Thursday 15 November 2018

Chalk Stream Silver


As a break from pike fishing I joined James and Yannick for a trip down south, chasing grayling on a beautiful little chalk stream.


Initially I struggled to get through the trout, landing about 20 of them to around 5lb throughout the day - great fun but not the target.


After a bit of searching I found a shoal of grayling on a tight bend in the stream. And picked one off, a beautiful 1lb 12oz opener.


Next cast I landed a 1lb 11oz fish before a trout spooked the shoal, time for a wander. And time for a wet afternoon, it poured down.


Fishing on in the rain I ended up with 6 grayling; 1lb 0oz, 1lb 1oz, 1lb 8oz, 1lb 11oz, 1lb 12oz and the best of the day 1lb 14½oz above.


OK, I couldn’t resist a couple of little chalk stream jacks on wobbled sprats - the fish above is pike number 50 this season!


A brilliant day despite the wet afternoon, love exploring this ever changing little river and can’t wait to return.

6 comments:

  1. Ahh those nuisance 5lb trout. I bet if you fly fished for them in the summer they'd be difficult and you'd be cursing the grayling. Funny old game this fishing lark.

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    1. Completely agree, if the trout were in season and I was after them they’d be much more difficult to tempt. But there are far fewer grayling, so when you spot some and get them feeding only for a trout to crash the party it’s quite frustrating.

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    2. You wait till you see one beat a big roach to the bait :o(

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    3. When I saw a trout about to intercept the bait I’d pull it sharply out of the way (didn’t always deter them). On one occasion during the trip I saw a trout heading for the bait, moved it and only then saw I’d pulled it out of the mouth of a big roach... But was a great day so I’m not dwelling on that!

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  2. Mixed blessing them spotties....

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    1. Yeah, I’ll be trying to catch them on the fly gear next month (rainbows)... Bet they are tricky then...

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