Autumn Is Here! Time for Grayling.

[Catfish Virgin (Still!)]

The Lower Itchen Fishery is one of my favourite Autumn/Winter venues and although it's £21 for a day ticket, it offers superb grayling fishing and responds brilliantly to my favourite method - trotting with a centrepin. I reckon it's worth it to spoil yourself every now and then and, besides, how often do you get the chance to fish one of England's finest chalk streams?

So, that's where I ended up today, eventually!

I thought I would save a bit of time this morning and collect my bait from a tackle shop in Eastleigh, just round the corner from the fishery. Problem no:1 - the road on which the shop is located was closed (very heavy duty road works!). No problem, park the car and walk the 1/2 mile or so to the shop. But...Problem no:2 - the shop is no longer! Empty, shuttered up, zilch, derelict and what's worse... no maggots!

Ended up driving into central Southampton to another tackle emporium and relieved them of 3 pints of finest red and white. Eventually negotiated the city centre traffic and arrived at the fishery at 11am (two hours later than planned)

Drove up the riverside track and parked by the central hut (all very civilised ). Quick look at the river... it's racing through, loads of rubbish coming down and quite coloured! I know we had a fair bit of rain over the last 24/36 hours but I didn't expect this!

Grayling are essentially sight feeders so I was a little worried that the colour might make the day more than a little difficult. So, as I tackled up, I was not in the best of moods!

First trot down, the float dipped and I hooked into a decent grayling. That's better.... then it's gyrations threw the hook!

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I shouldn't have worried. The grayling were in a feeding mood all day as I landed fish after fish. In the main they were around the 1lb to 1lb 08oz range and superb fighters. I did have a few that may have nudged 2lb plus quite a few brown trout and a single sea trout:







I was moving swims all afternoon and eventually hooked and lost what I suspected was a decent chub. I switched to breadflake and fed maggots heavily. The chub obliged as I had 6 up to around 5lb:



Despite the bad start to the day, I had one of my most enjoyable sessions this season.

[pingu]

nice one neil still need tio catch my first


dave

[Norfolkboy]

Well done Neil, some nice fish there

[Fishing Forum Admin]

Great read mate ! and fab fish

[Twiddler]

Beautiful fish, well done Neil......I'm looking forward to our annual fish-in there again in Feb

[Greenheart]

Great bag of fish Neil. Well done mate...

[topgun]

hello all new to this forum looks great been looking around for some grayling fishing and it looks like you had a realy good day can you give me any details as to what part you were fishing and how to book a day ticket i have yet to catch my first grayling i have tried a couple of times on the fly but no luck and i realy would like to catch them on the float trotting any info i would be very gratful
cheers
topgun

[Fishing Forum Admin]

Cracking fish mate well done

[Catfish Virgin (Still!)]

Originally Posted by topgun

can you give me any details as to what part you were fishing and how to book a day ticket
topgun

It's The Lower Itchen Fishery at Mansbridge between Southampton and Eastleigh. Phone the fishery on 07885 175540 or 02380 814389 to book a ticket:

http://www.itchen-fishing.net/

A bit pricey at £21 for a day ticket but well worth it to spoil yourself. Here's a write up on the fishery after a Fish-In via another site:

http://www.fishingmagic.com/news/art...04494200689220

[Twiddler]

Neil
Did you and PJ fish it last weekend? If so, how did it go?