After being invited by the lads to join them on their jolly trip south, to fish both the Stour and the Itchen I jumped at the chance. Normally these trips fall during term time so this was a opportunity that I could not ignore.
The first day to be honest was a bit of a wash out...literally the Stour was on the rise and pushing through at a right old rate of knots and to be honest was boarderline unfishable. We decided after a while to make our way to the Itchen to have a look and do some prospecting. This was again very hard. I managed a small ell from a slack on lob worm but apart from this the day past event less. That was until the final cast of the day !!! On which I managed to snag a chub on Dannys rod with the last run through and the last pouch of maggots.. Though Danny claims it was 2lbs I beg to differ!!!
The night before the morning after seemed to pass with a blur...and 10 pints of Guinness!!
On arrival to the Itchen I was amazed. Lovely long run with a mix of gravel and weed, making it great for a long trot!
I walked to the very top of the beat and started of with a chubber, bulk shot and double red. I did have to move around a little but after a while a seemed to get the knack.....Feed trot,feed trot, change depth, feed, trot, feed trot, etc I started to catch on a regular basis both grayling and trout.
After about an hour I decided to move 100 yards down stream to a long glide, which after feeding a couple of pouches of maggots saw my float drive straight down the hole and my new PB grayling was netted at 1lb 9oz.
Though I felt I fished quite well I could not top it, I would like to return to the river again ,,,this time minus the rain and also the booze!
