Sorry about the Post's subject title...
I made my 1st pilgramage of the year down to the River Test on Monday on my way back to work overseas. After
dumping my work gear and grabbing my fishing gear from their garage visiting the folks and being a good son, I stole their car and headed off for Hampshire.
I had booked a beat on the Middleton Estate at Longparish, a few miles North of Stockbridge. I stopped off at the Orvis & Robjent's Tackle shops in Stockbridge (always good for advice on what's catching) and left with a much lighter wallet as I had been looking for a 3wt rod for fishing dry flies (all thats allowed until late June on the Test!) on the small chalkstreams. The nice people in the Orvis shop efficiently and knowledgably helped me part with my cash and off I set armed with a new very light, 3wt rod (and free reel!).
Things did not look good when I arrived at the river; it was bright and sunny and was blowing an absolute hooly. 25mph winds with relentless gusts of 40mph! Ho-Hum...the Beat looked lovely though; 1.5 miles long of left-hand bank fishing (no wading so not great for Lefties then) with sections in the trees, sections in meadows and plenty of good hatch and holding pools. The water level was a bit low but, as you'd expect, the water was clear.
The advice from the tackle shops was to try a Dry Hawthorn. They were spot on. There was a huge Hawthorn hatch on the go when I arrived and it continued well into the afternoon. With the gale force winds there were loads of Hawthorns dead and drowning on the water. Unfortunately, there was also a lot of other stuff floating down the river too; mostly seeds, leaves, twigs, tree branches
etc with the effect of the wind. This didn't seem to bother the trout though, as one of them picked out my fly from amongst all the debris after only a few minutes of me thrashing the water. Unfortunatley, the trout got the better of me and I lost it after a brief battle. A quick inspection of my leader, and the tell-tale corkscrew pigtail at the end of it, reminded me to tie my knots properly...more haste, less speed...
After (properly) tie-ing on a new Hawthorn I made my way up the beat prospecting in the faster riffles and casting at clearly visible fish in the pools and slower glides of the river. Most of them were freely feeding on Nymphs but the Hawthorns were too good for them to refuse and by lunchtime I had three Brown Trout (1.5 to 2 lbs) on the bank (C & R). There were a lot of good sized Grayling visible as well (1 to 1.5 lbs) but they could not be tempted to rise.
The fishing was frustrating as the wind was brutal and in my face the whole length of the beat. I had to wait for the gusts to drop before even attempting to cast and even then the wind would often deposit the fly back on the bank beside me
. Extremely annoying when you had found, and were casting at, a specific fish. Hopefully the howling wind drowned out my frequent outbursts of colourfull language...
After a Spar sausage roll, a packet of frazzles and a Kit-Kat (everything a growing boy needs) I had two more Browns on the Hawthorn before the hatch died off at around three O'clock. I couldn't see any other insect life on the water and so reverted to an old favourite; a Big Daddy. The ones they sell at the Robjent's Tackle shop are the best in my experience. He gets them tied by Donegal Flies in Ireland and markets them as "Robjent's Daddy Long Legs". They are absolutely lethal. They are quite big (size 10) and have a tapered Peacock hurl body with long (1.5" ) legs and prominent hackle-feather tip wings. A simple hackle keeps them afloat. I'm not kidding when I say that my Daddy Long Legs had not been on the water for 3 seconds before a 2.5 lb Brown Trout (my best of the day) nailed it ferociously and was soon in the net.
I had three more Browns (and pricked or lost several others) on the DLL before the sun went down and I had to call it a day.
The new 3wt Rod was superb; powerful and accurate but delicate too (even in the wind) and I can't wait to get a chance to really use it properly in calmer conditions. A 3wt is the lightest rod I've ever used and I'm already a convert!
Next trip is already booked for July when you won't be "Up Before The Committee" for Nymphing if required!
Ewan
