River Itchen Fly Fishing Competition Success

Just one of many grayling caught!

The River Itchen was to be the venue for my first attempt at competition fishing on running water. The eight hour day was to be fished with a partner, taking it in turns, one hour on, one hour off and who better to be partnered with than a two times gold medalist, a chap called Peri. Grayling were the target species with a fish of 15cm counting as 20 points and a further single point awarded for every additional centimetre. I started the day by fishing a pair of nymphs with a size 14 Pink Shrimp as a dropper and a size 12 Peeping Caddis on the point. First cast, first fish, a 35cm grayling! Five more fish followed during my first hour, not a bad start! Peri took over for the second hour and opted to fish much smaller flies, a size 18 dropper and a size 16 on the point. He proceeded in showing me how it's really done and by lunch he had caught seventeen grayling! The afternoon session resumed with the two of us now fishing water that had already been fished by other anglers during the morning. More grayling and several out of season brown trout, which didn't count, came our way and by the end of the day we had done enough to secure second place! A fantastic result! Further congratulations has to go to Peri who finished the day with thirty three fish and placed second individually! Very well done! Visit http://www.itchen-fishing.co.uk/ for information on fishing the Lower River Itchen.

Peri on his way to second place