GRAYLING!!!!!!!!!!!!

The beautiful River Test

Hi all....

What a sudden change in our weather pattern again! All of a sudden we've gone from hearing all about the poor souls who've lost everything in the last few weeks to floods all over the country, to now hearing that temperatures have been down to -10C and heavy snow in areas!

What a change! The weather here in the valleys of South Wales has been reasonable in comparison and for a change we've been far less affected by the weather than usual. Albeit we've had a couple of very hard frosts this week so far.

Fishing this year so far has been between little and no trips out and last Sunday was in fact only my second day out of the New Year so far! With the cold snap in tow it looked like we may struggle on our trip down south but all went according to plan, as I will discuss in a moment. Before I start with my fishing antics though, I'd like to take just a few lines up about the current issue with my local club which is now becoming a bit of a long standing joke between myself and my friends.

A wonderful start to proceedings!

It appears that the clubs committee pay attention to what's written on this blog with a fine toothed comb. This in itself is a miracle as the majority of them are anti-internet types. So i'm amazed they evening knew about these pages I write. It also appears that they find it very difficult to allow someone to have an opinion that doesn't match that of their little group. Since writing my last post, in which I published my feelings on the clubs demolition of a picturesque water.

I have received a letter from the club committee asking me to hand back my club key and permit and that I was now banned from the club for a life term!!!! The letter was worded very critically of my writings and went so much as to call me ignorant and that I had a personal vendetta against them. They also expressed that the club welcomes criticism despite the letter saying otherwise.

I would suggest to those involved that you should really have a think about what you've written in said letter as it not only very contradictory but also doesn't really give any reasons for giving me a life ban? Other than that I have criticized the running of the club and it's committee! Doesn't really feel that the crime fits the punishment....I have furthermore never received any warnings from the club asking me to not write about my feelings on club matters.

Unlike the behavior of 2 club committee members that feel it's okay to threaten paid up members with violence...Needless to say that this has been swept under the carpet and no further action taken!   I have also been informed by another club member of a recent incident in a local tackle shop, where by the Membership Secretary was spouting endless obscenities in front of customers, including ladies, about the clubs members! I cannot honestly believe that this is all allowed to go on....It really does show these particular persons up in a new light! Absolutely disgusting and they should be the one's with a life time ban!I have emailed the Club Secretary but as yet received any form of reply. I will also not be surrendering my licence until I receive a written reply with good reasons for the ban and also a full written apology from the two committee members that threatened me with acts of violence. I wait with baited breath!

Anyway, on to much more interesting and important stuff like fishing!!!!!! I have been lucky enough to be invited into a small group of like minded chaps who run a tidy group called SHUK. The Specimen Hunters UK. They're a very tight nit group of like minded fellas that just love fishing, great banter and generally having a good time on the bank side. The group is some 30 strong maximum and I already knew a few of the members from previous meet ups. The facebook group is just a riot at the best of times so I knew exactly what to expect at a social,

Last Sunday was set in the diary for a day out social on the wonderful River Test, Timsbury Fishery in Hampshire. I set the alarm clock for 4.20am and the wife and kids made the journey with me down to Salisbury first to drop them off at the mother in laws for the day while i fished. I eventually got to the river at 7.50am. The chaps all started to roll n about the same time and we had a brief quarter of an hour chin wag in the car park. The weather was cloudy, slightly chilly but at least not raining! Yet!

Nice perch too.

We all walked off towards the river and got tackled up for the day ahead. There were a few faces I recognized and some I didn't but all were extremely welcoming and I was really made to feel like one of the team! There was a good mixture of age groups from 30 upwards to about 70 and most were around my age 40-45.

This meant we were all of similar likes in most aspects and there was plenty to talk about whether fishing related or not. Some of the guys made a swim up for the day and others like myself went off roving. I took a couple of rods with me armed with center pins and a small fixed spool set up to a ledger rod.

I started the day just up from Baz Fisher who was having a dabble for a pike and his dad joined him in search of a grayling. I found a nice spot at the back of a corner. The current just changed slightly as it swept around the left hand bend. I started to introduce a few maggots by hand and after about 10 minutes I started to run a 10 x 4 wire stem stick float through the swim at around 3 ft depth. It wasn't too long before the action started. I started to get bite but mainly when I introduced less loose feed. My first grayling was about an inch long! The second about 3 inches. I was hoping for something a little bit bigger when the float pulled under and sped off down stream! The fight in the strong current on a 13ft float rod was amazing! Especially as I had fined right down to a size 20 hook and 2lb 12oz hook length!

The fish eventually found the net and I was the proud captor of my first 'proper' Test grayling of a pound. They then started to come like buses and after about an hour I had taken 9 grayling and 3 large brown trout to just under 4lbs! The trout were great fun but signaled an end to the grayling sport in my swim. Time for a move down stream. I tried numerous little hot spots on my way down. Eventually ending up near the tail end of the fishery where I found a stunning run under an overhanging tree.

A wonderful end to the day! Great fishing at Timsbury on the Test

First run through resulted in a cracking grayling around 1lb 8oz. Then I had another around 1lb. The fish seemed to be held up under the tree and for the next 40 minutes I made the most of the action and bagged about 10 more fish. I felt I needed a change of fish so I then headed for a sarny, coffee and a walk over to one of the carrier streams behind the main river.

I dropped a small 1/8oz lead into a spot behind a bridge with a size 10 hook and a small lobworm impaled on it. It didn't take long before the tip wrenched around and I was hooked into a nice pound perch! 5 more followed but all in a much smaller guise! I swapped over to the float and ran that through a few more likely spots on the carrier for 2 small roach and a minnow.

Lure boxes all ready to fly into action on Sunday!

Eventually I went back over to the main river and after doing battle with a bonkers brown trout in the carrier weir pool, I got back to the grayling fishing. I bagged another 12 before the light took away our fishing for the day. I ended up on 31 grayling for the day and to say I was well happy with the results was an understatement! Great fishing, great venue, great company! Thanks for arranging it Mike Lyddon! Top bloke....I look forward to next years event!

I've spent this week dusting off my spinning and drop shotting gear, as we have a lads day out planned for Sunday on the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal. We've got Pike, Perch and Zander in our eyes and hopefully between the group of us, someone may catch something????The banter will be worth going for if nothing else!

Tight lines all and stay well
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