THE ROAD NOT TAKEN Hampshire Avon, The Royalty Stretch, I March 2021 (Session 06_2021)

• Hampshire Avon, The Royalty Stretch
• Swim: Barlins, just above where the river divides
• Time: 10:15 to 11:45
• Weather: Fresh first thing but sunny and reaching 11C with a slight breeze from the west

Before I move on to the rationale for this post’s title, time to draw a deep breathe. One of the positives of the blog is that I have a semi regular dialogue with four or five other anglers. It is a manageable number, unlike say Face Book where all manner of people have found me, or Strava (a sort of social media platform for runners and cyclists) where my initial resolve to only follow a few friends has been blown wide apart. However, of those four or five anglers, we have now reached the point where three have faced serious illness. I will desist from naming those concerned but my thoughts are very much with the most recent blogger to be impacted. Get well soon my virtual friend.

So, on to Robert Frost’s poem. That’s taken you by surprise hasn’t it, a reference that isn’t based on pop music or obscure folk music. However, bear in mind I managed to work the Trials of Sisyphus in to the most recent running club news letter. However apparently it is incorrectly widely believed that the poem in question is titled ‘The Road Less Travelled’ and to some extent faced with two paths that diverged, I did take the one less travelled. In more prosaic terms having ventured as far afield as Christchurch and picked up a club ticket for the Royalty I headed to the less popular stretch below the bypass bridge. Nigel at Davis Tackle told me six or seven members were already on the water, but I had the entire section below the by-pass bridge to myself. Well apart from two deer on the opposite bank who at times were within 25 metres of the by-pass at best and only 400 metres from Christchurch town centre.

Ah the glorious and idyllic Royalty, note the half submerged shopping trolley in the picture above. Which reminds me, I forgot to mention that on my last trip, to the Meridians, I filled a carrier bag with litter that was lying around in my swim. Whilst it might not all have been dropped by anglers, as the Meridians is a public space open to the public, anglers should not be surprised when we lose access to a water. We remain our own worse enemies.

Moving on a quick summary of the conditions; the air temperature was quite mild even for what was the first day of metrological Spring with a bright sky and a slight breeze from the west. Conditions were boggy under foot, but we are talking about water meadows so that is to be expected. The river was not unduly coloured, in most places just about within its banks (although the gravel beach at Barlins was submerged) and pushing through at nearer to my jogging pace than my walking pace. The summer eddy at the point the river divides to head though the town wasn’t in evidence, but the pace was slacker just above the junction. I decided to go with a fairly rudimentary ledger set up so rigged up as follows:

• Tackle: The 10’ ledger rod with 4lb line direct to a size 14
• Method: Ledgering with a cage feeder
• Bait: Red maggots and brandlings
• Ground Bait: Brown crumb with some added ‘Weetabix’, hemp and maggots and a squirt of two of Predator Plus

My approach was to aim for the slacker water and hope to pick something up in a short static session. I discounted roving as I couldn’t really see any accessible swims that looked better bets, but it was another river blank. I did have two decent pulls on the tip (both on brandling) which at the time I thought were missed bites, but now I’m home I wonder if it could have been remnants of weed or debris snagging the hook. On balance I think they were bites, but my river confidence is fairly low! So who knows? The ground bait was basically a mix of what I had available, yet the resulting mix struck me as a decent result, although obviously the fish didn’t agree.

Lessons learnt; presumably the road is less travelled for a reason so maybe the blank was inevitable. However, the compensations were solitude and fresh air and once back at the car I could see the anglers on the upper stretch were following the classic Royalty advice to rove. However, with the number of anglers on the bank they were merely dropping into a swim that someone else had just vacated. I am not convinced that equates to effective roving! However this is my sixth trip of the calender year which splits neatly into three river blanks and three sessions catching something, albeit small stuff, at Mudeford Woods. I think that is one clear lesson.

Next steps; although time is ticking I may leave the rivers alone until Friday when there is a promising looking tide pattern at the Meridians, but I have some errands to run which may scupper this plan. I may also try and fit in a short mid week session at Mudeford woods in the meantime.

When this is over I will …; if I mention the Test or the Itchen my guess is most people will visualise expensive beats on these exclusive Hampshire chalk streams. In my case I am not convinced that chucking money at fishing is the solution to my lack of success. However, if you google ‘free fishing in Southampton’, amongst some reasonably interesting options there is a stretch of the Itchen to the north of the city. Now I doubt this is a prime stretch but looking at Google Earth it doesn’t look too shabby and it is a river I’ve never fished. So:

• When this is over I will fish the free stretch of the Itchen at Woodmill.

So both Southampton and Portsmouth make the cumulative list:

• When this is over I will fish with my mate Chris again.
• When this is over I will fish a canal.
• When this is over I will l fish the free tidal stretch of the River Frome at Wareham.
• When this is over I will fish at Breech Pond
• When this is over I will fish at Caron Ponds.
• When this is over I will fish the free stretch of the Itchen at Woodmill.