Tuesday 31st May 2017 - A little fishing- at last.

I have just returned from a quick tour of the south, where I collected a few more doves, a few boxes of books following successful bids at the Flydressers' Guild auction, and a van-full of carp fishing remainders. On Monday afternoon, having finished with book business earlier than expected, I did a little prospecting for somewhere to cast a fly without enduring the formality or expense of a day ticket. I found it in a little stretch of no-man's-water where the most exclusive of chalkstreams passes underneath a motorway bridge, and a quick walk revealed not only a pair of spawning (or at least, intertwined) sea-lampreys, but one or two mayflies and a few rising trout. Returning for my rod, I rose and hooked three nice half-pound brownies on dry flies in the fifty yards or so of water under the bridge. The third of them was clearly visible, hovering in the fast current in mid-river, and occasionally taking something from the surface. He proved to be bullet-proof as I bombarded him with the contents of my dry fly box - sometimes turning to glance at a fly but refusing all for about an hour until at last he succumbed to a #14 deer-hair Humpy. Maybe he was feeding on beetles. Next morning I had a hearty hotel breakfast before heading off to far more salubrious surroundings on the beautiful (though highly manicured) river Test. There, to my dismay, I found my hosts busy preparing a huge cooked breakfast - my second of the morning! There was little fly and few rising fish but I did eventually manage to deceive a fat rainbow with a nice CdC mayfly nicked from the late Terry Griffiths' flybox.  Without a net I had to play the fish to exhaustion before I could get a finger under a gill-cover and hoist him onto the bank. Earlier I had discovered the presence of a fish-smoker at the fishing hut, so I tapped him on the head (as an undesirable alien) and we ate him for lunch. [caption id="attachment_1807" align="alignleft" width="360"] The discerning motorway brown trout[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1805" align="alignleft" width="360"] Tim Benn with lunch[/caption]