Tag Archives: Trout & Salmon

RUTLAND

20 Friday May 2011

Posted by in Rutland

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Is Rutland a county?

Well, it was, then it wasn’t, and now it is!

That’s democracy for you and an “up yours” to Westminster (see Musings 10.5)

But it is a VERY small county….and with a trout stream?

In 2010, that I spotted that, one Andrew Flitcroft offered a day on his beat on his Rutland stream to the successful bidder for a lot in the WTT Annual Auction, that I realised there was such an opportunity, and probably the only one. My own bids came to nought that year, for I had then not heard of ‘sniping’!

But I wrote to Andrew, anyway, at his office in Peterborough and he kindly agreed to host my visit the following year, this one, and I had offered to send the WTT what I had bid, as a thank you, if he would be so kind to accommodate me.

May 2011 – the Gwash

The ‘OK Diner’ on the A1 just upstream (north) of Stamford was our meeting place.

And so we met. Don’t you find that on meeting, you know instantly that you will like someone, and that you will enjoy their company…and so it was at 10 am that day, and so it proved to be the case. I suppose I am motivated by enthusiasm and energy and commitment, and Andrew has these qualities in spades.

He has a long lease on a piece of water, in one place adjacent to, but in the main downstream of the Gwash Fishing Club’s water, and it is fed by pipes at the base of the dam at Rutland Water ensuring a steady flow of cold water which remains so, constantly through the year, delivering a consistency to his stream.

When Andrew first walked the mile or so of water he now has, what he saw  must have excited him as much as it daunted him. He was greeted by fallen timber, heavy overgrowth, little light, sparse vegetation, slow moving water, deep silted margins, un-protected banks where grazing sheep or cattle could add to the woes of this water…but he saw wild brown trout, too. And it could not have been fished for years, and he saw an opportunity to create something special. Over the winter months of the past few years, he and a small number of friends have begun the recreation of this place.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The stream has distinct sections. The banks on the upper reaches are clearer, running as they do through meadow and space owned by a school for special needs children, but the fish are easily spooked. The lower beat is unworked and still unfishable, massive overgrowth, still to be cleared….but the middle section…!?

This is a meandering ‘wonderland’ of difference, because you never know what to expect around the next bend in this pretty stream.

It could be a long pool, a short run, a flourish through a groin, or a deflector, and surrounded by wild flowers, and enough cover for fish to be confident, and enough bank side foliage for the angler to have to concentrate.

The fish are wary though, and Andrew, reminding me of the need for stealth, often had me be casting from a way back, and the roll cast was often required, too, in the tighter lies. Weed growth is coming on, but to Andrew’s disappointment, lowish water has left some weed covered by algae, and the brightness of weed growth will not be revealed until rainfall flushes the algae away.

The fish are quick and several were missed by ‘yours truly’ but an optimist, by nature, Andrew assured me there many more to come, and so there were, and a couple came to net early on my new favourite fly, #22 Adams, along with a few more misses!

The work that Andrew’s small syndicate has undertaken uses the materials which have revealed the stream as it is today, so that except for the odd piece of angle iron anchoring a flow deflector,

what you see comes from the river side and looks completely natural rather than man made. Plenty of scouring runs have been created, but the silt remains in the margins and will, until washed, or blown away.

Then, his stream will look resplendent. However, what is there today is a minor miracle and has been achieved in only five years of dedication. It is a treasure……and is Rutland’s only trout stream.

SOUTH YORKSHIRE

21 Thursday Apr 2011

Posted by in South Yorkshire

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The romantic in me quite liked the idea of trying catch a South Yorkshire trout from the Rother, because my Darling Wife hails from Rotherham! And only weeks ago, we drove down memory lane in said town, and I noted the possibility, but a web search failed to find likely connections.

Meanwhile, I have netted a brown (two actually, and a grayling) from a Rother, anyway….the one which rises in Hampshire and flows through West Sussex, and is a tributary of the Arun. (Strange that East Sussex has its own Rother, too, but I digress)

I discovered that the Rother offered some free fishing in Petersfield, on a short beat owned by East Hampshire District Council, and this was written up in a good article in last September’s edition of Trout & Salmon, by Jon Beer. A note to EHDC produced a very helpful response from Land & Property Manager, Chris Fairhead and a spare day meant a short run down the A3 for a lovely morning’s fishing in yet more early Spring sunshine, with only the cries of small kids out with Mum, bird life, and the odd yell from me from yet another catch up in the overhanging overgrowth, for distraction.

Where is this going, you may ask?

I have only written a couple of pieces on fishing forums. A casual read demonstrates that there is too much banality and banter, some rudeness, some overt selling, and too rarely are they used, creatively and constructively as the site owners would wish. I came across one recently, (which I will not name) whose owner posted an apology for closing his, for just the reasons I have listed. Shame!

However, such was the response to my original post about my ‘mission’ on ‘Fly Fishing Forum’ that I persisted, and I am grateful for all those who have responded on my blog, on the thread itself, or by private email, to me for their interest, enthusiasm, encouragement and in addition, for several invitations, some sound advice.

One such was from “Tommy Ruffe” (?!) who directed me to no fewer than three options in South Yorkshire, and I chose –

April 2011 – the Don

The Don, sometimes called the Dun, rises in the Pennines and flows for 70 miles and joins the Ouse near Goole in East Yorkshire. Incredidibly, to me, it flowed once to join the Trent, but was ‘re-engineered’ by Vermuyden, as the Dutch River, in the 1620’s!

“The Don can be divided into sections by the different types of structures built to restrict its passage. The upper reaches, and those of several of its tributaries, are defined by dams built to provide a public water supply. The middle section contains many weirs, which were built to supply mills, foundries and cutlers’ wheels with water power, while the lower section contains weirs and locks, designed to maintain water levels for navigation.” (Wikipedia)

And so it is at Oughtibridge.

Only 6 miles from the centre of Sheffield, whilst a suburb and dormitory of the City, the Don, flowing through beautiful ancient wooded acreage,

still shouts ‘urban’ at you. Below the town bridge is a stepped weir (there is another only a quarter of a mile downstream) evidencing what is described above, and across the upper runs, the buses and commercial vehicles pass by modern four and five floor buildings

containing apartments and flats, but are largely masked by foliage. The river this day was low, the rocks, after sunshine were covered in algae and slippery. To get to the water, it was necessary to clamber down steepish, dry mud banks where possible. Where not, this was because of concreted walled, or rock inlaid defences for what can only be to contain the rush of winter flood waters when the Pennines are awash, and this drain is one of few to relieve the hills of their watery burden. What the Don valley must look like in these conditions, I can only wonder. How fish find cover to prevent them from being washed down to Doncaster, I cannot imagine!

But….. the fishing is FREE, and the link is made! And it is so, all the way to Sheffield’s Hillsborough stadium, home of ‘The Owls’.

A bank side chat with William from Doncaster revealed that 25 years ago the river ran ‘black’ with industrial effluent. It still has too much man discarded detritus in it for my liking….but it also has grayling, so it must be clean. He also advised me that I was in ‘ooo-ti-bridge’ not in ‘or-ti-bridge’ as a local once corrected him!

Anglers are an impatient breed. A bit of sunshine and a bit of warmth in the air (it was 19c today) and we are ‘off’….well, Winters are getting longer? And I saw half a dozen fellow ‘impatients’, as well as couple of coarse anglers trotting for the grayling. It is only the third week in April, and the good weather has enabled me to get onto water four times, already. Me….impatient?

And I saw fish rising…lots of them, and all wild, for there is no stocking here. And my third cast into a pool below the town bridge produced my South Yorkshire trout to an olive klinkhamer.

And during the next few hours I worked my way downstream, leap frogging around fellow casters, to net another on a black gnat, then a third in a fast run on a PTN.

I probably fished a mile or so of stream, and there was plenty of variation. But the rising fish were in the slow, deeper glides are were not that easy to catch.

Another angler told me he was taking on Adams (#22), a typical early season fly. But I saw no duns, and only pale (watery) midge like flies on air, so the ‘rises’ must have been to emergers, and small ones at that.

Lucky folk those, Tykes, with so much good fishing to enjoy!

I am coming up again, next month, to fish the Rye in North Yorkshire, and the Driffield Beck in the East….just West Yorkshire to sort, now!

GLOUCESTERSHIRE

20 Sunday Mar 2011

Posted by in Gloucestershire

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Years ago, and in the early nineties, I was running a piece of business for GrandMet, and working from the UK HQ in Harlow New Town in Essex. The Whitbread business (then into brewing and pubs, wines and spirits, as well as retail, restaurants and off licences, and much unlike today’s hospitality group) owned the Threshers chain, and latterly Victoria Wine and other acquired chains, such as Ashe & Nephew.

The company was run by the legendary Gerry Walton and Ralph Hayward, and they, understanding the value of trading relationships, annually would host a special evening of , dining and entertainment (unusual for a client company!), which in the year in question, was at Blenheim Palace, home of the Marlboroughs, and latterly the seat of the Churchills.

I mused…’there’s a decent trout stream nearby, n’est-ce pas?’ and, ‘doesn’t The Bull at Fairford manage a stretch of it?’  Thank you Trout & Salmon’ classifieds!

Sometime in the 90’s – the Coln

It was June and with the Black Tie beckoning, an early afternoon arrival at the hotel, meant only some three hours fishing, but this was pre-Mission, and recreational.  The day was sunny and the river above the Bull beat looked promising because it did not include the children, dog walkers and the many locals enjoying their riverside on my beat, below the road bridge.

Amongst flowing weed, only a few fish rose in the bright light and distractions, and mine (and for a couple of other anglers) was an exasperating two and a half hours…..until, and whilst walking back to the hotel , I casually cast into a carrier and hooked and netted a ten inch fish, for my Gloucestershire trout!

WEST SUSSEX

23 Saturday Oct 2010

Posted by in West Sussex

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You would think that with several Sussex rivers famed for their run of sea trout (the June 2010 edition of ‘Trout & Salmon’ carries a reminiscence of 50 years of fishing the River Ouse by Gordon Vindell) that these also must have a head of browns. Most have but they seem scarce. The Barcombe beats on the Ouse have some, but the AC allows fishing only for sea trout after April 30th. Andrew Woolley (Ouse APS) was more than helpful and directed me to the Sussex Ouse Conservation Society website, which in turn led me to Paul Sharman, and then to Dave Champness, who is Hon. Sec. of the Balcombe Fly Fishers, who wrote, and with an invitation to be his guest for an afternoon –

“The river is narrow and cutting through clay, has high banks. The fishing therefore is by wading only, and using 7ft rods. You would be lucky to cast 20ft, so you will need to be stealthy, cautious and accurate with your casting, as there are numerous trees, bushes and bankside veg to get hung up on. The river is a few miles north of Cuckfield, and just south of Balcombe. We are a little upstream of the famous Ouse viaduct.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

June 2010 – the Ouse

 

Wow! Was he right? At his beat the river is 10–15 ft wide and flows through a channel of steeply sided, clay sticky banks covered in nettle and is accessed by sliding precariously downward, at the odd location via ladder, or by abseiling holding onto knotted ropes ! Exiting is by one of the latter two, or by scrambling.

The fishing club stocks the river with 100 or so fish of up to 1lb., a couple of times a year and there are wild fish in the headwaters of the club’s one mile long beat, where only some of the bankside vegetation has been cleared and where access is limited. Stocked or not, the fish are very easily spooked!

On our arrival there were fish rising either side of the bridge, but to what? There was little fly life, just the very odd mayfly and a couple of dark olives, and we concluded they were taking emergers and just sub-surface. Dave and I walked upstream, stopping and slithering down into fishable runs but to avail. Until returning to the bridge pool where after many changes of fly, a good trout was lost at the net but another netted soon after fishing a paradun emerger. We walked to the end of the beat, and in spite of seeing several fish rising to Mays, none were tempted ! So, only one fish for four hours of trying…but…

mission accomplished, and in most trying circumstances !

Dave Champness is a nice man. He is recovering from a nasty bout of cancer to the throat, and has had many months in hospital whilst being treated, and ours was only his second visit to ‘his’ river in four years. A finance man who sadly, and I would say, unfairly, lost his job whilst unwell, he was once with Oddbins and retains a keen interest in drink products (he is passionate about wines and malt whisky, or Scottish tea as he calls it) and I am trying to connect him to the Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET) for whom I am sure he would be a very capable ambassador.