The River Chess was to be my first port of call in my quest for the Urban Brown Trout. Inspired by the Accidental angler a year or so ago, I was determined to follow in the steps of Charles Rangley-Wilson and achieve the same feat. Conditions weren’t favouring me, I was going to be fishing for wild brownies which aren’t favourable to warm weather and also, a grayling, who are renowned winter fish.
I arranged to meet a guy who lived on the Chess, and at 10am my dad and I met him at his house. The stretch of river he had the rights to had 3 weir pools, all small and would take only 1 rod each and perhaps 200m of river. few areas were deeper than 6”.
However, the few deeper holes, and by deeper I mean 2’ holes, contained a fair head of fish.
Out came my favourite rod, my Greys Streamflex 6’ 6” 3 weight rod and I set off on the top weir. Within 10minutes I had my first fish, however this was 1 of the many greedy Chub in the stretch of river, weighing in at around 6oz it was a small fish, but, nonetheless, an encouraging start to the day.
For the following hour, fish seemed to avoid my fly and I struggled, however, soon after, the fly was gobbled up and another Chub took my fly, this time, I estimate this Chub must have been a whopping 3oz. A mighty beast!
Below shows the weir pool where I fished for most of the day:
I had spent all my time until now on Pheasant Tail Nymphs in various forms, however I changed pattern to a Goldhead Olive Hare’s Ear and within 15minutes I had another fish, BUT, this time, as it scrapped around, I could see the spots and colouring of a Brown Trout. It came into my hands and I had caught my first Wild Brown Trout on the River Chess. It was a small fish, but it was stunning and it felt like I had won the lottery!
After I caught this, I thought I’d go an explore some more areas of the river, I ventured down to the second weir pool, perhaps half the size of the first and it had an awkward back cast even when in the middle of the river. I failed to even have so much as a knock here, so I quickly moved 100yds or so down to the final Weir Pool.
This 1 screamed fish and at the tail of the pool there was a small gravel island which dropped off into deeper water. This was perhaps the deepest area I fished at perhaps 3foot deep.
First cast in, right down the middle, right as I was about to lift the fly out to re cast, a small chub snaffled but spat the hook very quickly, again the next 2 casts resulted in missed takes which frustrated me. I decided to therefore change fly and downsize, on went a size 16 Goldhead Pheasant Tail Nymph. First cast with this, WHAMMMMM! Some big fish had absolutely mullered my fly. With the rod being just a #3 rod, I am not joking in saying the rod had almost doubled over! The fish shook its head and shot downstream and then, the dreaded sound, the sound of line snapping! NOOOOO, a Brown Trout, in excess of perhaps 5lb, broke my 4lb fluorocarbon leader with surprising ease!
With the Swim spooked, I went back upstream and spent some time fishing in between the weirs, again I took more Chub upto around 12oz or so, but the wild brownies seemed to disappear.
With my polaroids on, I eventually found 3 or 4 brownies around 6oz but as the fly hit the water, they had gone in a flash. However, behind where the brownies were, sat a lady of the stream, a grayling, this was a good sized grayling especially for such a small stream. It was at least 1lb 4oz and I flung a fluff but the grayling didn’t seem to want to take whatever I put in front of it.
By this time it was 3pm and I decided to risk it and go to the middle weir and risk hitting the trees and getting snagged, however, I did manage to find a line where I could cast into the weir, I cast and instantly, my line made a curious movement, a jerk against the flow of water, I struck and as the fish came to me, I saw it was another Wild Brown trout, this time slightly smaller at around 2oz but it was the best feeling.
By this time, I had to go and I went off back home on top of the world having taken an urban wildie
All in all a great day and will definitely be going back soon!
River Chess 4th July
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