Almost all waters ...
Scratch below the proverbial surface and you will find some damn fine fly fishing right under your nose. Small stretches of river running through villages, along public rights of way and other council owned land offer a surprising amount of quality fly fishing, wait for it ... for free !
I find these stretches of water nothing short of a miracle in many respects - look back at the history of the area and more often than not the pollution levels were that to rival the likes of the Ganges in years gone by. Over time however, we've become more aware of our local environment and the need to preserve this resource for our kids - a direct result of this is a healthy brown trout population in many of these rivers.
Up until the back end of the 2010 season, I'd pretty much explored/fished most of the local streams on offer and was on a mission to find further sources to quench my insatiable fly fishing thirst. My wish was granted in the form of an article in Trout & Salmon magazine regarding a small stretch of river running through council owned land tucked away in Hampshire of all places.
After arriving and parking the car I made my way down to the river taking care to avoid the ubiquitous canine deposits and head high swaths of stinging nettles - no wonder this place is never fished ! Like Livingstone looking onto Victoria Falls for the first time I eventually found the mother lode - although it was anything but Victoria Falls.
It was at this point that my enthusiasm drained - chocolate brown water, tyres and all other manner of debris littered the river bank and bed. Mustering up some courage I pushed on upstream through the nettles, brambles and other horticultural tools of torture in the vain hope that things would improve. They didn't. After about an hour of thrashing around the riverbank, peering down into the water I decided to admit defeat and head for the comfort of home and several pints of Pressed Rat & Warthog. It was at this point that I heard the unmistakable splash of a fish devouring some unsuspecting insect of sorts - get in there !! Looking into the murk I saw the periodic rise of a superbly formed brown trout approximately eight to ten inches long sipping emergers off the surface.
The following weekend involved one times brother-in-law, two 6ft 2wt fly rods and both armed with a boxes of sub #20 flies.
We tackled up a New Zealand style rig - 7ft 6 inch tapered leaders down to 6x tippet onto which was attached a #20 Klinkhammer and #22 nymph. To start with, the fishing was difficult in that overhanging vegetation limited us to very close quarters casting and not being able to fish pools that I was certain held fish. Our efforts were soon rewarded though - we watched the Klink disappear as a small brownie took the nymph.
The remainder of the day was spent fishing some surprisingly deep pools and pocket water, all of which produced awesome fish the biggest of which was a respectable eight inches.
I've since fished this small gem of stream on several occassions and have been surprised on each visit - early summer afternoons can offer some of the best dry fly action I've experienced. Local dog walkers after asking, "And just what are you expecting to catch in there?" walk away tutting at yet another fisherman's tale in utter disbelief that nothing could survive in this most improbable of small streams.
