Thought I’d have a cheeky pre BFW grayling day at Britford this week. It was the four Musketeers in action; Kevin (Aramis), Dan (Athos) and Geoff (Porthos…or Poor Sod) and of course myself.
Conditions were good and I just hope they stay that way for February’s visit on the 15th. The river level has increased since the drought like conditions of earlier last year but the level is still perhaps a foot down. The clarity was good, with just a hint of colour.
It looked like a good day for maggots and worms. I headed off to the lower section, below the lower sluices, for a dabble and immediately hooked and then lost a big chub. I stayed in the area for a while and managed to loose another fish (yes, very careless, I know) and then banked a small brownie.
So, along with Kevin, I decided to start making my way upstream. Both Kevin and I decided to drop into a few likely looking swims along the way. The river is still fairly low but we found some nice runs. The dace were throwing themselves on the hook. I couldn’t begin to guess how many we caught between the four of us. Most of them were fairly small but later in the day a few better quality ones showed themselves.
I couldn’t seem to find any grayling and neither could Dan, despite our best efforts. Kevin started to catch a few to a pound+ and lost one particularly good fish at the net. He said it looked every bit a 2 pounder. Great shame. Britford does hold some stonking grayling but they are few and far between at that sort of stamp. Kevin sadly lost two other big fish afterwards, which is starting to get a bit careless, if you ask me. Hard luck Kevin, we have all experienced it and it’s bloody frustrating.
Stuart the river keeper was on hand as always offering advice on swims. He put me in a swim that provided me with half a dozen nice grayling to just short of the pound mark. Geoff found a few decent chub and some grayling and Kevin’s swim dried up. Dan finished on a high taking some very good quality dace on breadflake.
A reasonable day as ever at Britford, where fishing is always enjoyable and offers the tantalizing opportunity of some very big fish.
The River Angler 