Monthly Archives: November 2010

STAFFORDSHIRE

23 Tuesday Nov 2010

Posted by in Staffordshire

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I have caught trout in Staffordshire, whilst staying at the Izaak Walton Hotel at Dovedale last year, and fishing the same hallowed water on the Dove, fished by Charles Cotton, four centuries ago which was featured in the ‘Compleat Angler’ on Discovery Real Time (Shed) and fronted by Geoffrey Palmer and Rae Borras…a lovely series.

Two, to be precise, and on elk hair caddis, but with no thanks to the zillion families/splashers/chuckers/picnicers/ dogwalkers…and dogs!

But this post is about another Staffordshire stream, not so well known, and where on this occasion, I was unsuccessful.

My web search led me to the Leek & District Fly Fishing Association, and an email to them, produced a response from Rob Hartley which generously said

“ Leek & District FFA have volunteered me as a guide”…

And so, after a couple of calls to agree dates which would work for us both, we met at his home near Stoke and then headed off  to –

August 2010 – the Churnet

Tonka Too made easy work of the bumpy track through the woods of the National Trust’s Hawksmoor Estate and we parked up by a tenant farmer’s barn. I was already tackled up (the same morning I was on the Inn at Whitewell’s water on the Hodder) and I watched, surprised, as Rob put up a nine foot, 8wt, and tied on ‘the lure of all lures’ with the thickest, orangest, maribou tail, I have ever seen….

”there’s a pike down there, and I have to remove it” …..he explained!

A man has to do, what a…

The Churnet is described in their website, thus –

“Many years ago the Churnet was regarded as a sour river, an appalling river, because of the pollution which found its way into the Dove.

The club took on the Churnet in the early 1970’s and began a programme of restoration. As a direct result of these early efforts the clubs name and reputation began to evolve.”

The LDFFA have had further problems, but today, this feeder to the River Dove is in good health, and in no small way, down to the efforts of Rob and his fellow Committee members.

Walking down to the stream, Rob pointed out the Keeper’s Gibbet…I was ignorant!

Apparently, in days gone by, a gamekeeper would string up vermin he has despatched, to prove to his employer that he was doing his job…the countryside preserves the past –

The stream was coloured, it runs over clay (the Potteries!!) but there was the odd rise.

The club’s beat offers an incredible mix of challenges…fast open runs; slow paced glides under overhanging cross stream branches, and round some fallen trees; deeper, silt edged pools; high banks and no banks; pebbles and muddy wading…and the City of Stoke is only a few miles away, but you feel isolated.

Rob guided me to where he hoped I would catch. His keen eye to tactics was helpful. Churnet fish are “angler shy, but not tackle shy”, so a long leader was his advice, and this produced at least three takes, but none of these quick fish came to the net. Until on this bit of water –

where I netted two grayling. The second whilst struggling, attracted the attention of a trout which attacked it as it came to hand. But the fact that grayling are there seems testament to the efforts of the LDFFA to improve the water quality of their river….

Well done, and my big thanks to them, and to Rob.

HERTFORDSHIRE

16 Tuesday Nov 2010

Posted by in Hertfordshire

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Now, Hertfordshire was always going to be difficult !

But the internet, and patience prevailed, and whilst there may be other better waters such as the Chess which flows through Latimer and Rickmansworth, access is through members only clubs, except in the Recreation Ground in the latter…a daunting prospect, made no more attractive by Charles Rangely-Wilson in his ‘Accidental Angler’ TV series, when he sought an Inner M25 trout. But…through the website, www.flyfishingvenues.co.uk, I discovered –

September 2009 – the Ver.

Redbournbury Fishery, just north of St Albans, is in the narrow headwaters of this stream which flows into the Colne at Bricket Wood, just inside the M25, near to is junction with the M1.

The fishery is the retirement, labour of love of John Dunkley, who is creating an outdoorsman playground, offering rainbow, and coarse fishing in two lakes adjacent to the little Ver, and clay shooting.

The catch and release only, stream (littered in part with spent clays!) was stocked with browns, some twelve years ago, but not since.  Narrow and heavily silted, and overgrown in the most part by long swaying grasses, it has to be waded and is best fished with light tackle and a short ro, mine, my favourite Loomis Trilogy. Casting accuracy is essential, and not easy on this wind blown flood plain. But there are fish there, but they are easily spooked, and my two juveniles fell to Cul du Canard (olive), in the riffle at the top end of the beat.

When John heard of my ‘Quest’, he refused payment, and asked only for a mention in the writing he felt sure, was likely. Nevertheless, I left a ‘note’ and a message that I had taken a couple of fish. Unfortunately, he took me literally, and an explanatory email winged its way to him quickly !

I wish John well with his determination to enliven this stream. It will need a lot of work to open it up and make it more fishable, and in stripping back the invading grasses and de-silting to encourage more weed growth and create breeding spots, he risks reducing flows dramatically, and a hot summer or two could wreck his ambitions. The WTT has advised him in the past, and they may be needed, again.

SURREY

16 Tuesday Nov 2010

Posted by in Surrey

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This is a testament to all that is good about fishing and anglers.

Research showed that Surrey has two streams holding some trout, and the better known is the Tillingbourne at Albury where Peter Cockwill, who has one of the best fishing shops in the UK, gives great advice. But, there is also, another option.

August 2009 – the Wey

The Peper Harow Fly Fishing Club has water near Elsted. Its club house is in the farm yard of a building which recently had been used for a location set for the latest ‘Robin Hood’ movie, starring, Russell Crowe, firmly putting the tiny village of Elsted on the map.

I had exchanged correspondence with the Hon Sec., Charles Stuart, and met him at 9 am on a Sunday morning when he apologised for there being so much activity on his beat. He turned out to a retired financier, and is putting all his energies into the club. He was there that day, as part of a fly life and insect investigation (The Millenium Fly Survey); as was an inspector from DEFRA, who was removing the highly invasive American Signal Crayfish, from some twenty traps anchored to the riverbed. He ‘removed’ dozens….“They’re good eating….do you want some?” he asked me ! American crayfish are voracious eaters of absolutely anything, and are also cannibalistic…I declined !

The river is on greensand, and resembles the Wiltshire’ Nadder, another one.

It’s good trouty water in parts….swaying bankside grasses for cover, with a few exciting pebble based runs and good weed growth. A sunny day at first, but clouds soon to come, and as soon as I saw a rise I covered it and hooked my first Surrey trout just as Charles and crew approached to witness the feat ! He was so excited for me that later, and back at the hut, he refused a payment for my morning, the rest of which was spent exploring the beat below the old farm bridge, and just looking for fish, but there were few ! And my one, was it, although I did hook and lose a second shortly after my first when the weather was a little brighter.

I subsequently wrote to Charles and enclosed a small cheque asking that it be added to club funds to cover the cost of replacing some of the worn out crayfish traps (plastic ‘wears out’ when immersed in water for a long time, I discovered) He graciously replied with the offer to join him on the Findhorn, if ever that far North !

[Note…This year (2010) I noted that the PHFFC has put up a day rod ‘prize’ in the Wild Trout Trust annual auction….I wonder if this was conceived as a result of my visit ?!]

HAMPSHIRE

16 Tuesday Nov 2010

Posted by in Hampshire

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Peter Lipscombe was a Director of Guinness plc when we first met. I was asked to join a team of seniors from his company, and from mine, GrandMet plc, who were tasked with recommending the name for the entity which the merged companies would become. Wolf Olins did the groundwork at considerable expense and shortlisted three names, and as in all cases, there was no point in doing so much work on this, because the new board would choose the name (and Wolf Olins, its justifications and explanations!), and so it happened, and was Diageo born.

The next time I came across Peter was after he had retired. In 2000 the Guinness brand was integrated within the ‘big spirits’ brands portfolio, of which I was commercial head in the UK. Not missing a trick, one of my Sales Directors, the most experienced Stephen Digby, and himself, a Past Master, quickly suggested that I become a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Brewers in the City of London. Peter had been, too, and was himself, Master in 1990-91.

I have just completed my ‘year’ as Master, during which, Peter, a very keen angler, and Wykehamist, invited me to fish on the School water in the middle of Winchester. A rare treat on a beat which is mentioned extensively in Tony Hayter’s book, ‘F M Halford and the Dry-Fly Revolution’, which chronicles the time and experiences Halford had on the same beats in the 1880’s (and I gave a copy to Peter, in thanks), so I, a Halfordian, accepted with relish!

September 2010 – the Itchen

 

In recognition of this famous water, it seemed appropriate to fish with Moreno’s bamboo rod www.mbrods.it which was paired with a 3-weight Cortland Sylk line (very soft and pliable, with little or no memory, and one of the best I have found) and the bronzed Loomis Eastfork reel, for colour coordination, you understand !

My trip down the Hog’s Back was quick, and I had time to pop into the Rod Box, (another wonderful fishing shop) in Kings Worthy, to stock up with some small PTNs (you cannot have enough at the end of the season), and then following Peter’s directions arrived as requested, but still early, and therefore in time to meet and introduce myself to River Keeper (for thirteen years), Mark Sankey.

We studied the water on the carrier nest to the School hut, and I listened intently to his advice on the ‘killer’ flies, as we watched juvenile wild fish moving just subsurface and coming up occasionally to emergers. And we watched a couple of several pounders keeping to themselves in the deeper waters…ummm! Dries, or wets?

Peter arrived and we discussed tactics.

We would fish upstream from the road bridge

before lunch, he a ‘leftie’ on the true left bank therefore, and me the opposite, a ‘rightie’. It was an interesting, and true chalk stream experience. This was stalking…and there were fish galore, but they detected the slightest movement from a serious distance and would scurry away in earnest leaving the inept (me!) with little to cast at…that is all but the pike, of which there were too many for comfort, but even they were a little leary, and a swirl and a muddy cloud showed that they, too, were off to a more comfortable lie. The sun was high, the light was bright, there was surprisingly little ranunculus, and therefore, cover, and the trout were wary. I searched for deeper water and currents where my movements would be unseen, and put on a pheasant tail nymph.

In time I found my spot, and took, first a grayling, and then a Wykehamist brown. (I emailed Moreno the pictures from bankside!)

I confess to being confused by these educated fish. Some larger specimens were completely un-phased by my presence, and of course, rejected my feeble attempts to lure them. But September can be a great month or a difficult one. Fly life was scarce….a few upwings, but little else, so subsurface was the way, but also, the barometer was flexing, and patience was important.

In the early afternoon, and in the lower beats, the quietness (silence) of the river was deafening.

But on a bend no more than 200m below the road I found a fish feeding under the branches of a large beech. I tried so many different dries and on every new one, he (?) came up and took a sniff, and did the same as the last time. And, conscious of the tightness of the situation, I was casting side arm, and magnificently, and presenting many flies right over his snout, with great skill, but still failed to impress, or induce a ‘take’. I was completely ignored. It did not help when Peter announced he had just taken his first fish, just yards above me!

We walked along the carrier, and I was reminded of Huddi’s river, the Arnarvatnsa in northern Iceland, it too, a carrier of a world famous river, the Laxa. Twenty five feet wide, flat calm with little noticeable flow, and therefore, little weed life, virtually no bankside cover to hide behind, so, easily spooked fish! So my chances nearer dusk would be improved.

At around 5pm we split up. Peter wandered back upstream to fish from the School playing fields (left) bank, and I persisted below the sluice, starting again where we had earlier, but very slowly because I was intending to fish through to darkness. I was diligent and carefully watching the water and still hoping to see some rising fish…some grayling were, but no trout until, and on arrival opposite my beech tree there he was, and a second smaller fish, too, still coming up and sipping. So I tried again, and again, and again. Guess what? Hhmmm!

 

 

 

 

 

 

After many (more) casts and just as I decided that he/she had won…this beautiful fish of 3 lbs or more, leapt out of the water in triumph….for he/she decided he/she had too !!!

And so to the carrier!

By 7 pm the light was fading. Rings and swirls appeared in the flat waters ahead of me.

Some were aggressive ‘plops’, some gentle ‘slurps’….typical trout and grayling rises. Supper was being delivered, and with predatory fears receding, they were ready to eat.

I moved upstream quickly and cast to rising fish. The joy of parachute flies is that you can see them. And because I failed all day to identify what was hatching, I resorted to the ubiquitous Klinkhammer, and the olive version did not let me down, and three grayling and one brown came to my net. And then it was dark.

Peter wrote me a nice note –

“Dear Tony,

Just to say,  thanks again very much for the book.  Having taken a closer look, the photo of ‘Old Barge’ is indeed where we fished yesterday (about as far up the main river as you reached).  I am much looking forward to dipping into the history.  Thanks also for lunch.  Sorry the day was not very productive – on reflection I think the fish had their minds on other things.  The one I caught and the one I saw jumping out of the water were very coloured – like red salmon.

I much enjoyed your company.

Best

Peter

But as I said to him – “the thanks are all mine”