I am interested in a visit to the lower Itchen , has anyone any recent reports for the venue please ?

nothing to report as yet but i'm waiting too hear something ,as i'll be there on the 12 march ,so got a few fealers out myself .

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I try to be funny... but sometimes I merely look it! Steve

What do you hope to catch, davisi ?

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"In wine there is wisdom. In beer there is strength. In water there is bacteria." - German proverb
JH based near Southampton

A grayling or two would be my goal. Fished there a few times over the last few years with very mixed results.

Whenever I've fished there (I haven't this winter ... very remiss of me), I've found that the Grayling seem to generally be at the top of the coarse fish limit. There are some lovely trotting stretches there (good pace, 2 - 3 foot deep). There are some Grayling to be found in some of the deeper bends by the big S-bends near one of the fishing huts.

If it's heavily coloured then I've found you can still catch Grayling from the slacks behind the salmon groynes.

I've found the bottom end of the fishery is not quite so godd for grayling but there are some nice chub and other coasre fish down there. I did get snapped by something huge in the mill pool by the entrance one year after catching several chub. Something really big and very fast ...

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Cheers,
Lawrence

I believe the Fly only beat closed on 31st January, but the coarse section is still open.
i don't know if you can fly fish on the coarse beats? otherwise trotting with maggots etc. is your only option.

Michael

You can fly fish on the LIF coarse beats if you really want to, but the stretch is really for bait fishers, and at this time of year it's possibly not a very effective way of locating a pod of fish.

Otherwise some good advice from Lawrence. I have definitely found the fish harder to locate and catch this winter (but rewarding when you do).

...possibly one of the barbel ? The bailiff told me that a 13lb one was caught from the cottage stretch, below the main hatch, last Autumn.

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"In wine there is wisdom. In beer there is strength. In water there is bacteria." - German proverb
JH based near Southampton

I had a feeling it might well have been a barbel. I know there are a few in the Itchen. Mind you, I nearly persuaded myself it was a salmon or (very) large sea trout ...

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Cheers,
Lawrence

Seen some large carp being caught from one of the pools before and also saw an lethargic salmon being attacked by something on the surface once ( a pike i am guessing)

Indeed - I once saw an escapee koi that must have been well over 10lb in the stretch below the main hatch, and have spoken to the angler who caught the famous 24lb mirror from long the beat above the M27 bridge. Using chub gear, he hooked it near the concrete cattle bridge, and only managed to land it by chance - 600 yards downstream by the first wooden footbridge - because another angler had a large landing net

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"In wine there is wisdom. In beer there is strength. In water there is bacteria." - German proverb
JH based near Southampton