Seven brave men shunned Storm Garetti and proceeded with the Grayling Day at the Lower Itchen Fishery on 8th January.

In fact, the weather was not as bad as the forecast, and so long as you were well prepared the weather did not detract from the fun – after all there’s no such thing as bad weather, just inappropriate clothing!

In total,12 grayling were landed, a chub by Stuart Smith, and 29 accidental by-catches of hefty brown trout, and one salmon kelt. The challenge was to get to the grayling before the large head of over-wintered brown trout gobbled up anything that moved. The grayling tended to be in the deeper pools and were mainly taken by trotting maggots and some sweetcorn.

David Morton and Mike Bilson shared top rod with 3 grayling each. Andy Stebbeds was the prolific poacher with 12 accidental trout, as well as two good grayling. Stuart Smith would have won the prize for the most traditional angler using a split cane rod and split can landing net, along with a classy tweed fishing jacket. Charles Jarrold ironically got the well mended salmon kelt, having blanked in over 30 sessions trying for salmon on the Avon last year! Chairman Dan made up the numbers with 1 grayling and a number of good trout. Richard Whittington managed a beautiful salmon parr.

We all warmed up at the end of the day at the Curry House and shared stories of the many that got away over naan bread and poppadoms!

A fabulous day out on the river!