A lovely encounter with a special lady before the close..

Me and Si Hartop have been arranging a roach session on the itchen for a while now and with the close drawing in we finally pencilled in a day in the diary! After counting down the days and exchanging texts about tactics and swim choices the day was finally upon us! With the rivers due to close for the season it was make or break for that magical 2lb river roach! The forecast couldn't of been any worse bright conditions and not a cloud in the sky.. Not ideal for the roach! But we set out at first light anyway! We started off my favourite roach spot. I put si on a likely spot and I started above a snag. I baited gingerly as I knew the roach have been fished for and have been very finicky so I kept the bait going in at a minimum. After half hour or so of baiting with a pinch fulls of maggot I decided to have my first trot through. Again I was using my 13ft acolyte plus coupled with my JW YOUNGS pin loaded with 3lb Drennan float fish, I used a 3bb wire steam Drennan float and a size 18 super specialist hook with a single red maggot as the hook bait. After a few few fruitless trots I decided to move up stream and rest the swim. Neither si or I had any bites.. With the sun rising and the mist burning away rapidly I moved back to the snags.. First trot down I was into what felt like a roach and it wasn't long and I had my first Redfin in the net! Quickly followed by another about the same size! Confident I'd found the shoal I concentrated on that area. Si asked if I ever get plagued with trout.. I wish I didn't answer as I well and truly jinxed myself as a super charged browny turned up and ruined the party.. Quickly followed by one of his mates.. That was it! The icing on the cake! No more bites fell to me in that swim so we decided to move down stream. We started off at the bottom of the stretch. I carried on trotting and Si carried on with his bread flake feeder tactic. I had several grayling to the pound mark but sadly no roach.. We both started working back on our selves but the majority of the swims proved to be fruitless. With the sun high in the sky by this point we knew the odds were against us! I decided to try and target the grayling in one of my favrioute swims. This swim was deep wide and the river flowed very fast through it an area you wouldn't expect the grayling to hold but.. There's a lovely slack that ran off of the bend and I loved using the maggot feeder in this slack! My tip rod set up for the river is a Drennan match pro feeder and a 2oz tip, tip depending on the flow, 4lb mono on a small daiwa ss1600 reel, a small maggot feeder and a 2lb hook link with a size 18 hook with a single red to tip it off.. I never bait when using the maggot feeder I just count on the maggot to do there job in the feeder and not over feed the feeding fish for there were any. I lowered the feeder into the slack and the finicky bites began.. Usually with the set up I use the grayling hang them selves on the rig but today the bites were extra finicky.. It wasn't long before the tip hooped around and I was into a hard fighting grayling! 

Securely in the net I put the feeder back out and again it wasn't long before another grayling was in the net falling to the deadly maggot feeder method! 

The bites soon dried up so I decided to try trotting through the faster water as I thought the grayling could of dropped back due to spooking from the disturbance from the previous landed grayling landed. First trot through and the float dipped.. Striking instantly I was into a fish.. At first I thought it was a trout by the fight! But I saw a glimpse of a big sail from a big grayling! I knew this was a big fish! I clamped down on my pin and gained what line I could guiding the grayling out of the flow back into the slack.. It wasn't long and the special fish was in the net!! After weighing the grayling and getting a quick snap I rested the fish in the net and waited for si to do photos.

With a new personal best in the net I couldn't wait to do the photos! Si was just as happy as I was and he took some epic shots for me!!! 

After a few snaps I released the grayling back to the chalk stream watching with a big smile on my face! What a way to end the river season.. Until June 16th.. 

Thanks for reading! Be lucky out there 

After work Redfin session..

I'm lucky enough to finish work early on a Friday afternoon so it gives me the advantage to get on the bank early and miss the weekend rush. On this paticular afternoon I decided to have some lunch and head down my local stretch of river the itchen. My set up for this occasion was a 3lb mainline straight through, a 2BB Drennan stick float and a size 20 Drennan super specialist hook. The reason why I used a light stick float is the flow is nice and slow and the stretch is nice and deep. So With only my light acolyte rod and centre pin a net and tackle bag I set off down the itchen.so 

I always start off at the bottom of the stretch and work my way up. I fished a few of my favourite spots sadly only producing small grayling and a few trout. With time getting on i decided to get to my main roach spot. There's been a few other anglers targeting the roach at this location so I knew it was going to be tricky. I baited a few areas with maggot and let the roach "if" they were about have a few free offerings and gain there confidence. After baiting for an hour I decided to have a trot on my first favoured area. After a few trots the finicky roach began to bite! Glad I'd found them in quite quick time i baited with a pinch of maggot and trotted down with the free offerings. I was getting bites along side a big set of snags.. As the float maruded past the snags the float disappeared and I was Into the first roach of the season! After a spirited fight the first roach was in the back of the net! After baiting and resting the swim shortly I trotted through again and the bites began again.. After a few trots through the swim and a few finicky bites the float disappeared once again and I was into another Redfin! The bites continued and I ended up landing six lovely Redfins to 1.4lb, five where also  over 1lb, sadly I lost two good fish. But I was happy with catching six roach in such a short time! If you fish for roach you'll know how finicky they are. 

After a few photos memories were made and I slipped the beautiful roach back to there chalk stream home. 

The season is drawing in and I'm hoping to have one or two more roach sessions and I'm praying that magical 2lber slips up.. 

Thanks for reading my blog and be lucky on the bank!