Total Flyfisher Magazine

I'm not a massive fan of the chalkstreams to be honest as I'm hugely against the stocking of trout into our rivers and last year's equivalent trip to Bossington had been ruined (for me) by the pollution of stockie browns. Timsbury to stock fish, of course they do, but it was closer to proper fishing this year and there were a few nice grayling as well. I especially enjoyed fishing the small carrier with its faster, shallower water. Some lovely grayling, although no monsters, and two really big, powerful trout was my tally for the day, with the pink shrimp by far the most effective fly. One question: why do they see the need to let the maggot-drowners on this piece of water? It's completely beyond me...

After a day to recover I was back on the River Dove, sight fishing for the big grayling, although the visibility wasn't great. The best aspect of the day for me is that I saw next to nobody else all throughout Dovedale - a rare occurence indeed! The fishing was enjoyable but unspectacular. I saw five grayling to cast to and landed three of them - all in the 1.5 - 2lb class. For some reason, these fish wanted orange and shied away from the pink...

And finally a quick return to the River Clyde. I'd booked a cottage and invited a group of five other lads to join me. The water had been high all week but was bordering on fishable as we arrived on the Friday. So naturally we all blanked! Saturday brought slightly lower water, but colder conditions. I managed a couple of grayling and a lovely brown trout - out of season for sure, but not out of condition! I also lost something huge (full story to appear shortly on my own blog at www.johntyzack.co.uk... Wesser tried to burn the cottage down, but I'd better gloss over that bit... The rest of the lads were struggling slightly, but made up for it on the Sunday when, despite the snow, Steve and Wesser both caught nice fish. Hardcore grayling fishing in blizzard conditions... Quality!

John Tyzack