John Grindle tells about a special day on a river in Dorset where a group met to celebrate the birthday of Mr Fly Fishing and all round good guy, Charles Jardine.
There are some special days that will stay in your memory and this was such a day.
It was the legend of fly fishing Charles Jardine’s 62nd birthday and to celebrate his son Alex and daughter Annabelle joined a small band of fellow anglers in John Aplin’s Dairy House kitchen. We were here not only to celebrate Charles’s birthday, but to fish the River Frome for its wonderful, larger than life grayling and where the current British Record 4lb 4oz grayling was landed!
The group had come from far and wide; there was Annabelle Jardine, Lewis Hendrie, Pete Tyjas, Glen (Sparky) Pointon all the way from Derbyshire and myself, Charles, Alex and John Aplin from Dorset.
We enjoyed lots of steaming coffee and lovingly prepared by Charles and Alex, bacon rolls and freshly baked croissants while we planned the day's grayling fishing, plus of course singing Happy Birthday to Charles. But planning the day's fishing was a slow process, because everyone had fishing tales to tell, along with lots of friendly banter that followed each story! It wasn’t until almost midday that things started to move towards fishing and I was more than a little sceptical when it was muted that we should all meet back at John’s for lunch at 14:00!!
Me, Annabelle, Alex and Lewis were left to fish John Aplin’s Dairy House Home Beat and the others headed downstream to the East Burton Fishery. John didn’t fish as he was busy preparing for that night's Dorset Chalkstream Club and ferrying Edd & Elliott around the Lower Frome for the annual salmon and sea trout redd count.
The East Burton Fishery provides some great fishing on the middle River Frome, it is five miles downstream of the Dairy House and run by John’s friend Harry Warr, “Game Keeper, River Keeper & Dorset character”. The River Frome here is a little larger and during the relevant seasons you can catch salmon, sea trout, brown trout and grayling. This was Glen’s first visit to fish the River Frome and I knew he would really enjoy his day on the East Burton waters, he was already very excited!!
The Home Beat is a little piece of heaven lost in the midst of Dorset; it is not a long beat of this magical river but plenty to accommodate four anglers to spend a relaxed day here. There is also a wonderful old brick fishing hut sat next to a deep hatch pool, where you can enjoy a leisurely BBQ while watching rising fish!
Alex and Annabelle headed downstream of the hut, while Lewis and I fished above. But Lewis just couldn’t resist casting a fly into the hatch pool, so this left me with the first rather fishy looking pool just upstream.
We were all fishing ‘French Leader’ or ‘Long Leader’ with a couple of heavy bugs to help get them down to the big grayling. Luckily John and Lewis were within earshot as my line stopped and the rod bent over as I hooked into a big Frome grayling. It didn’t help that the fish took downstream of me, so it was a struggle to get into some quieter water below me. But after it leapt a couple of times it managed to get itself tangled around an overhanging branch and I was able to net it. Lewis really does come very well prepared to record a good catch, with large landing net, even larger camera and some scales. The fish was 2lb 13oz, just below the magic three pound but I was still very pleased. Although I have caught larger grayling, I guess it was my ‘official’ PB (personal best) because I never normally weigh my fish, well not since my first ever grayling that I caught in 1989 and that weighed in at 2lb 10oz!! After a few photographs, I cradled it in the fast flow for about a minute, until it kicked and was away.
Then it dawned on me, I might have actually just caught the fish of the day and considering the quality of the other anglers, I started to feel quite chuffed! It didn’t last long, Lewis soon landed a 3lb 2oz monster grayling from the pool above me - ah well it was good while it lasted!!!
Time had now gone 15:00 and still no one had returned to John’s, so after losing my flies in an unreachable willow branch I decided to head upstream to see how Lewis was getting on. If you know Lewis at all, then you know he caught the most grayling that day and also the largest!! But he is also hugely generous with his advice and gave me a few of his favourite patterns for me to try.
While we waited for the East Burton gang to arrive back, we sat in John’s kitchen drinking coffee and devouring Charles’s bread & cheese – 17:30 they finally appeared! Glen had landed a good few small grayling and losing what he first thought was salmon, but as it turned on the surface he could see that it was actually a HUGE grayling!
What a fantastic day of fishing and fishing talk with amazing fellow anglers, all eager and generous to share their knowledge – I know this day will stay with me and will be used to cheer myself up when I’m sat in a dentist's waiting room or such like!