Lord Mountbatten was the Viceroy of all India before that country regained its independence from the UK in 1947. His family estate was Broadlands in Romsey, Hampshire.
Sitting astride the River Test, Romsey is a small market town, not far north of Southampton. My brother Alex and I used to go there as children to watch the salmon migrate through the mill pool. There was no way that we could see ourselves ever fishing there. Like the Ganges, the Test was a sacred river but here the religion was not Hindu, it was game fishing: The Test was the apex of game fishing in the whole world, and as highly exclusive as a river could be in the class ridden 60s and 70s. I don't think there was a public stretch on the entire river.
Times change. The Test is still a premier chalk-stream with first class, exclusive beats for trout and salmon fishing. Orvis (the clothing and tackle people) have a beat at Stockbridge and you can pay several hundreds of pounds for a day on the river in summer when the fishing is exclusively upstream, dry-fly, for rising trout. However, a lot of the bookings are corporate days at reduced rates. The real toffs are off fishing in Alaska, Russia, New Zealand or Chile.
Since my childhood the river has changed a great deal. The gin-clear, chalky runs used to enjoy a light growth of water weeds that provided cover for fish and only needed light cutting by the river wardens in high summer. Thanks to silt and fertiliser-rich run-off from the agricultural lands of the Hampshire Basin, the weed growth increased and silt built up in the slower beats, especially around the inside of bends. The oxygen content of the water was diminished and conditions became favourable for coarse fish, rather than trout.
The estate owners started to feel the financial pinch and cut back on staff. They kept the banks manicured for clients but no longer managed the under-water world to keep coarse fish at bay. The poorer estates sat back and relied on fishery management by their neighbours to keep the standard up. Overall, the rot set in and the river became a coarse fishery with a run of wild salmon and mostly stocked trout. Rainbow trout were introduced from America because they were more tolerant of pollution and high temperatures than our native brown trout. Carp, chub, roach, dace and pike became widespread.
In winter, trout and salmon go upstream to spawn so the rules dictate a closed season during which riparian owners make no money. Today there are several beats where you can fish for grayling and coarse fish at this time of year. With perhaps 12 people paying £20 each you can make over £200 a day, just by walking along the bank and issuing tickets.
It was my brother's birthday last week, so we agreed to meet on the hallowed River Test and try our luck for grayling. We booked a day at Timsbury, which is about 1 1/2 hours from my brother in Bristol and 2 1/2 hours from me near Cambridge. Expectations ran high.
Alex, with his Bristolian friend Les, arrived first and set up at the bottom of the beat where there is a deep hole. Water levels were high and the water was coloured after heavy rain. I fished down towards them and didn't get a touch, but I saw a big sea trout that was drifting its way back to the sea.
There wasn't much action at first but when it warmed up at around 11.00 a.m. the fish turned on and we had a lively couple of hours. We caught grayling, dace, trout and a lot of minnows, but Les crowned the session with a 14 lb carp that took a lot of time to bring to the net. In the afternoon we hardly had a bite. All the same, I was pleased just to see grayling and dace; species that need clean oxygenated water that is rarely found in East Anglia where I live.
Scenically, I was disappointed. I had expected manicured lawns, carefully pollarded trees and neat fishing huts on the bank. The holding had been raped by gravel extraction and then used for grazing by horses. Most of the remaining paths, trees, hedges and fences were looking forlorn after years of neglect. Floods had removed a lot of the infrastructure and fences and huts were abandoned in disrepair. The car park was a mud bath. In summer you pay £80 a day to fish here. I hope they fix it up by then.
We stayed at a local pub called The Shoe. The building had seen better days, but the couple who run it are really down to earth and extremely friendly. When the menu says the pies or chips are "home made" they really are, and very good too. We were there on a Friday night when there is "live music". This would normally make me run screaming into the woods, but that night the band was incredible. For no fee at all, we were entertained by a semi-pro, funk-blues sextet that boasted one of the best guitarists I have seen in some time. Think "Average White Band", "Spirogyra", "Fleetwood Mac", "Santana" and "Steely Dan". We were joined for dinner by old college friends Liz and Bertie McKlellan; fantastic!
On Saturday we moved to the Wiltshire Avon, just below Salisbury. The water levels were really too high for us, but we had an outstanding session there with more species caught, and at half the price we had paid on the Test. It was also really pretty. We will be back for more, I'm sure.
You can see more pictures here .
1 comment:
really well written Bim. send to fishing mag! Hx
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