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Lower Itchen fishery - Fish-in ??


darrell.cook

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I'm still ok. Not at home much these days, so don't have time to log in much. Darrell would you like the money up front or are we paying on the day??

 

lyn

One life, live it, love it, fish it!

 

 

 

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Some people have PM 'd me regarding bait, tackle, etc. Well I don't profess to be an expert, I'm sure there will be many more experienced people present !

Anyway for what it's worth:

Grayling - respond well to trotting, will take corn and maggot readily. Will shoal tightly at this time of year, particular hotspots tend to be deeper pockets on the river bed. Steady loosefeed will keep them coming. Float rigs, typically bulk shotted avon patterns, 5 - 7 BB. if you have a centrepin then this river is ideal, good pace and does not require long casts. rods - any match rod is OK, but I usually use the JW avon mainly because I like two piece rods because I can leave them made up :D

Chub - can turn up whilst trotting for grayling, but if you fish purposelly for them, then be prepared to keep moving. My experience is they react instantly to a big lump of breadflake folded over the hook, either legered or trotted. however once you've caught one then probably best to move on and find the next likely swim. If there are bankside features, cover etc. then the chub will be right under your feet. I regularly fish the stretch directly above and a 5lb chub is a real possibility, should produce a 4lb fish on the day.

Carp - well not sure here as the carp I've caught have all been over a mile upstream from here. All my Itchen carp have come to bread - but that's because I only fish bread !! :D

I did try a method feeder recently, and had plenty of interest but no real bites - switched to bread and had two chub !

Pike - well I guess we'll have to give this a miss as the rules state all pike under 10lb must be killed.

One other thing don't forget your polaroids !! This is a clear river and even at this time of year fish can still be spotted.

Does anyone have access to cheap maggots ? might be an idea to buy a couple of gallon to share out ?

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lyn:

I'm still ok. Not at home much these days, so don't have time to log in much. Darrell would you like the money up front or are we paying on the day??

 

lyn

Hi Lyn, no problem with money pay on the day. I've paid a deposit to the fishery of £90. This is £5 for the first 18 people. So if the first 18 pay me a fiver and the fishery £12, then the remaining 2 pay the fishery £17.
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Hi Darrell

 

LIF is fishing quite well at the moment, the were at least seven 2lbers, best 2.10, out this Saturday. Roach to 1.14lb and Chub to just under 4lb and Brownies to 3lbish. Even a Salmon was spotted leaping in the top beat.

 

The best Carp from here was mid 20s, (24 I think)the season before last. Theres a realistic chance of a 5lb Chub and the outside chance of a 6lber. At LIF the Chub tend to bunch up, so if you get one, you are most likely to get another. My best was 7 from one swim on worm/maggot over a few hours one afternoon.

 

Definitely take Dendra or Redworms with you, many of the bigger Grayling this year have come to worm or worm/maggot. The Grayling also have a liking for breadflake and HNV type pastes.

 

Most of the swims on the bottom beat will have decent sized resident fish, as you say feed up with a few maggots every cast and the fish will come. Typical feature finding works well on LIF, with pods of Grayling being present in eddys, around bends, in the deeper runs around weedbeds, surprisingly for this time of year will still catch them from the shallower faster water.

 

With regard to tackle, I tend to use a 4bb stick float attached to a swivel and hooklength of 2lb@ mono, it works for me. Some of the other guys use Avon or Cubber patterns, horses for courses really. We changed our tactics this year and they've proven successful, rarely do we long trot, although the venue is suitable for that. We found that last year we were loosing too many fish even with a swivel and pole elastic if they were hooked at a fair distance from you. Also often we'll walk downstream in the faster runs to net fish and again stops lost fish from spooking the rest of the pod.

 

 

BTW Did you ask Lyndsey about using the very top beat??

 

Good fishing

 

Bryan

 

 

darrell.cook:

Some people have PM 'd me regarding bait, tackle, etc. Well I don't profess to be an expert, I'm sure there will be many more experienced people present !

Anyway for what it's worth:

Grayling - respond well to trotting, will take corn and maggot readily. Will shoal tightly at this time of year, particular hotspots tend to be deeper pockets on the river bed. Steady loosefeed will keep them coming. Float rigs, typically bulk shotted avon patterns, 5 - 7 BB. if you have a centrepin then this river is ideal, good pace and does not require long casts. rods - any match rod is OK, but I usually use the JW avon mainly because I like two piece rods because I can leave them made up    :D    

Chub - can turn up whilst trotting for grayling, but if you fish purposelly for them, then be prepared to keep moving. My experience is they react instantly to a big lump of breadflake folded over the hook, either legered or trotted. however once you've caught one then probably best to move on and find the next likely swim. If there are bankside features, cover etc. then the chub will be right under your feet. I regularly fish the stretch directly above and a 5lb chub is a real possibility, should produce a 4lb fish on the day.

Carp - well not sure here as the carp I've caught have all been over a mile upstream from here. All my Itchen carp have come to bread - but that's because I only fish bread !!        :D  

I did try a method feeder recently, and had plenty of interest but no real bites - switched to bread and had two chub !

Pike - well I guess we'll have to give this a miss as the rules state all pike under 10lb must be killed.

One other thing don't forget your polaroids !! This is a clear river and even at this time of year fish can still be spotted.

Does anyone have access to cheap maggots ? might be an idea to buy a couple of gallon to share out ?

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Hi Bryan, thanks for the tips and info. I know this will be greatly appreciated by everyone. I take it you're a season ticket ?

Great news on the chub. My Itchen best is exactly 5lb, so the chance of beating this is very exciting.

I haven't mentioned accessing the top of the stretch to Lyndsey - thought we could ask on the day. do you think we should ask before the day ?

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