Join Kris Kent for a day's grayling fishing in the company of good friends
I very much enjoyed Jon Ronson’s book, and the subsequent big screen adaption of, The Men Who Stare at Goats concerning the U.S. Army's exploration of new age concepts and the potential military applications of the paranormal. The title refers to attempts to kill goats by staring at them. The book and film came to mind on a recent trip to the Itchen.
The Men Who Stare at Goats book cover
One of the perks of attending the Grayling Society Symposium is that on the Sunday you get to go fishing. Clubs and riparian owners local to that year’s venue are always very generous in donating rod days or providing access to their waters. This can often provide opportunities to fish waters otherwise not available to the visiting angler. At registration on the first morning of the Symposium there is always a palpable sense of anticipation as attendees open their envelopes to see which rivers and beats they have been allocated.
Registering attendees excitedly open their envelopes
This year I got a beat on the Itchen, East Lodge near Twyford. As is usual on these occasions I couldn’t sleep despite the excess of alcohol at the Symposium Dinner, too excited about fishing a new beat. So I got up early and headed down to check out the water. Rob the River Keeper was already there so I stood on the bridge with him and picked his brains. Rob has made some changes since he took over looking after the East Lodge just a year back. The main focus of this fishery is corporate days but Rob is working hard to make sure it isn’t overly manicured. East Lodge has been fished since the 17th Century and is protected, both as a Site of Special Scientific Interest, and also as a Special Area of Conservation. Rosemary’s Leat is left as a wild fishery now and the adjacent ancient woodlands and water meadows are sensitively managed. As a result, wildlife is abundant. We saw egrets, herons, and kingfishers as well as evidence of otters and water voles. Barn owls regularly quarter the meadows as dusk falls.
Map of East Lodge
As Rod and I stood on the bridge we gazed into the water. A number of large brown trout were milling around, ghosting in and out of the lush weed. They stock on this fishery and some of the fish looked quite chunky but in very good fettle. In amongst them grayling were keeping their heads down. Whilst the stockies are triploids and sterile the spawning urge is still present, certainly in the males, and it was clear that the fish were getting in the mood.
Bridge over the Itchen
As we chatted the other rods started to arrive. Whilst there were five of us going to fish the beat, with over two miles or river it wasn’t going to be a problem.
Anglers gather at East Lodge
Rod sent us off and wished us luck. I buddied up with Alex Adams, new Grayling Society Area 2 Secretary, the man who had persuaded the owner to give us access to East Lodge. We wandered down towards Brambridge House and the lower boundary. Large brown trout were very evident on the shallower sections, some were cutting redds and pairing up. Very early even for the Itchen so presumably stocked fish behaving somewhat abnormally. But here and there we spotted a few grayling lurking in the shadows out of the way of the aggressive trout.
Itchen Trout cutting redd
Just as we entered the tree we spotted a lovely patch of clean gravels in between beds of gently swaying ranunculus. We stared at the water and slowly we started to make out the ghostly shapes of grayling. Alex was already rigged up so he made the first casts as I took a few photographs. Alex’s pair of nymphs whizzed out across the pool landing with a plop just upstream of the pod of grayling. One fish darted to the left and intercepted the dropper, a vivid gammarus imitation. Boy, do grayling love a bright pattern. Unfortunately, it only stayed on for a moment, as did the next two fish. But eventually Alex tuned up his technique and the next grayling slipped into the net with a sigh of relief from Alex.
Alex fishing the first pool
His success prompted me to put down the camera and pick up my rod. Whilst Alex was fishing a fairly conventional leader set up with one dropper and an indicator I’d brought my French leader rig. This was inspired by Alex Jardine and Lewis Hendrie’s excellent presentation on European Nymphing techniques at the previous day's Symposium. I tied a large jig pattern on the point and a bright pink and orange shrimp on the dropper.
Deadly team
It took me a little time to get used to lobbing the flies rather than trying to cast them but in due course the flies landed where I wanted them and I watched them as they tracked back through the gin clear waters. Nothing stirred on the first or second cast but on the third a small grayling grabbed the dropper. The more I stared into the Itchen the more fish became apparent to us. I spotted a better fish sitting in the lee of some weed. As I covered it Alex latched onto a better fish that deserved a photo so I reeled in a took up my camera.
Nice grayling for Alex
With the fish released I went back to be quarry. These grayling were moving around quite a lot, rather than holding station. So, I waited for the fish to move into more open water and covered it. The take was almost imperceptible but I sensed the fish had taken something and lifted into it. It was to be my best of the day. Once released it sat in the flow just opposite me as if sulking.
Sulking grayling
Having fished the pool out we moved on downstream and bumped into one of the other rods who had lost his brand-new landing net. We found it for him and he joined us to fish a long shallow gravel run just above the big house. I was in the middle with Alex above me and Geoff below.
Geoff on the Itchen at East Lodge
Suddenly Alex started shouting “NO, NO, NO, NO ….” I though he was doing a rendition of 2 Unlimited’s 1993 chart topping hit No Limit. I looked around in surprise. Then Geoff started doing the same. I suspected LSD or perhaps excessive alcohol. pon investigation, I discovered they were shouting “NO” at the large aggressive trout that kept rushing out to intercept their nymphs every time they plopped into the river. This carried on for some time until we realised covering these grayling was unfeasible so long as the trout were about. So we moved on.
Over lunch we were pleased to hear that everyone had managed a few grayling despite the disruptive trout.
Time for a spot of lunch
After lunch Alex and I wandered up towards the top of the fishery. The river was narrower,faster and lacked the open gravelly sections we’d fished that morning. There were also fewer disruptive trout about. As we fished upstream the skies started to clear and as the afternoon ebbed away blue skies and a weak sun emerged. Despite being close to Winchester and under the Eastleigh flight paths it was turning into a wonderful, peaceful end to the day. As the light faded it became hard to sight fish for the grayling so we resorted to prospecting likely runs and any deeper pools. The mild autumn meant the grayling hadn’t shoaled up yet so when we did find fish they were usually solo. Keeping on the move helped maximise our chances.
Alex Adams casts a nice line on the Itchen
Near to upper boundary we bumped into Alex’s mate Paul. He’d had a great day and was just releasing a cracking grayling.
Paul Lawrence releases a nice grayling
So despite the bullish trout and the mad blokes shouting at them we had a great day at East Lodge. Good fishing, good craic in good company. One of those fisheries that I’ll definitely visit again.
Limited day tickets are available at East Lodge, details on their website:
http://www.eastlodgefishing.co.uk/
If you would like to join the Grayling Society and attend the next Grayling Society Symposium visit their website:
http://www.graylingsociety.net/join/
Biography:
Kris Kent has been fly fishing and trotting for brown trout and grayling for over 20 years in the UK, Europe and Scandinavia. He is PR Officer for the Grayling Society and helps out The Wild Trout Trust with their online communications and events.