Southern river Grayling Fish-in(s)

[geoffmaynard]

Yes Rog, all payments are welcome and are due if you are confirmed - and you are

 

[Rog Hill]

Cheers Geoff, Jimmy and mine are in the post.

Rog

 

[Will Barnard]

So, C'mon who's in for breakfast then?
What time at wichester services geoff?

Me
Jez
Geoff any others?

 

[S-Kippy]

I'm in....full English please !

 

[geoffmaynard]

What's a good time? 7:00 7.30? I'll be the one in the funny hat.

 

[Will Barnard]

Yea, 7am....I'll be the one calming down the stroppy bloke in the floppy hat and preventing him from stealing the (not free) brown sauce.

 

[S-Kippy]

What ? You have to pay for the sauce ? The footpads !

 

[chav professor]

Cheques off!! see you at the Winchester service station - i am more of a Tommy Ketchup man myself..

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I am happy for 7am

 

[geoffmaynard]

Thanks to all those who have sent me cheques - and especially to those who included generous donation cheques to the Second Chance charity. I'll keep them all together and mail them off en-bloc. The rest of you, this is a reminder for the payments please.

We still have some vacancies on the Tuesday 7th December trip. Why not join us so we can put faces to avatars/forum-names. This is one of the best fisheries in the country and it's having it's best year since 1948. And that's official!

 

[Windy]

We still have some vacancies on the Tuesday 7th December trip.

You have one less vacancy ! I'm in...

Tuesday is thankfully one of my days off ! More fish-ins on Sundays, Mondays and Tuesday please...

And I am indeed a Grayling virgin... so it is a specially exciting prospect !

Mind you, I'll probably stay that way with my fishing (lack of) ability (five catfish fish ins, still no pussy*.... ).

Gosh, I'm feeling excited already !

Time to go buy some nice new thermal underwear....

 

[geoffmaynard]

Okay, here's another update:
1st trip
We have our ten confirmed people for the 25th Nov. They are:
Skippy
Ray Roberts
Will Barnard
Jez
Cliff Hatton
Geoff Maynard
Jeff Woodhouse
Frank Guttfield
Neil Depledge
Chav Prof.
The list for this day is now closed.

2nd trip
The second date is Tues 7th Dec and confirmed members attending so far include:

Rog Hill
Jimmy
Ray Clarke
Geoff Maynard
Rick Humphreys
Jim Hicky
BarbelDave
Gary Cullum
Windy

Possibles
Neneman Nick

So one place left. Hopefully Nick can make it, but if not, put your name down.

MONEY! Thanks to those who have already paid. A reminder for those who have not: Cheques for 20 quid payable to Lower Itchen Fishery - and a second cheque for whatever you can spare payable to Second Chance charity.
Send it to 260 Chertsey Lane, Staines, Middx, TW18 3NF.

I'm hoping for a Jan or Feb trip too but don't want to put a date on that just yet for several reasons.

Anyone wanting to attend a weekend fish-in please contact Mithrandir.

 

[S-Kippy]

Hows about a tactical brief then eg bait/gear to bring line/tactics etc ? I've never fished this water and I want to know what I need in me bag/box.

 

[Will Barnard]

Typical stick float tactics skip, nice and fine like. Maggot and a bit o corn...bread too if you want dem roach

 

[Neil Maidment]

A lot of varied water, shallow gravels, deep holes and double "s" bends. Lots of weed, deceptively powerful flow.

I prefer to fish with an Avon style float, bulked shot, #14 with 3 maggots, #10/12 with corn/bread. Maggot feeder can be very productive.

If conditions are good, expect plenty of grayling from ounces to maybe 2lb+, brown and sea trout. Chub, roach and barbel as well!

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Lower Itchen Fishery for fly fishing - One of the finest chalk stream rivers

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Occasionally throws up a nice suprise as well!

 

[S-Kippy]

Thank you gents,I think I can cover all that.

I would not dream of fishing a river without a bit of bread though I am not a fan of sweetcorn for grayling.Never done any good with it and have often watched in horror as people chuck handfuls of it in on a cold winters day.

Didn't know there were barbel there. Are there many or did Nellist bring that one with him ?

 

[Neil Maidment]

Thank you gents,I think I can cover all that.

I would not dream of fishing a river without a bit of bread though I am not a fan of sweetcorn for grayling.Never done any good with it and have often watched in horror as people chuck handfuls of it in on a cold winters day.

Didn't know there were barbel there. Are there many or did Nellist bring that one with him ?

I try to keep feeding to a bare minimum. Pile it in and you will soon have the spotted varieties ruining your grayling swims. Flake/punch (open ended feeder or float) really work well if you can find the fairly elusive roach, but they are in there and to a fine size as well.

As for the barbel, Andy's is the river record at over 12lbs but, in my opinion, they are there by the misguided hand of man. I've seen more and more of them over the last three years and have landed 4 to about 6lbs.

 

[Jeff Woodhouse]

I try to keep feeding to a bare minimum.

When you say "minimum", Neil, is that a northern minimum or a generous southern minimum. In other words, will I need more than 2 dozen maggots, for example? And what colour would you suggest?

Well, perhaps 2 dozen would be very much a northern minimum, do I need 1 pint or two pints?

Liquidised bread any good with the flake or punch?

I'm not a keen sweetcorn user either. Probably will have some, but I always take it and always bring it back.

 

[S-Kippy]

How can you even contemplate NOT taking a bit of bread, Jeff ? Them ol' spotties LOVE it !

 

[Neil Maidment]

I am not a quiet feeder! I tend to pile it in but for the Itchen I usually take a couple of pints of reds to last all day. Mind you I'm usually roving all over the available fishery and depending on numbers will have several swims on the go. I will usually go back to several swims during the course of the day.

I experimented with a bait dropper, rather than loose feed, last year and it seemed to keep the grayling going longer and kept the brown and sea trout at bay.

I've had limited success with liquidised bread in an open ended feeder with flake/punch on the hook but it has produced the odd very big roach. Andy's 12lb+ barbel fell to that method at last knockings.

I've not had so many chub this year, but only fished the lower stretch. Last year, especially on the top stretch below the bridge, on the shallows and down on the bend, there were chub a plenty and flake produced the better ones to 4lb+.

Parking:
A point for everyone. The parking seems to be a little limited this year. We usually park through the arch, left and right. But the right hand has new(ish) hard standing and is sign posted for the offices at the mill only. But by driving down the path to the top end of the bottom stretch, you will find more space and be nearer the better (perhaps!) areas. Also, with the top stretch available, you park up there as well. It's a long walk from the mill!

 

[geoffmaynard]

Parking:
A point for everyone. The parking seems to be a little limited this year. We usually park through the arch, left and right. But the right hand has new(ish) hard standing and is sign posted for the offices at the mill only. But by driving down the path to the top end of the bottom stretch, you will find more space and be nearer the better (perhaps!) areas. Also, with the top stretch available, you park up there as well. It's a long walk from the mill!

Drive through the mill, under the motorway, straight up the track, keep the river on the right. Drive through the double gates. keep going. Over the weir and keep going. A good 1/2 mile or more in total. There's the hut on the right - park here for fishing the top stretch and walk the rest - this is the only part where there's a fair walk required. The rest of the fishery up to here you can park on the river at several spots so there is NO hard walking involved for the old-timers or infirm. Or older content managers! Check the map to ensure you do NOT fish the fly only beat. Map is on the fishery website