Peter Anderson told us about a day he spent on a Dorset Chalkstream
In March every year, the wonderful organisation that is the Wild Trout Trust has an auction. The lots available include tackle, flies and books but the highlight is always the fishing on offer, often on beats usually unavailable to Joe Public. They are not without their frustrations though, I have been outbid at the last second for a day on the Cotswold Fly Fishing Club waters for each of the past three years! I will be trying again in 2014. I have been an enthusiastic participant for a number of years and have enjoyed some marvellous days with great people – a day with John Aston on the Rye in Yorkshire comes to mind in particular, but the day I had recently on the Allen with Ben Tyser of the WTT was as good as anything I’ve experienced before.
We met to fish the river near Wimborne and it was a beautiful sight. Not manicured and not stocked – this is Dorset, not Hampshire – but a lively and fascinating piece of water. We had a chat about fishing style and I went for the duo with a very short leader, 4 feet to the dry (a para adams) with the nymph (a size 18 copper tungsten beaded hares ear) 2 feet below that. Very short for a chalkstream but the water had plenty of life which I thought would disguise the fly line and there was a lot of bankside vegetation so roll casting was going to feature strongly, much easier with a short leader. It is quite a small stream and I used a 7’ 6” 3 weight, on reflection I think my 8’ 6” rod would have been a better bet giving me more control without being too unwieldy.
We slipped into the stream, almost literally in my case as I found a patch of silt. I flicked the fly line out a couple of rod lengths and what do you know! Second cast, a cracking brownie not far off a pound. “That’s me off the hook” Ben said with a sigh of relief. I have hosted a few of these days, I knew how he felt. Until the guy paying the money has a fish in the net you are very much on edge. Not today, pressure off very quickly.
We moved upstream slowly picking up plenty of fish, but although I caught plenty, it was also a day of near misses and lost fish. I cast into a nice run and saw a cracking brownie take the nymph. As I so often do in these circumstances, my composure went out of the window and I struck too early. I pricked him but he didn’t stay on and that was that. A shame, it was a better fish than the first brownie.
Picking our way upstream we continued to catch, the only problem being too many grayling of which the Allen has a huge population, although they are out of season they were all nevertheless in superb condition.
The river splits and I drooled over a piece of fast, deep water. Ben hadn’t fished this bit before so we went for an exploration. I added another foot of Stroft between dry and nymph and upgraded the nymph to a size 16 hares ear with a bigger bead to get it down. It is an angling cliché that “the reel screamed” but I am going to use it here. Fishing small streams for wild trout, my reel rarely screams, the fish aren’t big enough. Here, in this fast water, my reel screamed. It was a grayling which just took off like a rocket upstream into even faster water. After five seconds or so it came off. It is difficult to say how big it was and realistically it probably wasn’t much over a pound……but my goodness did it go! Second fish lost.
We continued exploring and I was having a ball. Ben suggested lunch…..I declined. Sorry Ben, I was having too much fun! Hope you didn’t get too hungry. The river was full of character and lots of fishy looking pools, many of which produced fish. By mid-afternoon I was flagging and suggested another crack at the fast water before calling it a day. In we got (must take a wading staff next time, it was rocky as well as fast and deep). Same set up as before. I was quickly into a fish, a very good trout which gave a stunning display of aerobatics before coming off. Third fish lost. A good grayling followed quickly though and Ben took the rod at my insistence, he had been the perfect host and it was time for him to have a few minutes fishing. He too hooked into a fish in the fast water and sadly came off.
So what a day, lots of good fish caught and some “one that got away” stories. Good company, lovely river, decent weather. I’ll be bidding again next year.
Read more from Peter via his excellent blog