glueman
Well-known member
Yes you can on the half mile stretch at Monsall head for stocked Rainbows
R Test Wherwell
- Thread starter pondfish
- Start date
mike fox
Well-known member
I do think the cost is very relevant to what you get in return for your money. Fishing Breaks offer a service which in itself costs money. The stocked trout do not get there by themselves. The Grayling are of top quality. The accessibility to fish these rivers is far far better than wild natural rivers. The psychological satisfaction of value for money will be heavily rested upon the weather during your fishing day. So in response to the OP, go for it if it is a one off and hope the sun shines, but book it the day before you want to go after checking the weather forecast.
ACW
Well-known member
Wherewell was for a while one of my favprite grayling spots ,my son and I have tradition of boxing day grayling ,the year that wherwell got raped we went ,the keeper was not over friendly when he knew i came from north london,as thats where some idiots had put stupid catches up on facebook or some similar media .
sad that its gone expensive !
sad that its gone expensive !
JohnH
Well-known member
Further upstream from the Fishing Breaks beats Bob mentions, Manningford fishery offers grayling fishing on the upper Wilts Avon for £35 a day. They have recently taken over what used to be the Rushall Organics fishing as well as the stretch around and below their lakes. That far up the Avon it will be small river fishing, but may be worth investigating. They have a website and Facebook page that are easy to find.
delray
Well-known member
Join Salisbury. Plenty of Grayling in their mixed fisheries, for which I believe, there is no waiting list to join. 150 or 200 per annum, not really sure. Then there's Barbel, Chub, Roach, and plenty of trout in the relevant season.
£70 at Wherwell eh? That's me out. However, the new-ish keeper is a very good bloke, the one before possibly not so much.
£70 at Wherwell eh? That's me out. However, the new-ish keeper is a very good bloke, the one before possibly not so much.
PaulD
Well-known member
Mike, this raises some pretty fundamental issues.
This is the UK's prime trout water, we are custodians of the bulk of the World's chalk streams should they be stocked? The 'top quality' Grayling we seek in the winter are not stocked. Accessibility, yes you can virtually drive onto the bank and there's a bench to park your bum every 50yds - does that really add such value that it makes it 'better' than 'wild natural rivers'? Surely then, Rutland is better value as you can park next to the fishing lodge and excellent cafe?
I used to pop down to Wherwell occasionally at this time of year, £30 per day, and it was a lovely day. The right day, for parts of the day you'd have grayling on the dry. £70 per day? You're paying a lot for convenient parking / accessibility.
and to think not to long ago Grayling were the Sum of a fish to trout fishermen
Are you talking about the SAC if so think there is still a waiting list and its a few bob more to belong to it unless you just want the Course fishing side : not trout?
As has been stated up thread England has more than 80% of the world's chalkstreams with the Test at the top of the tree and the Itchen not far behind. Neither are big rivers so that limits the amount of available rod space before we start. It is the relative rarity that to a certain extent drives the cost of fishing there, whether for trout or grayling. Don't forget too that it is only quite recently that grayling were recognised as a sporting fish in its own right, not just by the estate owners but by a large proportion of anglers too.
OK, you can get good grayling fishing in the Midlands, the north, Wales & parts of Scotland, but they are not chalkstreams and are hardly known about outside of their immediate area. The Test, Itchen and other chalkstreams are known worldwide and there is a queue down the road of people from the UK and the rest of the world who want to fish them for trout, and there's a good few who want their grayling fishing as well. Supply and demand, market forces, call it what you like, but that is what drives the cost and as long as anglers stick to the rules and don't deliberately target the trout then those costs will be reasonable. As soon as anglers start to f*ck about they will only have themselves to blame if the price rises or the fishery stops day tickets altogether.
OK, you can get good grayling fishing in the Midlands, the north, Wales & parts of Scotland, but they are not chalkstreams and are hardly known about outside of their immediate area. The Test, Itchen and other chalkstreams are known worldwide and there is a queue down the road of people from the UK and the rest of the world who want to fish them for trout, and there's a good few who want their grayling fishing as well. Supply and demand, market forces, call it what you like, but that is what drives the cost and as long as anglers stick to the rules and don't deliberately target the trout then those costs will be reasonable. As soon as anglers start to f*ck about they will only have themselves to blame if the price rises or the fishery stops day tickets altogether.
glueman
Well-known member
The Dove rises near Buxton and runs in a chalk gorge and is classed as a chalk river
delray
Well-known member
Hi Benisa.
Many years ago a pal of mine and I 'fly' fished the LAA water south of Salisbury and there were a few guys trotting a maggot. You would not believe the numbers of trout they were catching while targeting Roach; all of them 30 plus bags and not that many roach.
Andreas, the club secretary/manager/everything is a mine of enthusiastic information; he lives and breathes the place and I'm sure you'd join after a chat with him.
All the best,
Del
Yep, there's a list for the Game Fishing, but we're chatting about Grayling and within the Course and Mixed Fishery waters there's no waiting list and 6 designated stretches on the Avon (incl Durrington). They don't all have Grayling present, but some do and you can fly fish for Grayling at any time in the course season but you're going to bump into coarse anglers doing it their way. Also you don't have to worry about upstream everything; for example, across and down spiders is fine. I'm not sure about being able to target trout using a fly on the mixed waters during the trout season; I think you can.
Many years ago a pal of mine and I 'fly' fished the LAA water south of Salisbury and there were a few guys trotting a maggot. You would not believe the numbers of trout they were catching while targeting Roach; all of them 30 plus bags and not that many roach.
Andreas, the club secretary/manager/everything is a mine of enthusiastic information; he lives and breathes the place and I'm sure you'd join after a chat with him.
All the best,
Del
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delray
Well-known member
I thought it was designated a Limestone River or is that the Wye? I must admit to never having checked the chemical differences between Chalk and Limestone.
glueman
Well-known member
Over the course of geologic time, the layers of calcium carbonate are lithified and converted into rock. "Chalk" is a variety of "limestone" which is composed primarily of the shells of single-celled, calcium carbonate secreting creatures.
JohnH
Well-known member
Paul - "...yes, but....".
The hand of man has been all over what we now recognise as chalk streams, almost certainly from before the time of Christ onwards. If we hadn't started to heavily modify them they would be braided streams running through wooded swamps in the bottom of the valleys. Since we started to change them, they have been heavily worked, as a source of power for corn and fulling mills, and the network of sidestreams and carriers many chalk rivers have is a by-product of the practice of "drowning" ie lightly flooding grass meadows to encourage new growth for sheep to graze. That went on from the time of Charles 1 to early in the 20th century. The present use of chalk streams for leisure and as nature reserves simply carries on the human practice of working them quite hard. That being the case I don't see any issue with sensible stocking to supplement the many wild fish in the rivers.
Also grayling are only native to a few chalk streams such as the Wilshire Avon. There are records of the Test being stocked with grayling in the first quarter of the 19th century.
Was a member few years ago but found I had to stay over some where as bit of a trip for a one days fishing, waited for 3 years to get in , but good for the money
Just a point
most anglers are booking through some one like Fishing breaks etc which they are adding there fees on top of what the owners charge ( ok they do not want to deal with joe public ) but just think what is the true price you would pay to fish if you was not paying Fishing breaks etc , or do it for free?
PaulD
Well-known member
Yes, we all know the provenance and usage history of our 'chalkstreams' but surely that's not a sustainable reason to treat them as a 21st Century goldfish bowl for the enjoyment of the unworldly.
I really don't think that Fishing Breaks are still paying for the stocking of grayling 200 years ago.
I think you'll find that letting agents deduct a premium from the fishery, not the angler. After all, they are doing the marketing, advertising, web sites and dealing with the anglers. The fishery owners just get paid every month the agreed amount.
I suppose we could just open up the chalkstreams to every angler to wants to fish there. Leave an honesty box at the fishing hut which would almost certainly be empty, if not stolen. The banks would be strewn with litter, used portable barbecues left lying about and used toilet paper and human excreta despite most fisheries having a portaloo. People would be camping and swimming. How long would that chalkstream fishery be a place anyone apart from the sh*ts that would do the above would want to go fishing?
I think that the above is a perfectly good reason for keeping the unworldly at bay.
bob
you missed what I said
I was saying the ( fishing break etc ) get there fees back from the land owner as a Price is agreed then they add there bit on top sell the water then get the money from us take there bit out and hey presto that have made there money
there are waters down south where I fish and pay the owners or who ever is the looking after the river beat be it the Test: Itchen + all being long rivers
the bit about an honesty box is a bit far fetched !
i know one beat if the river keeper caught you in the river even wading ( let along swimming ) when you should not be you would be thrown out by your ears
Last point as said before you should not "tar every one with the same brush ! "
you missed what I said
I was saying the ( fishing break etc ) get there fees back from the land owner as a Price is agreed then they add there bit on top sell the water then get the money from us take there bit out and hey presto that have made there money
there are waters down south where I fish and pay the owners or who ever is the looking after the river beat be it the Test: Itchen + all being long rivers
the bit about an honesty box is a bit far fetched !
i know one beat if the river keeper caught you in the river even wading ( let along swimming ) when you should not be you would be thrown out by your ears
Last point as said before you should not "tar every one with the same brush ! "
JohnH
Well-known member
I don't recognise that caricature of chalk stream fisheries, and I don't appreciate being described as unworldly because I enjoy some chalk stream outings as part of a varied fishing year.
