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wfllogosmallHigh quality, no hype, sensibly priced fly lines. Made in the UK, proven world-wide. For people who love fishing. Click here. Wild Fishing Scotland, established November 2003. 

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03
Apr

First Fish


Written by Tim Bonner

thumb The Meon is a very beautiful river. It is not manicured like the Itchen or the Test, and that is an advantage as far as I am concerned. It is as close as you will get to a wild river in the South of England, which isn’t that close, but at least it is not just a depository for huge farmed fish.

There is some stocking of small brown trout, but most of what you fish for are truly wild. It is a small river, in many places no wider than you could jump, and the fish do not grow to a size you would see on other chalkstreams.

Dad and I were to fish a beat in the middle river leased by his club. The river flows through cattle strewn water meadows and ancient deciduous woodland. It flowed full and fast which was a joy to see given the damage it has suffered from water extraction in recent times. Last winter was wet and although chalkstream flows are controlled by underground aquifers, rather than groundwater run off, the river already looks better.

wff-8-3-2012-6-50-04-AM-2008mar1112052631781The weather was warm for April and I sweated up walking in my waders. The bottom of the beat is enclosed by woodland on both sides and considerably unkempt. A large new pheasant pen, showing all the signs of a big commercial operation, had been built next to the river since the last time I had fished there. Struggling through the undergrowth I slipped in to the river at the limit of our fishing above a modern weir.

 It was strong and cold and despite a few hatching flies, large dark olives, there were no fish feeding on the surface and try as I might I could not spot them in the fast, slightly milky water. This was not a complete disaster for two reasons. The first was that the Meon is a proper river with pools, runs, eddies, glides and all the other things that a river should have. You can read a proper river and where the fish should be in it. The second was that, unlike other chalkstreams, you can wade the Meon. Wading a river or a loch takes fishing to a different level. I love being in the water and part of it. Feeling the features of the bottom under my feet and focussing on where the fish might be and what they might take.

With no movement on the surface, and the water running so fast, the only sensible option was a bead head nymph. It was not classic chalkstream fishing, but then the classic chalkstream fisherman would probably have just gone home. I fished up the river hurling ungainly flies into the places trout might live. Several were snared by the surrounding tees and needed extracting, or the death pull which breaks the line on a fly which is caught in a place you can’t reach. Losing flies is an important part of fishing a river like the Meon. If you are not losing flies you are not fishing hard enough. Simple really. wff-8-3-2012-6-50-04-AM-2008mar1112052632112

After about half an hour something quite extraordinary happened. I threw a nymph into a small pool and after a second or two the line stopped. I tightened immediately and felt the movements of a small trout on the end of my line. However many times it happens that feeling will always be extraordinary, especially the first time each year. It was a tiny, beautiful, perfect brown trout and after a quick photograph I flicked it of the hook.

In the next couple of hours this happened three more times. Two of the fish were a decent size but I was not in a mood for killing. The noise of the children who had arrived with grandma for lunch managed to break the spell at a range of about half a mile. We ate rolls with ham and strawberries beside the river.

They went home to watch the Grand National and Dad and I fished on for a time. I had one more small fish on the bead head nymph then switched to dry flies, but failed to persuade anything to take them. Dad was tired and we were back on the road in time to hear Silver Birch win the National. A whole summer of fishing beckoned

Tim Bonner works for the Countryside Alliance in London, has four young children and lives in Hertfordshire all of which makes his obsession with wild trout fishing complicated. So he spends as much time as he can in Hampshire, the Westcountry, Sutherland and especially Caithness.

 

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