A Personal Best Brown Trout

This year the Environment agency have abolished the closed season for brown trout in fully enclosed stillwaters. This is a change I fully support for the following reasons:

• Wild brown trout in stillwaters spawn in feeder streams and thus retaining the closed season in stillwaters that are not fully enclosed protects this valuable resource.
• Most stillwaters nowadays are artificially stocked with triploid trout (this is achieved by heat treating the eggs). Triploid fish look, swim, jump, and taste like normal fish, except for one important difference; they never develop normal eggs or sperm and are unable to reproduce (i.e. they are sterile and never lose condition).
• The closed season for rainbow trout on stillwaters was removed some years ago and retaining one for brown trout was inconsistent.

Tim Small owner of Lechlade Trout Fishery has stocked a number of large brown trout this winter.I arrived to find Lechlade thankfully free of ice. With visibility poor I had little chance of stalking a brown trout so I decided to fish deep with lures that might be seen to imitate fish fry. After a couple of hours I was still fishless despite rods bending all around me. A brief spell with a "blinged out" terry's tadpole saw me land a six pound rainbow.

Walking round the lake I noticed that one lucky angler had caught a brace of large browns from under a tree by the island. When the spot became vacant I dropped in and spent the whole afternoon in this area resting the water regularly. I had two fish in quick succession on a white nomad; a rainbow trout of about seven pounds and a new personal best brown trout of 8lb 11oz.

Next cast a double figure brown followed the fly in and I saw the white of it's mouth open as I 'hung' the fly prior to recasting. Unfortunately it changed it's mind and despite changing flies regularly I could only provoke follows. With half an hour to go until dusk I finally had a solid take, unfortunately it was just an average rainbow which completed my limit.

Will we see large numbers of specimen brown trout being stocked into our trout fisheries as a result of this legislation? I suspect not as rainbows grow fast and are much easier, quicker and therefore cheaper to produce. Tim Small is an exception, he breeds his own fish and is keen to provide the trout angler with the chance to catch big browns through the winter.

Postscript: I returned to Lechlade the following Sunday and the browns were noticeable by their absence. I hard to work hard on a difficult day for my limit of four stockie rainbows. On Lechlade even the stockies are around six pounds!

Testing times

I sometimes wish this winter would just end! Temperatures are once again below normal (max 6 degrees) with hard frosts followed by bright days with a chilly north easterly winds, hardly conducive to good sport.

I decided to visit the River Test at Timsbury, where  three miles of main river and carriers are available on a day ticket. As this was my first visit I planned to travel light and explore the  fishery hoping for some decent grayling and maybe a bonus sea trout for the species hunt.

The Test normally runs clear but today the water had a distinct green tinge to it. By late afternoon I had walked the entire fishery and along with the other anglers present struggled talking a 3lb 5oz chub, a couple of brown trout and  a small grayling on my trotted maggots. One angler fishing the block-end feeder managed a number of fish including a magnificent 7lb sea trout.

I had learnt a lot from my maiden visit to the River Test and booked a return visit on Thursday.

On Thursday once again I had to de-ice the car before setting off for Timsbury. I decided to set out my stall for a sea trout and fished the swim that produced the big sea trout earlier in the week. I set up two light quivertip rods with the new Drennan vari-weight block end feeders and two foot fluorocarbon hooklengths to a size 14 barbless hook. I planned to draw fish to me. One rod was fished about a rod length out well downstream and the other slightly further out. Despite the bright sunshine during the morning I had half a dozen small grayling and a couple of brown trout to about four pounds. Then it went dead until late afternoon where in a five minute spell I missed three bites. It must have been a difficult day because everyone else had gone home. These were indeed testing times, however I was lucky enough to see a water rail emerge from the bankside reeds, these are extremely shy birds!

Captain Parker and the Millers Thumb

Captain LA Parker was one of the most famous anglers of the first half of the 20th Century. "Skipper" as he was known took over and ran the Bull Hotel in Downton which became a place of pilgrimage for many anglers. By a strange quirk of fate I found myself renting a holiday cottage in Downton from Len and Eileen Parker, Len is "Skippers" son.

Captain Parker's book "This Fishing" published in 1948 is well worth a read and the chapter relating to water temperatures and fishing prospects was well ahead of its time, I will certainly be carrying a thermometer in future.

Unfortunately my arrival in Downton coincided with heavy rain which meant that apart from the Hampshire Avon the Wessex rivers were unfishable. The Hampshire Avon being a chalk stream holds its water better than most rivers and although bank high was still running clear.

I opted for a day after the dace on the London Angling Association stretch at Britford. Although the carriers are renowned for big roach the better dace are on the main river, so I headed for a favourite spot on the main river where big dace normally congregate prior to spawning. Although the water was tanking through there was a slacker area on the far bank that I could trot. After a couple of hours I realised that the dace were not at home and only managed a couple of chub in the two pound class.

After fishing a couple of swims without success Stuart the river keeper put me right and directed me to a weirpool where only half the gates had been lifted leaving an eddying area of slack water on the inside. Trotting this swim was a bit strange as the float went round the swim in an elongated oval, one minute the avon float was going fast downstream and then slowly returned towards me. I missed a number of bites as tackle control was tricky but soon managed a couple of dace, some minnows and a roach of around twelve ounces.

It was one of those swims that was more efficiently tackled on the feeder so relunctantly I set up a light quivertipping outfit with a small blockend feeder. My catch rate improved and I added several more dace to 7oz, four brown trout, yet more minnows and a bullhead.

The bulhead is an unusual capture on rod and line and is also known as the Millers Thumb, its flattened shape said to resemble the thumb of a miller splayed from testing flour.

The last couple of hours were reserved for roaching and I fancied a slow swim on a carrier just above another weirpool. A couple of handfuls of mashed bread were thrown in to prime the swim. I fished a piece of breadflake on a size 10 hook to an 18 inch hook-length below a cage feeder. I missed the first bite and had to wait until after dark for the quivertip to pull round again, unfortunately the culprit was not the expected big roach but a chub in the three pound class.

The river had risen a couple of inches in the last hour and with further rain overnight the Avon was in the fields the following day.

Small Water Trouting in the Cotswolds

Finally the thaw has set in, too late in the week to make any of the local stillwaters fishable so my planned piking session had to be postponed. A river rising with snow melt and laden with salt is just not worth fishing. A couple of telephone calls later and I had my venue, Lechlade trout fishery in the Cotswolds which was ice free over 50% of its surface area.

I arrived at Lechlade ready for when the gates opened at 8am. I have always found the first couple of hours on small stillwaters to be especially productive. I expected that the trout would be fairly deep and set up with an intermediate line with a 15 foot fluorocarbon leader with a 6lb tippet. In the first couple of hours I had three good takes on a white nomad fished with a slow figure of eight retrieve, landing two rainbow trout including a double.
 
My trout sessions are relaxed affairs and I like to take regular breaks from the fishing. It always amuses me to watch other anglers flailing away for hour upon hour in the same spot. If you are not catching, move and if you can't move, have regular breaks. It is surprising how fish move into undisturbed water.

I tried various other tactics for a couple of hours without success before reverting back to the white nomad on an intermediate. A move to a vacant area by the ferry, where I had spotted a few fish moving, added another double figure rainbow trout to the bag. Like the first it tipped the scales at 10lb 2oz. Don't you just love the sound of the drag screaming as a fighting fit rainbow heads for the middle of the lake?

I had earlier tempted a follow from a big brown trout but ran out of water. I suspect this may have been the fish I later caught from the next spot along the bank. What a session! Three big rainbows including a brace of doubles and a new personal best brown trout at 7lb 3oz. After a late lunch I enjoyed a leisurely drive home across the Cotswolds, taking in the glorious scenery and villages.

Arsenal maggots and the lady of the stream

The last couple of weeks had seen a Siberian weather front locked over the country with more snow and ice than we have seen for a decade.

What do you fish for when the temperature barely moves above freezing? My experience would suggest grayling or rainbow trout, failing that river pike, chub and dace in that order. With stillwaters frozen solid, a winter trout session was not an option. Peterborough isn't renowned for its grayling fishing, but I do know of a small stream locally that holds a few, I lost one last spring whilst upstream nymphing for brown trout. The fly rod would be left at home this time and I would go armed with a 13 foot float rod matched to a centrepin reel.

I have caught plenty of grayling from the Hampshire Avon and Dorset Frome but I have never caught one locally, so a grayling of any size would be a result.

Mobility is key to success on small rivers and most anglers carry too much gear. A pair of breathable waders enables you to kneel or sit on the banks and dispenses with the need to carry a chair. My landing net clips into a ring on the back of my coat leaving the other hand free. A couple of pints of mixed red and white maggots, along with a disgorger, are placed in a bait apron and lastly a shoulder bag carries a flask, camera, scales and a small tackle box.

I arrived an hour after dawn and enjoyed a days trotting, feeding each run for five minutes before running the float through the swim a dozen or so times and then moving down to the next swim. I had a mile or so of small stream to explore and by the end of the day had trotted a float through most of it at least twice. Try it, it is a great way of getting to know a stretch of water!

As is usual on a trout stream the local trout population could not resist the maggots and I ended the day with four pristine wild brown trout and a couple of grayling. I had enjoyed a great days sport trotting arsenal maggots (one red maggot with a white maggot on either side) for the 'lady of the stream' on a freezing cold day in the countryside where the stream glistened in the winter sunshine with only the local birdlife for company.