October 2019. Ok, I know… I’m a long way behind! I must admit it's strange writing up articles from the pre-COVID era. It seems so much has changed and there was so much we took for granted.
With my birthday approaching the wife asked me if I wanted to go on a romantic break away. A quiet little pub somewhere in the middle of nowhere, riverside walks, a picnic or two and some R&R. She’s not daft, and of course realizes we have very different ideas of a romantic break… As it was my birthday treat, the rods were always going in the back of the car!
A blessing of being Midlands based is there aren’t many fishery’s out of reasonable reach. Even with the Severn, Wye, Warwickshire Avon and Teme on your doorstep, most of the UK's barbel-holding rivers are within a couple of hours travel. Eeny... Meeny... Miny... Mo...
I’ve long wanted to fish the Dorset Stour and Hampshire Avon, with both Throop and the Royalty on every river angler’s bucket list; and so a trip to the New Forest was swiftly agreed and penned in for the birthday weekend. With logistics left to my better half I could focus on researching the target beats and sorting out the right gear and bait for the trip. A huge thanks at this point should be extended to Mr. Dave Roach from UK Angling Groups for his advice and support.
The rivers had been in flood in the run-up to the trip which caused more than a little anxiety, but with the levels just starting to fall off and the hotel non-refundable we decided to give it a go. We left early on the Friday with a plan to explore the New Forest National Park en route. It’s a beautiful part of the world and we spent a good part of the day hiking through woodland in beautiful autumn livery. Think flooded fords, endless leaf litter punctuated with a litany of mushrooms, and wild ponies around every corner.
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| Wild Ponies... |
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| Flooded Fords... |
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| Even the mushrooms are picture perfect! |
By late afternoon we headed to
our base for the weekend, The Fisherman's Haunt at Winkton. Ideally placed just a
short distance from Throop and the Royalty, this cosy little pub was just the
place for our romantic/angling retreat.
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| The Angler's Haunt |
With the Royalty planned for Saturday and Throop
for Sunday, there was just about time to fit a short session into Friday evening. The main channel of the Avon was
in flood but Upper Winkton offered a sheltered backwater known to hold specimen
roach. We only had a couple of hours at dusk, but there’s no better time. The
biggest challenge of any short session on a new water is trying to work out
where the fish are and how best to target them, with little margin for error. With the top end of the beat looking very busy
I set up as far downstream as I was able, just above the final sluice. I fished just into darkness, trying light feeder and float tactics, but to no avail. A chat with some of the locals suggested the fish hadn’t yet arrived at their backwater wintering grounds and that Avon roach didn't respond well to the river carrying colour. It didn't matter, the main events of the weekend were still to come and it was a lovely little stretch to explore. It really is perfect for running a float through and I hope to return some day to try and winkle out a big roach or two.
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| Almost perfect... |
An evening in a warm pub beckoned… a few
beers, good food and the company of a good woman; surrounded by angling trinkets
and memorabilia, and even the odd photo of a local monster or two. Inspiration indeed for an early start to fish the Royalty!
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| I'm sure there's barbel in here somewhere... |
