I’m not a big coffee drinker but three cups of super strong, turbo charged hotel coffee just a short time before commencing fishing has me totally wired and I start to shake as I tie on the first fly of the day. Caffeine overdose aside though it could be excitement as I am standing on the banks of one of the biggest name rivers in chalkstream fly fishing – The Itchen.
Having over nighted in Winchester you wake up and smell the whiff of fly fishing in the air as the river itself runs through the city and it is the final resting place of Izaak Walton, writer of the Compleat Angler.
As we check out of the hotel the receptionist sees my shirt and asks the question “are you fishing?”
Just a short drive away and I have met my host Gordon who has kindly offered to show me his home water.
After another coffee that he had brought for me we head on down to the river. It is the first seriously hot day of the year but despite that I’d decided I was going to fish my favourite bamboo rod and a dry fly. Although nymphs are allowed and would probably be a better option, I wanted to fish this way.
Gordon dropped me off and wandered upstream to see what was happening. The water was a lot clearer than I was expecting but was still carrying a good flow after all of the rain we had suffered during nearly all of spring and early summer.
It was still easy to spot fish and I had planned, in true chalkstream fashion, to cast my fly to a rising fish. The further I walked the less I knew this was likely to happen so I looked also for a fish that might just show a flicker of interest in taking a look at my fly.
I had started with a small F fly as there was little on the water and my hunch was that there was still the chance of some midges putting in an appearance.
When chalkstream fishing is talked about it is often assumed that you’ll be fishing perfectly manicured beats with a huge hut most of us would be happy to live in and big, dumb, recently stocked trout. This couldn’t have been further from the truth. This beat is really well keepered but well thought out too. The banks are kept high all along the river and you have to think about the cast you are about to make. I saw a fish rise on the far, shaded side and promptly got my fly hung up in the cow parsley behind me. Lesson learnt.
The light made spotting fish easy but most were glued hard to the bottom. I cast to any fish that looked like it was vaguely active and I’m not sure if it is proper chalkstream etiquette or not but giving the dry just the briefest of twitches can convert a fish from a viewer of a fly to a biter of one. My first fish came this way and after finding somewhere I could land it I flipped out the hook and it swam away.
After drying the fly I found a shaded spot and sat back for a bit. The other thing I had noticed was that it looked like there was a good head of wild fish that were supplemented with a smattering of stocked fish. The nice thing was that they complimented the size of the wild fish well, there was no huge super heavy weights that look out of place.
I found a nice little dip in the river bed a short distance below a footbridge that held a few grayling and a lone trout. They looked like they were picking up the odd nymph and I could have gone this way but after they ignored the F fly I thought I’d give them a slightly bigger Balloon Caddis to make it worth their while to rise. I caught a small grayling and then a bigger one and missed the trout who took the fly a whole lot faster than I was expecting and I cursed my timing.
It was getting seriously hot and with it close to lunch I walked further upstream looking for Gordon and some much needed water.
Lunch was one of the nicest pork pies I have eaten in a long time along with some other goodies too.
Post lunch we decided to share a rod and Gordon had taken a shine to my rod so we shared it, walking up the river spotting fish. We started with Gordon telling me about a fish he’d spotted before we had lunch and after getting into position the fish took my newly tied on F fly first cast.
This was just a taster of what was to come as the sun had moved behind us and a nice little midge hatch had fish rising. At one stage I had a small grayling come unbuttoned only for a trout to grab the newly freed fly.
There were times we had to get out of the sun and I think it is one of the first times I have wanted to jump in the river to cool down but there was fishing to be done and the fish continued to rise along a nice little stretch.
Gordon was keen to show me a carrier stream that he loves to fish and we saw a fish rise once on the far side. I covered it on the left side of the fish just a short distance away from the bank but no interest. I tried again but saw it take a natural from its right side so cast there and the fish took. I caught site of the reason it didn’t take to its left side and it became clear. It was blind in its left eye.
We got to the top of the beat and decided to walk back to the car. I’d told Gordon about a fish I’d risen earlier and wanted to try my luck with it but on getting there it had moved and so I snipped off my fly as it felt the right time to finish a great day on the water.