dark side report

[Ben]

in the hunt for species points and having given the solent the nick name "The Dead Sea(at the moment)" i thought i would try a dark side session
so loaded with red, yellow and white maggots, bread, a 1 1/2lb test curve rod and small reel loaded with 6lb line i headed for the nearest free stretch of river, which was the stretch inbetween wood mill and gaters mill on the R. Itchen
i got there about 11.30 and set up my rod with size 16 barbless hooks and a small float set to about 5ft to skim the bottom
my 1st swim was a fairly wide, straight patch of the river with a fast channel down the middle and slow running deep margins, my plan was to trot my float along the edge of the channel under overhanging tree's
people had said there should be roach, trout, chub and grayling in there at the moment, along with pike and pearch
i stayed at this swim for about 45mins and had nothing, i tried varying depths and baits with no luck
i now moved off to a bend in the river where i could fish onto the shallow fast flowing part, good spot for trout and grayling i though, i set the float to about 1ft
no sooner had my bait hit the water than i had my 1st bite, which i skillfully missed, i rebaited and tried again, bingo! my 1st rainbow trout of the day

1 1/2points please richard, it might have topped the scales at 1oz given the chance
teh action was steady after that and i managed to pull out about 2 doozen trout all that size, mainly falling to red maggots
i then got a better take and started playing the fish, after a minute or so the fish was on its side and ready to be netted, a nice rainbow trout of about 1lb
i bent over to pick the net up and the fish decided to make 1 final last bid for freedom, it trashed its head and the barbless hook caame out, gutted
that little incident well and truely spooked the fish so i didnt get anything else from that swim, so i moved
the next swim was another bend but this time i was fishing the deep slow moving part with the float set deep using bread after chub
after my 4th or 5th drift i got a take and had a fish on, it stayed deep and faught hard, alittle too mark for my tiny hooks which straightened out
i can only asume it was a nice sized chub because it was taken on bread but i will never know
i moved back to my 2nd swim after that and pulled out afew more baby trout and that was it for me
a nice little session on the dark side, which prooved more fruitful that the dead sea would have done today

[wellyfish]

well done ben ....thats a whopper

[Fishing Forum Admin]

Well done ben nice to catch something different after making the effort

[Portland Pirate]

Sounds like a great little session Ben. Well done. Where abouts is Wood Mill, is it in Southampton?
The picture you have there is a Salmon Par and not a Rainbow trout.

[Ben]

yeah, wood mill is in southampton
i think you might be right about the salmon par thing
found this
http://www.fishingnet.com/parr_recognition.htm

[Norfolkboy]

Well done Ben, good to see you're joining the force

[Portland Pirate]

I am going to be staying at the outlaws in Fareham for the 2nd weekend in February. So I might give it a try.

[Ben]

well there is a stretch between woodmill fishery and gaters mill fishery which is free, why pay £100 a day at gaters mill when you can get it free down stream

[pingu]

well done ben, good fishing and good report as ever

[Greenheart]

Originally Posted by Portland Pirate

Sounds like a great little session Ben. Well done. Where abouts is Wood Mill, is it in Southampton?
The picture you have there is a Salmon Par and not a Rainbow trout.

Well done Ben, it's funny, Portland Pirate & I were only discussing a couple of days back about catching Salmon parr & the fact that it would count as a Salmon in the species hunt . How many points is a Salmon worth then?