| #1  02-25-2007, 06:57 PM | ||||
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| Grayling day at the River Itchen I arrived at the Itchen at 7am and met up with a few other anglers for a trotting day for grayling. After meeting in the club house over a cuppa and a bacon butty we set of to find a good spot to fish, which turned out to be a hard task, as the river was pretty murky and fast running due to the days of rain we had during the week. Soon all the anglers spread out to find their swim, I however stayed with Neil, who was so kind to volunteer to be my coach for the day, as I have never trotted before and needed some guidance. Once we found a swim which looked fishable Neil and I set our rods up, I was fishing with a closed face reel (which I was using for the first time) with 2.5lb mainline, a 7g loafer float, bulk shot with 4 swans ( water was too fast running for a light stick float), 1.5 hook length size 16 hook. Bait used was red, bronze maggots and bread. I soon got used to using a closed face reel and quickly got the hang of trotting thanks to Neil's guidance.....shortly after I was left to my own device to get on with practising the new skill. I saw a couple of people catching a few trout, salmon but no grayling so far. After about an hour of fishing I had my first catch (yahooo I thought as least I don't go home with a blank) Here my first catch of the day  lol yep a minnow Lunch time arrived and we all met up at a little hoot on the river for lunch and to catch up with the reports so far. After a nice home made soup and samosa over a nice pint of ale, we all went back to our swims in hunt of the 'lady of the stream'.  I decided to walk up the river to find another spot to fish, in hope to catch a nice grayling, or at least a trout. Once I found a nice swim,( in a bend of the river where the waterflow was a little calmer) I rebait with a bronze maggot and casted closer into the bank (constantly feeding the swim small amounts of bronze maggot) It took me another 2 hours before I finally had another bit and this time................YES!!!!!! Finally a nice grayling of 1lb14oz  It was a very educational day for me and I really enjoyed learning more about float fishing. __________________ There is certainly something in angling that tends to produce a serenity of the mind." - Washington Irving     |
| #2 02-25-2007, 07:02 PM | ||||
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| Re: Grayling day at the River Itchen Bloody well done mate and great pics  __________________ Richard|Sea Fishing |Carp Fishing| Spud Gun | Zander fishing | Fishing Reports | Hunting Reports |
| #3 02-25-2007, 07:11 PM | ||||
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| Re: Grayling day at the River Itchen  nice fish claudia, 1lb 14 matches my pb grayling, respect __________________ beer so many venues, so little time. |
| #4 02-25-2007, 07:31 PM | ||||
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| Re: Grayling day at the River Itchen Sounds a cracking day Claudia, lovely fish the Grayling, only ever had 1 myself and I was pleased as punch with it! It was a damn sight smaller than yours too  __________________ Dan `·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸ Big or small, look after them all! ¸.·´¯`·.¸ ><((((º> |
| #5 02-25-2007, 07:50 PM | ||||
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 Re: Grayling day at the River Itchen Great report Claudia, & that's one cracking Speciemen Grayling  . Make sure that you enter it for fish of the month. Well done. __________________ Don't Judge My Path If You Haven't Walked My Journey... |
| #7 02-25-2007, 07:53 PM | ||||
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| Re: Grayling day at the River Itchen Thanks everybody.......I was so chuffed when I landed the beauty I jumped for joy __________________ There is certainly something in angling that tends to produce a serenity of the mind." - Washington Irving |
| #9 02-25-2007, 10:11 PM | ||||
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| Re: Grayling day at the River Itchen well done with the grayling claudia __________________ obsessed is a word used by the lazy to describe the dedicated .. species hunt team winner 2005 and 2006..with old smoothy.. |
| #10 02-25-2007, 10:17 PM | |||
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| Re: Grayling day at the River Itchen top angling claudia cracking graling tightlines kevin  |
