The first trip
in November was to fish the River Test in Romsey at Dave Steuart's garden.
Those older ones of us will remember Dave for his column in "Angling"
magazine in the 60's and 70's, and for writing "Carp; How to Catch
Them", part of the series by Herbert Jenkins.
Reg, Lee and I
fished hoping for roach but the river was about 18" below normal level and
after the warm period, the weed was still present limiting the swims that we
could fish with a float – my favourite for of fishing, so I trot whenever I can
The river was
so shallow it limited where we could fish which resulted in a large bag of
grayling to 1.5lb-ish for me and Reg, plus a few minnows and the obligatory
trout up to 4lbs. The Test is always stocked with trout elsewhere but they get
everywhere.
Lee fished
above the hatches and managed a couple of roach plus chub and trout. As the water
was slowest here, he had no grayling. Reg fished a slightly slower, deeper
section catching grayling but perch and a 3lbs bream as well as the trout.
At the bottom
of the stretch under a bridge there was a shoal of finicky chub and I managed
to get this one rolling a piece of spam around before the shoal dispersed.
But
what a great location and a fabulous
stretch for trotting, and I even got Dave to sign some of his original carp
books for me.