Despite the poor summer we have been having Peter Anderson has been wetting a line when the weather allows and this month he hits the Lambourn
What with all the rain 2012 has brought, the main problem for many of us hasn’t been catching fish it’s been finding a river that is fishable! Chalkstreams are the best bet, being spring fed they do not come up suddenly as rain fed rivers do and they generally clear quickly. There are downsides though, they can be eye-wateringly expensive, I mean £500 for a peak day on the top Test beats so it isn’t something you do every day (or every year come to that). And the beats are stocked with fat rainbows just to make sure that some bloke who has shelled out a fortune doesn’t go away empty handed. And the beats are not what you might call wild, manicured is the word often used to describe them and so often that is a perfect description, with well mown banks and anything likely to interfere with a backcast eliminated.
Fortunately, there are beats that are more reasonably priced and quite wild....although they still tend to be stocked. The Lambourn rises in racehorse country on the Wiltshire/Berkshire Downs and finds its way into the Kennet at Newbury. It’s quite short, certainly less than 20 miles, and most of it is privately owned with no day tickets available. The exception is the beat at Donnington Grove near Newbury available through Fishing Breaks. Be under no illusions here, reasonably priced doesn’t mean cheap! At £98 per day it is more than many of us pay for a season fishing. The beat is a little over half a mile long and it is really for one rod, two friends sharing at a pinch.
So, is it worth it? It depends, if you have barely fished for several weeks because of flooded rivers, then it is worth it if only to avoid insanity. But actually, as a once a year treat, it is probably worth it anyway. A public footpath and golf course runs alongside the bottom section of the beat, 700 yards or so, so it is sensible to avoid weekends and bank holidays when there will be a lot of dog walking traffic, the river is fenced off but dogs can and do get in the water. Midweek should be fine. The banks are well clothed in greenery anyway so generally the angler is well shielded. It is a wading beat, it’s quite impossible to fish from the bank and chest waders are needed to get through some of the deeper pools. It’s not a big river, we are not talking Test or Itchen here, generally it is between 10-15 feet wide and a couple of feet deep. The water is clear, even after heavy and persistent rain it remains clear, and the character is typical chalkstream, luxuriant weed beds and between them, patches of clean gravel making for easy wading. The top end of the beat is wilder, there is no footpath and the river here narrows and quickens. The bottom is studded with rocks, it’s not mountain stream rocks, but a gravel bottom with football sized rocks on top of the gravel. It’s awkward, not enough rocks to keep you on your toes so complacency can be a problem, the rocks are frequent enough and big enough to trip up the unwary!
So what can you expect to catch. Trout, basically. Wildies, certainly, but it is stocked and fat 2lb brownies are likely, especially towards the bottom of the beat where the river is slower and deeper. The Lambourn has some very big grayling and there are some here, I’ve seen them. Catching them is difficult and trout will form the bulk of any catch.
How to fish it? Dry fly will take fish but to be frank I have found this to be very much a nymphing water, generally fishing blind – sight fishing here is difficult because the fish generally lie in the deeper, streamier water making them difficult to spot. I would use a 8½ rod and a small (16/18/20) bead headed PTN or hare’s ear, note that single fly only is the rule. Leader length is 4-8 feet, in the streamy water a short leader does not scare the fish and allows me to use the end of the fly line as an indicator. If the fish are spooky or in flatter water I lengthen the leader and use an indicator – just a piece or red braid tied to the leader. At the top end where the river narrows and quickens, a French nymph set up gives good results and gives the chance of a decent grayling.
The final attraction is a weir pool right at the bottom of the beat.....if all else fails, a heavy nymph fished Czech nymph style may well save the day.
For details of the fishing see
http://www.fishingbreaks.co.uk/chalkstream/lambourn.htm
Catch up with more of Peter's fishing adventures via his excellent blog