Life of a Chalkstream: October 2019

Friday 25 October 2019

I have spent the last month on the highways and byways of southern England visiting my many river owners. With the season drawing to a close this is the time we collectively take stock. Talk. Plan. Review. Bewail the bad. Celebrate the good.

These are rarely contentious meetings; in most cases the relationships date back decades rather than years. That is not to say we don't have the occasional disagreement but in the end we always navigate those for essentially, even though there is money involved, this is about all feeling a certain amount of quiet satisfaction from the outcome of the year. We want to enjoy everything about the fishing and hope you have too.

The interesting thing about the round of meetings is that usually, without any prompting from me, a theme appears. Often it is weather related; yes, you've guessed it the lack of rain or very occasionally too much of it. This year it was catch and release. However, not the principle of it - that is well established - but rather the number of fish caught and released. Before I explain let me back track a little.

Releasing fish of an edible size is a relatively new phenomenon for the chalkstreams. When I started out in business nearly thirty years ago it was all catch and kill. You caught your four fish and went home. Catch and release? Plenty of people positively fulminated against it. I recall many a 'fruity' conversation (this was pre-email days) as releasing went from niche to normal. A good thing? Well, yes and no.

The yes is all fairly obvious; I don't need to recite the arguments here for you. The no? Well, you may be wondering why there might even be a no. Well, the fact is the end-of-season conversations have revolved around catch record books that show anglers who have caught (and released) 15, 20, 30 and even 40 fish in a day. Now we do generally ask that people observe a limit that varies from six to twelve, but it is clearly either ignored or unread. In any case it's impossible to police - we rely entirely on honesty and goodwill.

And therein lies the problem to which we really haven't found an answer. What is a reasonable number of fish to release in a day? How do you limit the catch on what might be the best ever fishing day of someone's life without being prescriptive? How do you explain the dour state of the river to the person who arrives the following day?

I do think this is one of the difficulties with catch and release; it is gradually cranking up the base line as to what we regard as a reasonable day without due regard to what a river is able to sustain.

My otters are back

It seems my otters have been on something of a sabbatical. Having been constant companions here at Nether Wallop Mill in 2015/16 they, at least as a family group, have all but vanished.

Not an eek. Not a squeak. From time to time I have found the occasional part eaten trout but essentially, we have navigated two winters unscathed, starting the new season with much the same population of trout as we ended the previous.

But for the past month, in the depth of night, I have half woken to hear distant noises. Or at least I think I have; sometimes the morning-after memory is fuzzy. A confusion of what you might have heard recently and what you remembered hearing long ago.

However, a week last Saturday, amidst a 3am deluge, there was no doubt. I headed outside torch in hand. And there, right at my feet, almost within touching distance were two pups, maybe 6 months old, caught in the beam. I'm pretty sure I was the first person they had ever seen (certainly the first in a white towelling dressing gown!) for rather than flee they just looked up a me by way of curiosity.

It's a trait of otters of that age that they are closely bonded to each other; where one goes the other follows as if joined by a short bit of string. Stood on the edge of the lake they considered me for a while, gradually moving closer and tighter together as certain doubts crept in as to my veracity. I don't think they ever really saw me as a threat, for when they eventually decided the lake was a safer bet than the bank, they unhurriedly slipped into the water eeking their way to mother who echoed back from somewhere out in the darkness.

So, I'm again with an otter family who are much in residence. Since that Saturday they have been back nearly every night. Is it Kuschta, the heroine of The Otters Tale? I think not; sadly, age will have caught up with her. But I'd like to think the current mother is one of her two pups. Otters being such territorial creatures the chances are many times better than good.

Wild Trout Trust Conservation Awards 2019

It is not often we give high fives to the Environment Agency. But, for all its manifest institutional failings, when it comes to those who work at the sharp end, we have many allies and friends who deserve every plaudit that comes their way.

Heb Leman, Hannah Barclay & Jenny Wheeldon

That being the case I was delighted when the Outstanding Habitat Improvement Project Award for 2019 was given to the Environment Agency for the Test & Itchen River Restoration Strategy. Some of you may recall that we were part of this with our project at Bullington Manor on the River Dever over the winter of 2017/18. Ours was just one section of the 10km of river that has been significantly restored which has also seen eight barriers, 1km of steel and wooden sheet piling removed, 16800 tonnes of gravel added, and 40 hectares of flood storage created along with much 'softer' habitat improvement.

Huge congratulations to not only Project Manager Heb Leman who has more chalkstream water than blood in his veins but also Hannah Barclay of the Environment Agency and Jenny Wheeldon of Natural England

Avington captured in film

Avington, the trout lakes on the edge of the River Itchen, has long been part of my life. As a teenage fly fisher in the 1970's it was something remarkable to have on your doorstep as it provided British record trout that grew in size with each passing year.

Avington - A Trout Fishers' Paradise

The creator of these amazing fish was an ex-NASA physicist Sam Holland who had retired to Hampshire intent of breeding super-huge fish that would not only break records but the rods of the anglers who attempted to land them!

I am not sure how much he succeeded with the latter, but he certainly succeeded with the former Avington becoming the undisputed home of British record browns and rainbows until it ceded the crown to Dever Springs.

The story of AVINGTON: A TROUTFISHER'S PARADISE is now a feature-length documentary (50 mins) that is available to watch on Fishing TV.

Click here to see the trailer.

The Brexit future

You may have noticed, tempting though it is, that I haven't strayed into the Brexit debate on these pages. Why would we want to fall out? With each other that is.

However, I think we can all agree that there hasn't been much humour in the past three years, so I was grateful to a Swiss (they are neutral after all) client who has forwarded a poster from the future.

It made me laugh, so solely in that spirit of Brexit, I hope is does the same for you.

The Quiz

A test of your Europeanness. As ever the quiz is just for fun, with answers at the bottom of the page.

1)      Which country left the EU in 1985?

2)      Which is the most easterly EU nation?

3)      What is the current population of the EU?

Have a good weekend.

Best wishes,



Simon Cooper simon@fishingbreaks.co.uk

Founder & Managing Director

www.fishingbreaks.co.uk

Answers:

1)      Greenland, after two referendums that both returned a no vote.

2)      Cyprus. Portugal, Spain and Finland are the most westerly, southerly and northerly respectively.

3)      513 million people.

Friday 11 October 2019

If you happened to take a glance at the Fishing Breaks web site around the date of its inception (1996: yes,I know some of you weren't born ....) much will be familiar. However, what you might take notice of today was the almost total absence of references to grayling. Basically, back then we all shut up shop and went on our holidays at the end of September.

The fact was, bar a very small band of brothers, grayling were, to all intents and purposes, despised. Catch rules were emphatic: all grayling must be killed.

I can recall the Environment Agency electro fishing our beats to remove grayling that were unceremonially dumped on the Romsey Park Memorial pond much to the delight of the local kids.

Did I sell grayling day tickets after the end of the trout season? Absolutely not. Grayling fishing, such as it was, was a murky world under the purview of the river keeper. Access was granted to those in the 'know' in return for the discrete transfer of folding currency. A Pythonesque nod nod, wink wink arrangement. But today grayling fishing is more popular than it has ever been, every bit as organised and formalised as trout fishing. The question is how, in the space of just over two decades has the grayling gone from zero to hero?

Part of the allure seems to me the totally wildness of grayling. There are simply no recently stocked or reared grayling; they exist only by the goodness of Mother Nature. The populations do rise and fall - it is generally accepted that there is a five-year cycle - so in bad years, assuming no environmental disaster, there is nobody to blame but the fickleness of the breeding pattern. In the good years the huge multi-generational shoals are a chalkstream wonder. And as a fish in the hand it is quite different to trout: more tactile, the scales rough-smooth and the body more ripped. The colours a palette of gunmetal grey, topped by the peacock plumage of that huge dorsal fin, so disproportionate to the fish itself. And the thyme smell; no other fish I know leaves such a pleasant afterthought.

So why so hated? They occupy the same homes as trout. Take the dry as well as any of the other natives. Use that fin to give something of a struggle. And can be as picky and hard to catch as any trout. The high priest of fly fishing, Frederick Halford, a man of great opinions, had no problem with grayling. Don't forget the subtitle of his seminal work Floating Flies and How to Dress Them, was 'Modern Methods of Dressing Artificial Flies for Trout and Grayling.'

I suspect the reasons were part snobbery, part genuinely held trout conservation beliefs. Halford might have been open-minded but his disciples who took up his mantle (he died on the eve of WW1) in the inter-wars were anything but. The perceived superiority of dry over nymph dates precisely from this period, as does the reputational decline of the grayling who are more generally caught on nymph and at a time of year when the 'true' sportsman had laid down his rod in favour of his gun.

As for the competition between trout and grayling, the truth is that grayling do interfere with trout. This was amply demonstrated a couple of years ago when an underwater photographer trained a group of trout and grayling for the camera with fish pellets. Frankly, when it comes to food, grayling are the bullies! And they do eat trout eggs but if this was a species threatening habit, we'd have lost our native trout population long ago. It is, as with most things in nature, all a question of balance.

So, it seems we have gone full circle. Halford, I suspect, would be proud of us.

The best half term treat evvvvver!

I recall the Christmas term half term as the worst; sometimes school seemed a more alluring option than home. Your mother was obsessed with discovering what you wanted for Christmas (you rarely got what you asked for) and the family treat was a day out to some sodden theme park or dreary stately home.

Well, I can't promise powder filled slopes or jetting off to the sun but a day catching fish is no bad option. Otters aside (more about their return next time) we have a lake stuffed with fish. More than I ever planned. Just waiting to be caught under expert tutelage.

I have set aside three days over half term for the different age groups (8-11, 12-15 & 16-17 years), with Steve Batten on hand. Steve has perfected the ideal programme which mixes it up: we do the obvious casting and fishing stuff but add in some ecology (pond dipping is an amazing eye opener), fly tying and fish anatomy to inculcate budding fly fishers with knowledge beyond the obvious.

For more details click here

Grub, grayling & getting out

On the hot topic of our rehabilitated salmonid there is plenty going on this autumn:

Grub & grayling: Andy Buckley, our Derbyshire man, is not just one of the most innovative guides around but also a dab hand with the Kelly kettle. Enjoy a long half day with him on the middle Dove with one of his memorable bankside lunches. Great value at £175 for two.

Grayling course: Bob Preston is our go-to guide for all thing's grayling down south. His first course sold out, so we have an extra date on October 17^th.

More beats, more rivers:

I've never been able offer so many choices for grayling. New this year are Coombe Mill (Avon), Steeple Lanford (Wylye) and Wrackleford (Frome).

That was September

As far as I am concerned it can rain from now to March; it probably won't but it might seem that way sometimes.

I won't go as far as to say the rain we had in September was transformative, but it was certainly a timely fillip. The summer detritus that had built up on the riverbeds was soon on its way; here on the Hampshire/Wiltshire border we had a whole month of rain in a single day. Washing the ranunculus clean to allow the sunlight to penetrate is a bonus that encourages a burst of growth ahead of the winter when it goes semi-dormant.

September is, of course, the final full month of the trout season so the penultimate feedback draw to the year. In October we will have a mix of both you trout and grayling types in the draw before the Hardy Marquis reel draw but for now the September winner is Steve Pell who had a guided day on the middle Dove with Andy Buckley.

Steve: snood in the post.