It’s been a while since I visited the Itchen. I had planned on a trip to the Kennet but despite the milder weather, I just fancied a shot at a big grayling.
Geoff, Dan and I headed down to Eastleigh for the regular fry up at the bus stop cafe. It’s gone all up market (well for us) and doesn’t open until 7.30am now either. It used to be 6.30am. Anyway, we still managed the healthy option: bacon, eggs, beans, mushrooms and fried bread. Cooked to perfection.
So by about 8.30 we were on the river. It was quite coloured and looked to be up at little. Coloured water always makes grayling fishing a little difficult, but one has to try ones best under the circumstances, what, what. So with a stiff upper lip, I opted to fish the lower end of the fishery where I might tempt a roach or two. I found a suitable run and on one of the first runs through tempted a roach of about 5oz. A few more trots and I opted to move upstream just a bit. The move proved successful. I took two grayling and then hooked something a little bigger. The fish held station against the current but I eventually coaxed it upstream towards me. A few thumps and runs had me thinking it might be a good roach. Eventually it appeared on the surface. As it turned and dived down I saw the lovely silvery flanks of a big roach. The fish was close to netting when it dived under the thick roots beneath me. I couldn’t extract the fish and it came off. I got back the bare hook. Gutted.
Grayling
Still I followed that fish up with a reasonable chub of about 3¼lb. I then slowly worked my way upstream, heading for the middle reaches of the coarse beats. I met up with Geoff, who had had a few grayling. I dropped into a nice run off of a bend and stayed here for the remainder of the afternoon.
Itchen Chub
I used a bait dropper to get some maggots in and trotted through on a deepish line close in. The bites were immediate. There were obviously quite a few fish stacked up in this swim. Sadly, as always, I bumped quite a few off. Probably about a dozen. Still I ended up with another 19 grayling to about 1lb 2oz. I also caught another roach. I think I ended up with four roach but none of them were very big. It was one of those rare occasions here where I didn’t catch any trout, just a few small salmon par.
Dan on the other hand, had trout galore. I think he ended up with about 15 to around the 3lb mark. He also ended up with 17 or 18 grayling to Geoff’s 19. For once I actually topped Geoff and long may it continue. I think the biggest grayling was 1lb 7oz, so a modest one really for this venue. I’m back here in February with FishingMagic and also with the Barbel Angler Team, plus a trip to Britford with the Barbel Fishing World crowd. Then it’s off to Wales again for 5 days, hopefully for some big fish.
The River Angler 
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