Timsbury

[lyn]

Well the rain wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, the fishing was hard, well for me!! I did manage 2 small perch from the slow carrier at the end of the day. Main disappointment was the fact they have removed all the fish from this carrier and shut off the top of it.

 

The fast carrier was over it's banks Nice to see everyone, KC you went off with out my money so please pm me your address. Thanks Tony for organising it and Sue for the mulled cider, oh and not forgetting the cake.

 

Look forward to seeing some of you on the Itchen fish in.

 

Hope you are all home safe & sound.

 

lyn

[Chris Plumb]

Main disappointment was the fact they have removed all the fish from this carrier and shut off the top of it.

 

Bang goes my last reason for ever wanting to fish there again! What happened to the fish? Quite a few carp in that stream - along with the fabled roach - were they slipped into the main river or popped into the lake there?

 

C.

[Rusty]

A big thanks from me as well Tony & Sue. I'm sorry I couldn't stay for the KK challenge or the mulled wine, although I managed to stay dry all day I found it tiring coping with the heavy downpours. Just as one past and the sun came out another one would come along, at about 3:15pm a biggie finished me off.

 

Only my second AN fish in but as ever these events are about meeting the people behind the keyboard and it was great to do that. Hero of the day award goes to Tiddlertamer who still made it having endured the "journey from hell". It must've been 1:00pm before he arrived.

 

I fished the slow carrier before being politely told off. The lease on that stretch has expired and the site is being developed by the owner so it won't be available to fish until the facility (a campsite I think) is finished. Even then the situation could exist where the slow and fast carriers and the main river are being operated by different organizations, ludicrous.

 

I did have some success with the fishing, this swim looked very perchy so I dangled in a red maggot baited hook.

 

 

The result was a roach which (with a little imagination) needed the landing net. I still need to work on the watercraft obviously.

 

 

A very enjoyable day.

[Leon Roskilly]

Weather?

 

Pah!

 

We got neither hail or thunder as promised and it wasn't even that cold (I left another two layers of clothing back in the car, along with uneeded gloves and hand-warmers etc)

 

Constant showers were about the best that could be managed, barely making it a 'traditionsal' AN Timsbury fish-in.

 

(Although as the fast carrier rose quickly after a particularly fierce bout of watery droppings from the sky, bursting it's bank and bringing through more and bigger amounts of floating weed and colour, and the bites dried-up temporarily, I momentarily lost my will to live and went searching instead for bacon butties. Unsuccessfully on that first attempt ).

 

I did manage a few brown trout from the fast-carrier, before deciding to try above the weirpool for a better chance of grayling, only to find after a wet trudge that section closed to fishing.

 

So, off to the main river, running thick and brown, and a few unconvincing trot-throughs before tackling the small stream below the slow carrier for some small roach and perch, plus a perch of 10-12ozs.

 

Then back to the fast carrier to amuse the brownies, and to finally land a decentish sized female grayling (it was noticeable that the grayling in the carrier were larger than normal, river-sized fish for a change, perhaps venturing into slightly cleaner water to feed).

 

I was happy then

 

As darkness threatened, it was back to the transport to pack the gear into Tony and Sue's new shiny wagon, then along to Lynn's van for a long-awaited bacon buttie (thanks Lynn), and a gathering in the darkened van to share a mulled-cider by torchlight before everyone departed, leaving Tony & Sue to assist in towing Lynn's van in the dark wet and scary lane, to get it started.

 

A stop for coffee on the way home, then a traditional hunt in the pouring rain for my escaped maggots in the back of Tony and Sue's new wagon (sorry, sorry, sorry....especially as we didn't get them all), and collection of a jar of home -made tomatoe and chilli relish .

 

A big, big thanks to Tony for organising it, and sharing their transport (I will probably be frisked for maggots before ever being allowed aboard again!), and to Lynn for the hospitality, and to all from AN who came along and helped make it one of those rare special days.

[Anderoo]

Thank you Tony and Sue for organising the annual Timsbury outing And also to Lyn for the refreshments at the end

 

It was good to catch up with everyone, although I spent a fair amount of time huddled under my spanking new Argos brolly (no expense spared!). My one-piece waterproof romper suit got a good workout, and I'm please to say that it passed the Test With that and the moonboots I stayed warm and dry all day.

 

The weather was difficult but not terrible. The showers were very heavy when they came, but there were plenty of gaps in the rain. It wasn't that cold either. However, the main river was a thick brown colour and was full of debris, and was basically unfishable. The fast carrier looked spot on (until it burst its banks!) but didn't fish as well as previous years. The slow carrier, however, looked perfect! Extra water, a little colour, excatly what you'd want for the roach - but most of it is now out of bounds. It was very frustrating with so few options available, so I sat it out at the uppermost end of the slow carrier hoping for a roach and nipping out for a bit of trotting now and again.

 

I caught a couple of very hard fighting rainbows where the fast carrier joins the main river and a few small perch from the slow carrier. I almost landed a micro-grayling but it flipped off the hook as I was lifting it out! I had two tiny bites on breadflake but didn't strike quickly enough, and so missed my only roach chance.

 

Speaking to the owner, it sounds like the slow carrier is no longer the home of giant roach. There are roach in there but only up to a pound or so. The main river is now the place to be. I reckon the best shot at one is in either October or Feb/March when the river is in better condition.

 

So, Budgie, well done for holding your nerve!

Edited November 30, 2009 by Anderoo

[Tony U]

I wish I could book the weather as easily as I could book the venue I was glad most anglers caught though we need to get Sue on some fish it is her third succesive blank at an AN meet.

It was nice for me to be able to walk the beats again for the past three years I have been limited to the top pool on the old part of the slow carrier. If the main river had been in better nick I would have fished the bottom end by the road bridge (along with a dozen or so others). Anyway that said I did manage a nice Grayling and four nice Brownies out of the fast carrier.

 

Tony

[Steve Walker]

Thanks again to Tony and Sue

 

I managed a six inch grayling, a trout of about a pound and some parr from the fast carrier. Then I sat it out on the slow carrier, hiding under my brolly from the weather. From there I caught a small but fantastically coloured perch and a horrible eel .

 

Just to give a flavour of the weather:

 

Youtube Video ->

[tincatinca]

Firtly thanks to Tony and Sue for organising the event and Lyn for the very welcome Bacon sarnie , soup and mulled cider.

 

This being my first trip to Timsbury, I travelled down the day before and managed to get a very good B&B about a mile up the road from the fishery, but feared the worst as the rain lashed down during the evening. The breakfast was so good that I arrived at the fishery a little later than planned. My objective was to fish the main river, so I walked to the top end of the beat with the intention of moving down during the course of the day. There was a lot of colour in the water but there was still a degree of visibility so I started to fish where a small stream entred the river with a nice back eddy and a visible crease to the mainstream. This produced one small grayling and a couple of minnows. Several other swims were tried walking downstream but with an increasing amount of debris coming down from what appeared to be weed cutting, trotting became very difficult. At this stage I decided to walk down toward the road bridge to the deeper water and look for a bend which deflected the mainstream and concentrate on the possibility of a Roach tight to the near bank. I stuck this out for a couple of hours on the float with quiver tipping being virtually impossible but the amount of debris and minnows finally took their toll and so I scuttled off have a go in the clearer water of the fast carrier. Got there just in time to see Anderoo looking like someone out of Star Wars or alternatively Anne Summers in a rather fetching one piece suit, with his liitle wand of a rod hooped over playing what turned out to be a demented Rainbow with a liking for corn. Finally managed a little Rainbow in the weir which nearly caused a problem with the landing net handle not being long enough but fortunately help was at hand. Thoroughly enjoyed the day despite the weather and would certainly like a crack at the main river in decent conditions. Great to put names to faces and there are certainly some characters. Got to give it to Tiddler Tamer. That is dedication

 

[arbocop]

Well the rain wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, the fishing was hard, well for me!! I did manage 2 small perch from the slow carrier at the end of the day. Main disappointment was the fact they have removed all the fish from this carrier and shut off the top of it.

 

The fast carrier was over it's banks Nice to see everyone, KC you went off with out my money so please pm me your address. Thanks Tony for organising it and Sue for the mulled cider, oh and not forgetting the cake.

 

Look forward to seeing some of you on the Itchen fish in.

 

Hope you are all home safe & sound.

 

lyn

 

 

Hi Lyn, home safe and sound. Apologies for leaving before the mulled cider, when I got back to the car I realised I had missed a call from my lady wife about my boy who was under the weather (weren't we all) so I left straight away.

 

I agree with the above, it wasn't too cold and not too bad rain wise. The main problem was the rain that had copme down the day previopus and overnight as this made the main river unfishable. Someone was weed cutting upstream and this left horrendous amounts of weed and tree prunings coming down the rarrier. On the odd occasion I ahd to wait a couople of minutes for a gap so I could lower the float in!

 

I managed five grayling, and umpteen trout between 1 and 2lbs, and loads of fingerling trout and one salmon parr. Lost a large(ish) roach. All from the main carrier. I thought about the river, but it was so grey brown and obviously full of road run-off it would have been largely pointless.

 

I've got a couple of photos of the fish and the carrier, but my camera had got a bit damp and the lens was steamed up, so I only got a couple of non-foggy photos. I'll upload these later.

 

On the way home I pondered the fishery and to be honest, even if the main river were fishable, I don't think it is really worth the £18 day ticket. The length of the Test is very short, and with only one carrier there is not very much water really. The river has sopn many trout, and if the corse fihs ahve been taken out as suggested it is really a fishery for out of season trout. Judging by the number of floats festooning the trees, and the rather worn mouths of two of the grayling I caught, it is also very heavily fished.

[Simon Fell]

Another message of thanks for organising the day, the weather made it difficult to be very sociable as spent most of the afternoon hiding from the lashing rain!

 

Had a good days fishing, not catching my intended species, but ended up catching 6 Rainbows. Fished the main river the whole day as the carrier was attracting a lot of fishing attention, and a bit small for my 15ft trotting rod!

 

I did manage my PB Rainbow of 6lbs 4ozs, which faught like a Salmon out in the main flow (I'm guessing what Salmon fight like as I've never caught one!!) so it was worth braving the weather for.

 

As usual, back at work and weather is lovely!!

 

Look forward to seeing you all again on the bank sometime.

 

Simon

Edited November 30, 2009 by Simon Fell