herberts sufficed.

 

[Steve Spiller]

Blimey Coops! Glad you made it home ok.

Thanks Nigel and Neil.....Another fantastic Fish-in.
The food was brilliant (sorry we didn't help with the dishes!) and very needed.

I'm still amazed at the size of the grayling! But I will leave that to you in the write up, wriggly buggers aint they ;-)

We really had a fantastic day and can't wait for the next one, it was also nice to meet some new faces and have a good chin wag.

 

[Neil Maidment]

I did bugger all except turn up with some ale!

Thanks again to Nigel, superb soup and samosas hit the spot. Another excellent FM day on the river bank.

 

[Jeff ( Lucky ) Spiller]

Nigel thanks for a great day on the Itchen, sign me up for next one.
Neil cheers for the ale.
Coops sorry to here about your car, there a pain in the ar55 when they break.

 

[Nathan Walter]

Many thanks Nigel for a great day. Great to meet you all. Looking forward to the next one! Sorry to hear about your car Coops.

 

[Bully]

Great River

Great People.

Fantastic food.

Shite reel.

Now, where is that thread about pins v's open face........

 

[Matt Brown]

I really enjoyed the day. The coloured water just makes me want to go back and have another go. Lovely fishery.

Thanks to Nigel for organising everything. I'm gutted I missed the food. My belly rumbled and I thought I'd better check to see if was midday yet. It was 1:30pm and I'd missed out.

I'd certainly like to be on the next one. I'll set my alarm so I don't miss lunch in future.

 

[Mark Wintle]

I thoroughly enjoyed the day; even managed 6 species!

 

[sash]

Thanks for organizing everything Nigel (and of course for the bacon sarnies and lunchtime food). Sorry I didn't hang around for a bite to eat afterwards but I'd have definately fallen asleep on the way back otherwise!

Fantastic place, count me in for next time.

 

[Andy R]

Thanks for a great day nigel, it was nice to meet some new friends and the bacon sarni was spot on. Shame about the grayling, but the roach fishing more than made up for it. Put me down for the next one, please.

 

[Claudia Crowther]

Nigel,
A little late (only came back from another fishing session) but thank you for a great fish in....superb food, fantastic company and I really enjoyed learning new skills.

Also a big thanks to Neil who was so kind to give me my first lesson in trotting and for not getting mad at me for loosing one of his floats lol

It was great to meet new and old friends.
I'm certainly looking forward to fish the Itchen again

 

[Neil Maidment]

The lady has a talent for trotting! For someone who has not really fished rivers too much and was using a strange rod (you may not get it back Peter!) and an even stranger reel, Claudia fished really well.

A high, racing and dirty brown Itchen is not the ideal river to start trotting a float for what I think was probably only the second time, but Claudia worked at it very hard.

Her reward came at about 4:30pm, I had already packed up and was alongside her when she hooked and landed a beautiful Grayling. It was close to 2lb but we settled on 1.12oz. A superb fish and her joy was unbounded. It really was quite an achievement.

Those pheromone thingys really seem to work!

 

[Claudia Crowther]

Aww thanks Neil but I couldn't have done it without your and all the others help.

You all were a great, helping me with advice, tips and letting me watch you. It really helped me to understand more how a river and the fish in it work.

And a well done to everybody, not one angler went home blanking as far as I know.

 

[Andy "the Dog" Nellist (SAA) (ACA)]

Thanks Nigel for a great day out on an amazing venue. Can't wait to fish it again.

 

[Nigel Connor(ACA ,SAA)]

Guys,

Thanks a lot for your compliments and I am glad we all had a good day despite fairly difficult river conditions.

If any one has any pictures could they e-mail them to me and I will include them in my write up.

I have provisionally booked the fishery for the equivalent day in 2008 , the 23rd February, and will start a thread nearer the time to see who can make it.Its a little premature to take names now I feel.Keep the date free though as like me I am sure you would all would love to see how it fished in good conditions.In fact I enquired if they had a day free before the end of the season but all fishing finishes on Wednesday.Shame.

 

[Mark Hewitt]

Did you get my mail last night Nigel?

 

[Steve Spiller]

Put me and Jeff down for sure Nigel, I would love to fish it again when conditions are spot on (fingers crossed) and hopefully see a 2lb er grace my net.

Thanks again for a fantstic day, I will send you some photo's soon.

 

[Michael Townsend 3]

Thanks Nigel for the food and organisation ect.
It was a pleasure to see and fish with you all and I can't wait for the next one.
(I'll ring Matt at dinner time on the next one because he's still upset at missing his curry!)

 

[Warren 'Hatrick' (Wol) Gaunt]

lol

Yes, fanx very much Nigel. I left a little earlier than most, i owe you for breaky and a donation to the ACA. 50p in the post.

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Just kidding. Tenner on its way.