River Test report- trout and grayling

Hi All,

Thought I'd give a quickie report on fishing yesterday. As some of you know, I moved over here to england back in July. Fishing is a bit different here. There is some public water, but it is sub par type stuff. A lot of the fishing is coarse fishing (carp, tench, barbel, pike, perch, etc). Pretty much all of the trout fishing is private water where you pay for a beat. Prices vary depending on the time of year. During prime time in May/June when it is early to mid trout season and the hatches are heavy prime beats will go as high as 325 POUNDS if you book through an agent. Considering the exchange rate is 2:1 right now that is over $600 USD for a half or full mile stretch that you usually share with one other angler. Some places have longer stretches (up to a couple miles for 3-4 rods) depending on the popularity of that stretch and how much land is owned/leased. As you move away from prime seasons (May-june is prime, March/April and July/Sep are half-prime) the prices go down. Also, if you book directly though the owner/lessee instead of through a booking agent you can cut the price in half. So prime season trout fishing will run about 150 pounds for a day or 75-100 for a half day. Off season trout will go 75-100 for a day.

Or, you can wait until October and fish for grayling. While the trout are largely stocked (with a fair number of stream bred browns) throughout the trout season, the grayling are entirely wild. The grayling will go up to 4-5 lb in some rivers and some are beautifully colored. The trout are still around too, just not stocked since September. The best part was the price. We had a mile stretch that would normally be 4 rods (we had 5) and it was 35 pounds per rod. If you convert it to US dollars and compare to what you pay in the states it is a lot (it would be $70 at current exchange) but compared to everything else here it is as cheap as you're going to find for the quality.

We got to fish about a mile stretch of the legendary Test River. The Test is a chalkstream and probably the most famous chalkstream in the country. As such there are a lot of famous club waters and expensive beats. Our beat was a small beat that you'd never find unless you knew about it. They don't advertise anywhere that I have seen. They have two beats and normally take 2 rods per beat. Since we are all friends we fished 5 people, though Rachel and I took up as much water as one since we were fishing side by side most of the day.

The test is largely made up of braids except for the last 15 miles before the sea. There are lots of feeder streams that come in and the river constantly break out into islands and back channels. We fished towards the lower end of the braided section where the river starts coming back as one. We only had two islands and since we only had one bank of the river (and no wading) no additional channels. The river varied from 40-70' wide and had a lot of flow to it. It is tough to compare to the PA streams because the style was very different. It was very deep right of the bank and the banks were very undercut, though for 15' from the waters edge it was mowed grass so it made walking along easy. It was a lot like the Letort on a grand scale (minus the mowed grass) with lots of watercress and various other stream born weeds. Some areas of the stream dropped down to 5-6' deep when it was 40' wide, and where it stretched to 70' wide the stream was ~2' on top of the weeds and flowing a bit faster. The water was up a little and flowing full, but it was crystal clear so that even where it was 6' deep you could see everything to the bottom.

The fish concentrated on all of the bare white gravel areas where a few weeds had died away. The fishing was all sight fishing. Basically you walk along the brush on the back of the path until you find a shoal (school) of grayling feeding. Then creep to the edge and make a good cast and drift your fly through them. If you made a good cast to feeding fish they would usually take on the first drift so long as you had a decent fly on. The brush behind he path made a 'good' cast tough some times. Roll casts were important most of the time. A few places you could throw a high back cast and shoot some line across and reach the far bank. Fortunately though, the fish weren't people shy to much and you could get a few chances at them. A couple times I caught 3 fish from the same shoal before they quit feeding.

In the morning we concentrated on Rachel catching fish more than I was fishing myself. Once she got back into the swing of things I'd move a little further off and fish. She did really well after the first hour or so. A few times she made really nice casts where the fly looped over perfectly to the perfect spot. Most of those times she hooked into a fish.

All told for the day I got 21 and she another 12-15. She had the big ones though with 4 browns over 15" and 3 over 17". The biggest was a thick 18" fish. The prettiest was a copper colored fish with bright halo's around the spots. She also got an grayling that was over 18" and really thick. I got a grayling that was every bit of 18" and even thicker than hers (well over 2 lb) but it had the longest dorsal fin ever (at least 6" long) and had the brightest blue/teal color with a fire red tip for its length. It looked like a beta. About 1/5 fish were trout with only one trout under 15". All of the grayling except 2 were 12" or more. The two small fish were ~5".

Everything except one small one (which ate an adams parachute) were on nymphs of one type or another. In the morning is was olive nymphs with a little flash and a bead. After lunch they didn't want them anymore so we switched to killer bugs which are basically a maggot imitation. Rachel did well with a creme body and a little pink head. I was fishing a solid color body that was a mix of creme, tan, and pink. I also caught a few on a red latex maggot in the heavier water. The nymphs were small (#16) but the bugs bugs were bigger (#12 or so). All of the fish were released.

All in all it was a great trip. I can't wait to do it again in december when the weeds have died back a little in the water and the fish spread a little.

Thanks,
Rick

haven't been in a fishing shop yet.  I've got enough material to fill two rubbermaid containers 3' x 2' x 3' so I haven't been looking for anything really.
 
Like I said in the post, it is expensive compared to US standards but you can't fairly compare to US standards unless you are coming over here for a trip.  When you live here, you can't say that is $70 because you don't get paid in dollars.  It is £35.  Yes, it is a paid to have to pay to fish, but the quality is excellent.  Consider it like the DSR on the salmon river.  You have limited numbers of people (way more limited here), there are nice paths and trails to the water, and even a small hut to eat lunch in.  In this case there were mowed paths around the river and benches every 200 yds or so.  It isn't something that I would do every night (though if I lived out that way I'd probably join a club water for ~£500 on the year) but for a once every other month kinda thing I'll take it.
 
Thanks,
Rick

Have you gotten into the still water fishing yet? From any of the mag. I've read on the uk and its waters the still waters offer some fish of size.

salty,
 
No, no stillwater for me.  This was my first trip out fishing since I've been here.
 
Stillwaters are more popular since the layout of the land here doesn't lend itself to trout streams very much.  There are chalkstreams in the south (where I was) and east midlands (about 2 hours drive) and some freestones to the west about 2 hours.  Much of the rest of the country is low rolling fields that doesn't support trout streams (think Crawford county).  So there are lots of stillwater lakes that are heavily stocked with trout.  Some of them get HUGE trout.  Some lakes only stock trout over 5 lb.  Many of the lakes have trout pushing 20 lb.  Lakes don't do it for me though and I don't have much inclination to fish them.  One day I will, but again, they aren't cheap for the nicer places.
 
Thanks,
Rick

Hi Greg,

Beer here is different. In the states I was a Yuenling guy for an every day beer. The Sarnac beers were very much to my liking as well. For me, darker lagers are my normal style. In the summer or really warm weather I like a pale ale or wheat beer and in winter I like a good stout or porter. Either way I like them pretty cold. So far here they like their standard ales. And, they like them traditional style, which means about room temp or a little cooler (like cool basement cold) and hand pumped. They aren't as carbonated as a standard American beer from a tap. If you buy the local beers from the grocery store and drink them at home, there are some pretty good ones. Out at any pub I usually stick to cider.

Ciders here are numerous and varied. There are ciders that are dry and high in alcohol like a fine champagne. There are sweeter ciders that are close to apple juice. There are fruit ciders that combine apple with most anything you want. And, they aren't expensive. For 2 quid I can buy a 1L bottle of cider that is as good or better than anything at home.

Food is also different. Traditional 'pies' as they call them are kinda like pot pie, only baked in a lasagna pan. Most are pretty good with fillings like beer braised beef and roast lamb. Still haven't tried fish pie though. The Indian food and curries here are very good, probably the best I've ever had. You can go anywhere and get a decent meal. The Mexican food and sushi are sub par and I'd not recommend getting adventurous. Fish and chips is always good and everywhere. Pizza is iffy. Kebabs (like a gyro) are hit or miss too but there are some awesome places. Otherwise British food isn't high on the culinary experience.

I should also say that if anyone is going to be in the UK at all drop me a line and I can show you around whether for a beer or two or a day or the water.

Thanks
Rick

Excellent reading.w_w.