A Day in Paradise.

 If there is one place I get excited about fishing it's this place, hidden away in deepest Hampshire it's just the ticket for escaping the pace of work and life in London. I don't usually need an excuse to get a day's fishing in but after a dreadful week which culminated in my first vehicle incident which shook me up a bit but apart from a sore back, everything is okay.

 Even before that unfortunate episode the trip today was already planned, so a minor setback wasn't going to ruin it, Brian and I made the journey down under the cover of darkness with the intention of making a full day of it. Upon arrival at the river it appeared to have little colour and was slightly up, just perfect for my chosen target of the day, Roach. These are never easy on this particular venue but I know that they grow in excess of 3lbs with a specific shoal averaging high 1's to mid 2's, a mind blowing shoal of fish and one that I have been trying to unlock, as of yet I'm just off the 2lb mark.

 Before I targeted the Roach a few hours was spent trotting and free-lining for Grayling. As usual though the Trout were on a mass feeding frenzy, Brown and Rainbow's of various sizes to 4lbs constantly featured, the fight's on the light gear was brilliant fun but ruined swim after swim. Luckily enough for me the Roach and Grayling are probably used to those crazy fish, allowing the swim to rest for 5-10 minutes meant I could continue to trot through some of the best swims I've ever fished.

Screaming reels as an alarm!

 My first fish of the day was a cracking Rainbow Trout, maybe around 3.08, then the floodgates opened with more than 20 Trout coming to the net before I saw a Grayling or Roach. Then the Grayling gently eased themselves into the frame, once I had got the depth right some good fish were caught with my best three going 1.12, 1.08 & 1.07.

 There was one bum note as I did lose a very good Grayling which was over 2lbs which left a sour taste, always one though I suppose, but why the bigger ones......it wouldn't be so bad if it was 6ozs!.

 We decided to target the Roach after lunch in the lower reaches for a few hours, thing's didn't go quite to plan as the recent attentions of an Otter have really put the shoals of Roach off and appeared to be very cautious, the shoal we were targeting clearly had other ideas, feeding wasn't it. 4 hours of trying and we had a Roach each but nothing large, my one just scraped a pound. We shall be back for sure, a day in paradise.

Stunning.

My only Roach of the trip.