Author Archives: Tony Mair

DERBYSHIRE

08 Wednesday Dec 2010

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2009 was the year I discovered just how good the trout fishing is in Derbyshire!

Rivers are fed through limestone and flow clear as Tanqueray, through the dales, with free flowing and prolific ranunculus, and consequently, enough insect life to support a good head of browns, and in the Wye, wild rainbows, too.

July 2009 – the Wye.

In the Midlands on business and staying at the Cavendish in Baslow, I arranged through the hotel, to fish the Monsal Dale waters.

It rained heavily through lunchtime, but cloudy skies cleared early afternoon, and I met riverkeeper, Stephen Moores, who introduced me to the Cressbrook & Litton Flyfishers’ Club fishing hut, and imparted some useful tips and clues!

My fishing log declares “I am in love again!”

No wonder.

Free rising fish give any river a special attraction to a dry fly fisher and I had a great afternoon catching on Klinkhamer and Elk Hair caddis patterns. Fly life in Wiltshire’ chalk streams has diminished markedly, in recent years, and I forgot how exciting it is to see beats alive with fish. The waters are varied above the hut with easy wading making most runs accessible for mile or so, although some clambering is necessary to enter where you feel fewer anglers have. Having walked and fished thus far, a herd of frisky cows, and a rather larger bull, were a bit of a put-off for bravery.

En route, I was broken by two fish which struggled so much harder than the browns I netted, that I convinced myself they were probably rainbows. I read conflicting data on wild ‘bows in the UK. Either they breed only in the Derbyshire Wye, and the Hertfordshire Chess, or they do so in more counties, but I have found no firm evidence to support the latter, only press conjecture.

Two and a half hours was enough, and in any case, the heavens opened again, and heading back to Baslow, I drove to Monsal Head (what a view!) and onward past small villages where the rains drained in flood through lanes which made driving feel like surfing.

A pint of good ale, and remarkably the sun came out again, so back to the beat below the hut !

Fishing to dusk, saw even more rising fish and enough eager to take Tups Indispensable and Sherry Spinner, that I felt blessed. I love this Cotton and Walton territory and I want to experience more of it.

I am embarrassed to reveal how much the hotel billed me for the day. Suffice it to say, that a call to Stephen, will be cheaper by 75% or so, than for me!

May 2010 – the Derwent

The Peacock at Rowsley is a legendary fishing hotel. Its rooms are spacious and comfortable; its food is excellent, and it is equal top of my #2’s (see ‘Musings 1’), and it sits on the bank of the Derwent just upstream of its confluence with the Wye. It offers fishing on the Haddon Estate water, but also on the Darley Dale Fly Fishing Club water, below Rowsley, which is where I headed. The visitor beat begins about halfway and extends upstream, so there was so much water to fish!

It was drizzling when I arrived at 330pm and the temperature could only have been circa 6C. (well it was May!), but the river was in good order and highly fishable, even if a tad coloured. Weed growth was evident but sparse, and the conditions then did not favour Halford.

So over to Skues, and with a PTN on the point and a teal and orange on the dropper I quickly had three fish from the narrowing flow ahead of a fast run just a hundred yards from Tonka Too, and they were so eager to be caught they could only have been in the river for a short while!

I walked to where the Wye entered. The sun came out and temperature was notably higher.

Four things happened –

i)                    I took off my wading jacket,

ii)                   fish were rising in the pool below where the streams merged

iii)                  I went ‘dry’,  alternating between CdC, and olive Klinkhamer.

[please see a new post at ‘Musings   4’  – like many, I am very concerned.]

iv)                 I caught fish….lovely grayling, and wild browns.

I caught…I missed….I waded downstream. And in three to four feet of water it was easy over its gravely bottom, and in the warmer weather, I had such a great afternoon that three hours and a dozen or so fish (five wild browns), was enough and completely satisfying.

My love affair with Derbyshire is alive and well.

And dinner at the Peacock was scrumptious!

WILTSHIRE

03 Friday Dec 2010

Posted by in Wiltshire

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I have been a member of the Salisbury & District Angling Club (SDAC) since 1995, and whilst living in Kent, but now in London, I have managed to get down to fish the club waters on some ten days or so, every season.

I have always been intrigued by Salisbury and the Plain, and have read Edward Rutherfurd’s marvellous fictional historic novel “Sarum” three times!!

I just love this part of the Britain because for me it resonates with mysticism and wonder, with its big skies, its tumuli, its sleepy mornings, rolling chalk hills and rape covered acres, colourful lanes, (I can forgive the noise of its military presence) …and it reeks of history. The Roman spirit lives on in (Old) Sarum, and those VERY straight, slightly elevated and angled (for run off) roads….and its biggest attraction to me is obviously its luxuriant streams, offering the angler the ubiquitous Avon and the elegant Wylye, and the challenges of the diminutive, but gin clear, Ebble and Bourne.

The Itchen excepted, I prefer the Wiltshire streams to those of Hampshire.

I feel comfortable in Wiltshire.

It is the most serene and most peaceful County in our Land.

The change in pace from the Capital is obvious and agreeable.

Sustenance during the important lunchtime break is available from a myriad of great pubs, where the quintessential English Ale is the norm; food is generally local, seasonal and therefore fresh; and overnight accommodation is easy to find and a welcome is guaranteed.

I am excited every time I hit the M3, knowing the exit to the A303 is 45 minutes away, and I am about to enter another place…may be I am a Druid!?

My favourite SDAC beats are –

Avon

Preferring solitude when fishing I will always plum for the beats between Amesbury and Salisbury, where, whilst taking mainly stocked fish, there is a good head of wild browns (and grayling), too. I enjoy the Simon Cain re-engineered and wild fish beat below the iron bridge in Amesbury; the wading beat below the Mill;

and the wading beat above the sleeper bridge at West Amesbury, but less so since the extraordinary excavations and diversions by the new owner of Moor Hatches. So I have not fished there for a couple of years, and must try it again next season….it has always had a good fly life and free rising fish, and just before dusk, can be manic!

The Durnsford beats are my favourites, though, and working downstream, 18, 11, 12, and 1 & 2, have been the most productive over the years. The joy of the Durnsford stretch is the extraordinary variety it offers.

Wylye

Stapleford and Druids have both given me hours of pleasure. The water depth some years ago during the worst abstraction, fell so much that the resident swans would swim upstream, in formation and, heads down, eat all  the weed, removing cover and food and ruining the fishing. Happily this is in the past!

Fishing into the right hand bend below the old hatch pool, from the Druids bank has yielded my largest fish. And there is always a number of good fish holding below the left bank on the bend above the hatch pool, too. Olives, Iron Blues, Beacon Beige, BWO and Elk hair caddis have proved to be the catching flies through the season….

Nadder

The Nadder is a greensand river and tends to colour up, but offers a different challenge to the chalkstreams. The Meadows beat wins hands down for me, and I am delighted that wading has been introduced. Dry fly catches the browns…nymphs might attract a chub, and there are plenty under the trees toward the bottom of the beat.

Ebble

This year I fished the Ebble for the first time at Longbridge.

What a pretty piece of water, which yielded a handsome fish of a pound from among the flowing weeds towards the top end, and away from the roadside distractions.

Bourne

I love the tricky waters of the Hurdcott beat, as much as I dislike the turgid Upper Bourne Fishery! It was in summer 2009, when in bright sunlight, and reeds as high as they would grow, I stood on the wired sleepers, across the mid-beat section, and cast into the narrowed stream where only about a five foot width of water could be fished at that time….and first cast had a fish which crashed into and out of the foliage, and when netted, turned out to be the largest grayling I have caught….circa 2lbs. The water is four or five feet deep, but to catch a specimen from there was a surprise as well as a wake up call!!

I have never tempted a brown into my net from the Bourne!

SDAC

‘Our’ Club is very special.

The twelve miles or so, of pristine mainly, chalk stream fishing it offers is very varied. Free fishing or via the beat and disc system, I have rarely, if ever, been unable to fish my chosen water for that day. Members are courteous and always willing to share what they see of the day, and the fishing is ‘patrolled’ by a small team of bailiffs, protecting the Club and its members from incursion.  Investment in fishing quality is constant, and the Club is always eager to expand its offering, for an annual subscription, which is modest for what is available. We are lucky to be led by an energetic team, and we Associates (resident far from Salisbury) are also lucky for the local volunteers who support riverside initiatives with the generous giving of their time.

BERKSHIRE

02 Thursday Dec 2010

Posted by in Berkshire

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A visit to the Barton Court fishery on the Kennet at the end of a season some years ago was unproductive and had to be put right! Another web search revealed a nice fishery available nearby, through Simon Cooper at fishingbreaks.co.uk

September 2009 – the Lambourn

The beat flows through the Donnington Grove Hotel ( and golf course) grounds outside Newbury. The hotel General Manager, Christopher Strong, beautifully spoken and adorned rurally in corduroys and magnificent red socks, greeted me warmly, thanked me for visiting and helpfully informed me where best to park, and access the stream.

It is rarely more than 15 feet wide, and casting is tight with overhanging branches, and bank side vegetation, in plenty, to catch the wayward. The stream is crystal clear and flows over a stony bed with plenty of weed for cover. Some staking work has been done to modify flows and create more. The stream is lightly stocked and in the bright sun of mid morning, my Cul du Canard (olive) produced two stocked fish, and five wild browns. After clouds covered the sky, the temperature dropped and the fish stopped feeding as the barometer fell.

The beat is delightfully challenging, and one has to be a little wary of hooked golf balls, some of which littered the bed a hundred yards upstream of the bridge. I could really love the Lambourn….it is a gem of a small chalkstream, and in many respects, more fishy, and more delightful to be on than some of its grander Wiltshire cousins.

A nice postscript to a great day and a complimentary note from me to Simon, elicited this response…

“Many thanks for your report and kind comments; that is a mission I have never          come across. You might hit a problem if someone pedantic classifies the City of London as a county!”

It is well worth checking out this review of Donnington Grove by Simon, at  – http://www.youtube.com/user/cyclopsworld#p/u/12/VucVBgriwPw

July 2010 – the Kennet

Well return to Barton Court I did, on the occasion of Iain (Sorell’s) visit from Connecticut for the British Grand Prix, where hopes were high for a McClaren and British one-two, in the guise of Jensen Button and Lewis Hamilton. You know that did not happen, and in any case, some Berkshire trout were more important.

The river on our visit was in good order, but it seemed the only fish taken then and in previous days, were to nymphs. Right by the bridge off the car park, there were several browns sunbathing adjacent to low hanging branches, and I tried what every visitor must to appeal them, but I have never seen such dismissive arrogance as they gave me, and I withdrew! But to the run just below them where the sluice has scoured out the deepest pool and back eddies, and some lunkers (an American expression used to describe large mouth bass!) could be seen feeding several feet down. And a couple of casts later a 5lb rainbow succumbed to a PTN. Tough blighter, but a greedy one which had probably been caught before and was still too stupid to be unable to discriminate between the real thing and mine!!

My goal was for Iain to secure as much enjoyment from the Kennet as he gave me on the Housatonic and the Farmington, so my task was more to guide.

To give this fishery its due, it offers very varied waters, and being gin clear, it lovely to sit and watch dace, perch, roach, and some large bream, mixing it with our preferred quarry. And, very early Iain was into a nice brown –

It was nevertheless a quiet day (only another rainbow, and a perch came to our nets), but we took the opportunity to explore the whole fishery, and this revealed the beauty of its carriers.

For a short film showing you just how lovely it is –

http://www.youtube.com/user/cyclopsworld#p/u/16/i1458aYvXYA

STAFFORDSHIRE

23 Tuesday Nov 2010

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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

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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

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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”

OXFORDSHIRE

25 Monday Oct 2010

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Oxfordshire streams are predominantly coarse and such game fishing as is available is tightly controlled  and day ticket access is very limited. So I was intrigued to note that the Orvis catalogue shows that their store in Burford has water. A telephone call to Keith Passant and a ticket was secured for the modest sum of £25, on a river where, when fishing with Steve Webster the day before on the Chess, I learned that brown trout were plentiful, and that he, a member of a small syndicate upstream of Burford, had learned that the mayfly were up and he was to fish his beat the same day as I was to fish –

May 2010 – the WINDRUSH

 

Burford is the most picturesque market town full of Cotswold stone shops and houses, and a mecca for tourists offering local fare from a number of small restaurants and bars, and boutique-y stores. And the Orvis store offers visitors its classic range of country wear as the main attraction, with the fishing store upstairs at the back of the building, which is where I found Keith in mid stock take.

The shop has three tickets on the Burford AC water which flows upstream and downstream of the town bridge offering about a mile of fishing. Keith is a real enthusiast and stressed that their hope was only that visiting anglers had fun, and by “whatever method” they choose….which made me suspicious ! He offered me a beat map and helpfully indicated the fish holding areas, alerted me to where tourists might be a problem, then sold me some mayflies (with ease!)

A stroll upstream from the bottom of the beat revealed a channel below muddy sided elevations of ten feet or so and sandy muddy bottom and little weed or other cover except for the odd fallen tree. Then shallows and gravel runs which was repeated a couple of times, interspersed by a wide bend with the inevitable deep pool scoured out by winter flood rush.

These pools hold trout I have no doubt, but it’s May and I am seeking fly life and rising fish, and a purist, my preference is to fish the dry fly, and few are moving, except for small fish, and I manage to take two on CdC olive in the hot afternoon sun from a riffle.

Walking in full chest wader Gortex, and quite conspicuously through the town to the upstream beat, I went to its head, but apart from a small weir pool where I tempted a small grayling, the rest of this water resembles a coarse river and is canal-like….

HEREFORDSHIRE

25 Monday Oct 2010

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Midlands Fly Fishers is a private club of sixty anglers, who for the reasonable sum of £400 every year have some 12 miles of beats on rivers in the Severn and Wye catchment areas, including the smaller, more intimate Lugg and Onny, and also on the Welsh Dee, and so a plethora of opportunities to target our four major salmonids. Only the Onny beat is stocked so it is wild brown heaven ! In addition, this area between the West Midlands and the Welsh Marches is teeming with small brooks and larger streams, such as the Teme the Arrow.

David Thompson is a workaholic, a serial Director, a colleague on the Court of the Worshipful Company of Brewers….and an outdoorsman and angler, whose preferred headwear is the beret (there is a row of them, hooked along a picture rail in the hallway of Albrighton Hall !!) who dresses to fish in a blue boiler suit, was quick to grasp the point of my mission, and immediately bought into it and offered to take me onto a river where it forms the boundary of Shropshire and Herefordshire so that I could score in “two counties with one fish!”

Good man !!

June 2010 – the LUGG

By reputation the Lugg is difficult to get onto because its waters are protected for club and syndicate. But David invited me stay, and after an evening on the Worfe which runs through one of his farms it was partridge for dinner cooked by Marika, and washed down with Palmer 81…’great life, init?’  Then off under grey skys and through Ludlow and into Herefordshire, chatting easily and unbroken for an hour until we reached Mortimer Cross.

We split up, and David’s advice was to work upstream crisscrossing…he spotted midges and recommended black gnat as a starter fly. I saw a rise…and crisscrossed…battling through wet bankside mud, and Himalayan Balsam, to a bend in the river. I, lazily, still had tied on the Tups from the previous evening, and two casts later I had my Herefordshire brown. Now…why did he take it? I read an article recently that such is the decline in fly life that trout are becoming less fussy…this may be true.

Moving on upstream, I encountered runs and riffles and  bends below which were many and seemingly deep pools. There were few fish moving and clearly they were lurking in the deeps, but true to my Halfordian principles and practices, and in spite of the obvious temptations, not a nymph was tied even though I knew they were there, and for the taking.

The river here was wooded and was accessed by treading carefully, hands and rod upstretched through fields of nettles as high as a man. It took too long to realise that the occasional white posts were there for a reason !This lovely stretch opens up some one mile upstream. Here the river meanders gently through open meadows, and with a cloudy sky, the fish were feeding, although rises were infrequent. Here, David and I caught up, and both took a brace.

Thank you, Hereford….thank you, the Lugg….thank you,  David.

We ventured to the Onny, to try to capture the second county of the day, but were thwarted by the colouration of heavy overnight rains coming off the Cambrian mountains. So I must  wait to add Shropshire until next season!

GREATER LONDON

24 Sunday Oct 2010

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I met William Tall during the mayfly season, when we were both invited by Paul Jennings to fish his beat on the Chess.

William is an expert fly fisher, a knowledgeable naturalist with a keen interest in fly life, and stalwart of the Wandle Piscators,  www.wandlepiscators.net

I was fascinated to hear of the work that he and his team have undertaken along with members of the Wandle Trust www.wandletrust.org , on a river which was renowned in the 18th century, as one of the most prolific trout streams in England. Its demise, through the years of the Industrial Revolution is well chronicled, with up to 100 mills in its meagre 9 miles from rising in Carshalton, to entering the Thames at Wandsworth. Its ill treatment by modern man is less well acknowledged, but attempts to improve the water quality and its aquatic wildlife this Millennium, by these two organisations, have been recognised, even if there have been setbacks, plus major chemical pollution in 2007, which killed hundreds (thousands) of fish. Recently, trout have been introduced to the river in an imaginative scheme for school age children – “Trout in the Classroom”, and trout fry have been found upstream near the old  Shipley Mill earlier this year, motivating all involved with thoughts of recovery.

Explaining my ‘mission’ and admitting that in spite of walking his river in winter months searching out likely water, I was finding his river a mystery, William kindly offered to guide me to where he thought I might find success. He, like me, is semi-retired, and was able to dedicate a whole day to wandering and casting.

September 2010 – the Wandle

Kitting up in waders in a superstore car park adjacent to a busy London street was always going to amuse some, and it did! But fortified by William’s reassuring smile, and armed with my new Loomis, off we strode across said street and into Wandle Bank, past the John Brown Partnership factory site and round the old Merton Mill (a flour mill, once owned by Scot, James Perry, owner of the Morning Chronicle, a then 18th century Private Eye, but daily!). William said that brown trout and a sea trout, had recently been taken from the mill run.

A Halfordian, I persisted with a dry for a while, but William knows of few trout caught on the surface, so I switched to a weighted pheasant tail nymph, but to no avail. So we waded on upstream toward Merton High Street, stopping and chatting to interested locals who wanted to talk about pollution, wild life, and who I sensed were relieved to think that fishing suggested their river was more healthy than they thought. We bent double to creep under the road bridge (“hope you don’t mind spiders!” asked William) to cast into the waters where   Charles Rangeley- Wilson was filmed for the ‘Accidental Angler’

The river is alive. Walking to a Merton Abbey pub, we encountered a young angler who had just caught a whopping big gudgeon of five inches ( the British record is five ounces from the Wiltshire’ Nadder), and whose blog, which William had read, recorded his catch of a 5 lb. carp the previous week.

Later we drove to Poulter Park – where we bumped into some coarse anglers, some of whom had, that day, caught trout in this stretch, where some fish in the ‘Trout in the Classroom’ project had been released. We both fished below the inlet from the Water Purification plant to above the weir some one yards downstream, but for no fish.

Odd that the coarse anglers were not trying for trout and caught them, and I was trying for trout, and……!!!?  Maybe I should try trotting some maggots down that stretch?

There followed a short walk and wade toward Goat Mill (where I caught a bleak and a small barbel on the dry earlier this summer), but no fish there today, either!

Days later, William sent me a note, with an attachment. A picture of The Piscator’s Senior Vice President, Theo Pike, with his first trout from Poulter Park….what a tease (?)….I will be back, soonest, and I told William that he would be the first to know.

Later –

Almost two weeks after my day with William, and on a dull grey day, with drizzle in the air, temperatures in the mid teens, Autumn calling, and when I really felt like staying home, but with only three days before the end of the season, I dashed down to Mitcham Common for one last try, and on the Poulter Park stretch. There was a little colour in the water after overnight rains but I took that to be ‘a good thing’. I strode, purposefully, to the weir for a few casts, but I had a plan. It was there first, but for nothing, and then back to the inlet area.

It was 1030am on Tuesday 28th.

I was fishing a weighted pheasant tail nymph, and using my Moreno bamboo rod.

Three casts into the fast water and a take…but it was off!

Was it a trout…who knows, but I was encouraged.

More casts…and still more casts…a longer line and casts further into the quicker stream.

A snag on the back cast…damn!  Release it, quickly, for I am motivated !!

Another, but longer cast still…and …BANG!!…another take.

But this fish is well hooked, and after a strong fight….I have a Greater London brownie in my net.

Two photographs and he is returned to breed and help to rebuild the brood stock on this recovering water.

Some would have fished on. My feelings of accomplishment [‘job done’], or pure joy/relief, but probably gratitude, to this lovely urban stream, and with such a noble history,…said to me – “No, go home”   And I did.

But my first act when back at Tonka Too, was to ‘Blackberry’ William, with – “I told you, you would be the first to know…”

His generous reply was – “Congratulations Tony, That’s a lovely Wandle trout and you are now a member of a pretty select band of fly fishers.  Some of the Wandle Piscators members have been trying for years to catch a Wandle trout on a fly.”

The season is ended. Perhaps this lovely fish is the most memorable of my year.

There are few opportunities to catch a London trout, and with help, I have caught one.

I am truly ‘chuffed’.

And I can’t wait for April next year….I am now off to do some serious plotting.

Post script – there is a lovely article posted on Jack Gartside’s website.www.jackgartside.com/art_christmas_queen.htm . (Whilst sadly gone, his site is being maintained by friends) I went to search out what he had found, just in case. The said moat is now gravelled in, and an enquiry to an English Heritage representative in the Jewel Tower, revealed that the moat disgorged itself into the underground car park, used by Parliamentarians, in Abingdon Street, in the early nineties. Jack would have smiled at that…but the trout were gone!


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