Life of a Chalkstream

Life on a Chalkstream

11th October 2024

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· The original trout bum is no more

John Gierach has cast his last

· A speckled chub

· What is the point of slugs

· That was the season that was September

· September feedback winner

· Quiz

Greetings!

Sex, Death & Fly Fishing, so went the title of one of John Gierach’s books – sadly the middle part of that title caught up with him last week when John was felled by a massive heart attack.

John Gierach 1946-2024

It was his book Trout Bum that put him on the literary map and in the title was the clue to how he both lived his life and viewed his fly fishing. Published in 1988 the joy of the book was that it took the act of fly fishing seriously but not the b******t that he regarded the fly fishing establishment promulgated.

You could, if being critical, simply write him off as a Baby Boomer hippy who was anti-establishment for the sake of being anti-establishment. My gut feeling, having only met him a couple of times, is that he would not entirely disagree or, more importantly, really care.

My words can never better that of Gierach, so I am going to let him sign off from his 2010 book appropriately At the Grave of the Unknown Fisherman:

“I used to like fishing because I thought it had some larger significance. Now I like fishing because it's the one thing I can think of that probably doesn't.”

John Gierach died 3 October 2024 aged 78.

A speckled chub

News from The Parsonage on the River Test of an unusual chub that was caught in the carrier earlier in the week on a Pheasant Tail Nymph.

The inevitable question is what are the spots, which are in the skin rather than some fungus or similar on the surface of the skin. I have consulted the Brains Trust which is our guides and river keepers who have two possible explanations.

The first is a melanistic genetic mutation that causes loads more melanin and then dark patches appear on the fish which would be similar to the first ever Koi carp. The second is Blackspot which occurs fairly commonly on a range of coarse fish. It is the name given to the cyst that forms around the larval stage of the parasite Posthodiplostomum cuticola.

I do not know enough to offer any judgment but if anyone out there has any ideas, do let me know.

What is the point of slugs

This rather explicit tryst greeted me on the doorstep the other morning. If slugs are not your thing or you are molluscophobic (fearful of slugs and snails) look away now.

What you are looking at is the coupling of two slugs, which as hermaphrodites, simultaneously copulate with each other, the white ball in the middle being two packages of sperm, one produced by each slug. Then, each slug will take its partner's sperm into its body and head off into the undergrowth to lay eggs. Being essentially both blind and deaf, finding a mate is largely done by smell with slime trails used in the courting process for potential mates to find each other.

I know the gardeners amongst you may have a rather dim view of slugs but as with most creatures they have their niche which is important to the overall balance of nature. In the case of slugs they are the street cleaners, eating nature’s trash which they transform into helpful waste products that improve the soil.

They are also, unfortunately for the slug, an important food source for a huge array of other creatures: nearly all birds especially songbirds, hedgehogs, frogs and badgers to name a few on the land, plus of course, trout love a slug. If you are looking for a suitable pattern, a Squirmy Wormy will do you well or maybe even the controversial Mop Fly.

Mop Fly in action

That was the season that was September

Ahh, September the most settled weather month of the year I confidently tell anyone thinking of fishing the fall as eager trout take advantage of placid conditions to feed ahead of the coming winter. But clearly my predictions suck so do not ask me for Lottery numbers or the winner of Saturday’s big race because the final week of September was the wettest week of the year since January and September as a whole the wettest since, well who knows.

We talk of biblical rains but this season has been on a different scale to any I can recall. More a 180 days and nights knocking Noah’s 40 days and nights into a cocked hat. The rainfall statistics are remarkable. The snapshots of the rainfall measured against the long term average of the past 60 years are 189% for all of England in September (253% in the central region), 130% in the past three months (157% in the south-east) and 123% for the six months April-September that covers the trout fishing season with 143% compared to the long term average for the past 12 months.

The River Avon at the Netheravon tank crossing Thursday. Unbelievably, a moment after I pressed the shutter a fish rose mid-river to the small hatch of Iron Blues!

As you well know by October I am usually starting to scan the skies and every weather forecast for signs of rain as this time of year would, in any normal year, be the low point in the chalkstream cycle. The rivers would be on their bare bones with the aquifers starved of top up from rain and depleted by abstraction. No such worries this year which has, in many respects been one of the most difficult in all my 35 years at Fishing Breaks.

Often you have had to slog through distinctly dicey, swampy banks on many beats even in high summer, the unwary step sending your boot deep into the mire. At Upper Clatford on the River Anton, despite numerous attempts with walk boards and wading option, we gave up the unequal struggle closing at the end of July with banks wetter than they were in March. At the Middleton Estate the Half Water only fully opened at the end of August. It was often hard going on most of the headwaters, but if you could stand a bit of circuitous yomping the rivers were in an amazing condition with flow, clarity and weed growth not seen in many generations. However, every ying has its yang.

As you moved further west, particularly into the Wiltshire catchments and the Dorset rivers it was often tough going with the water pushing through at an unprecedented rate and far from clear. After a while trout learn to cope with this, they have to eat after all, but it was really the frequency of the heavy downpours which bought all manners of unpleasant runoff into the rivers, that sometimes turned the possibility of winkling out a fish or two by devious means into an impossible mission.

On the plus side the long term ecology of the chalkstream is always improved by sustained floods so we will see a spike in wild trout of a catchable size in 2-3 years’ time plus thriving growth of ranunculus weed which is key to insect life. On the downside, these wet conditions are always bad news for the already imperilled water vole population.

As for the human population, it has been a tough eighteen months for river keepers. When conditions are like this every job takes twice as long. Wet weather clothing is never as good as advertised. Machinery gets stuck. Strimmers have to replace mowers. Long planned projects remain on hold. Water always seems to get to where you want it least. In addition, we are now approaching peak Ash dieback with dead trees falling just about every day either overwhelmed with the weight of the ivy that has a knack of enveloping sick trees or the wet ground weakening the root structure.

September feedback winner

In the final full month of the trout season it is Adam Fairhead, a client of many, many years who is deservedly first out of the hat to win a selection of flies from vice master Nigel Nunn.

Next month we wrap up the 2024 draws with the October winner, plus, of course everyone going back in the hat to win Nigel’s amazing seasonal selection presented in a Wheatley fly box.

If you have not filled in a report from a visit this season it is not too late to do so. Follow this link ……

End of season draw prize to be announced 8 November

Quiz

The normal random collection of questions inspired by the date, events or topics in the Newsletter. It is just for fun with answers at the bottom of the page.

1) Which ship sunk in 1545 was raised on this day in 1982?

2) On what mountain did Noah’s ark come to rest?

3) Which country in the world has the most annual rainfall?