The organisers
Barry with specimen Grayling
Due to Covid disrupting plans for the year coupled with my resignation as Angling secretary, our outing to the River Test was the first and possibly the only angling meeting of 2021.
It turned out to be a cracker of an event with a record number of anglers, 33, prepared to descend on this famous chalkstream just outside Romsey in Hampshire. Such is the popularity that people had come from as far as Torquay in the West, Ipswich in the East and Huntingdon in the North with the majority made up of visitors from Herts and Sussex.
After an early morning squall of rain the weather cleared to blue sky and sunshine apart from one more shower just before lunch, but without rain there would be no rivers and no fishing!
The new Covid system sees me collecting envelopes from participants before letting them through the gate and this worked very smoothly as all were parked and tackling up when I joined them at about 9.00am.
I took a very relaxed approach and did not cover much of the 2½ mile length that we now fish and stopped to chat to those who I passed. It is very difficult to get any idea of how much success people were having due to the distances ,but slowly reports of catches started to be heard.
Lunch was taken around the table this year for as many of those who turned up, some preferring to fish on with a sandwich. Those who did make it were treated to ginger cake by John Clark, one of our regular guests and later Doreen Gould produced a tin of fruit and cherry cake to celebrate David’s birthday the following day.
There was lots of chatter in groups that went on for quite some time but as always we tore ourselves away to have another go at tempting a fish out of the fast flowing water. I am never very successful and spent ages casting to a shoal of Grayling splashing about in the shadows under the far bank but decided to call it a day when David Gould’s fishing pal Mike arrived and I suggested he have a go. To my amazement after a few casts I saw his line go taut, his rod bend and we watched as he landed a 4½lb Brown Trout, which turned out to be the best of the day.
Later I learned that guest Barry Smith had caught a 2½ Grayling on a very light weight rod and tackle. Best PICT member was Gerry Overy who had 1 Trout and 1 Grayling.
I turned for home happy but had to wait for the results to be emailed to me. It had been a record in every sense – eleven out of the thirty-three had caught a total of 23 fish, 12 Brown trout and 11 Grayling, which made it a record on all counts.
My thanks go to David Gould for organising it with the fishery, but the biggest thanks must go to the enthusiasm and generosity of all the anglers who made it such a success.
Hopefully someone will come forward and organise an event early next year although there are still a few weeks before the end of this year!