Good luck tomorrow guys. I'm doing the salmon thing on the Wye tomorrow so will start properly on the WW next Sunday. Drove over the Loddon at Shinfield and the Blackwater at Eversley today and the levels looked just fine with the water nice and clear, so I suspect the WW will be just fine too.

Dougie - I still have the wee 7' Greys grxi #2/3 that we discussed last season if you want to try it out - too stiff for me but if it works for you that would be good. More importantly, did you have a boy or a girl?

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Tha mo bhàta-foluaimein loma-làn easgannan.

i went down to the whitewater today and what a delightful little river she is.i fished the pool directly beneath the hatch gate bridge and never had as much as sniff. i met dougie and had a little chat and he had had a fish from the pool earlier in the day so there was no surprise i never had one.
just after the confluence of the hart i had a fish rise twice to a reversed klink , the first time it rose and it broke the water just as i was mending the line. needless to say i pulled the fly straight out of its mouth. i immediatley
cover the fish again and it takes again with great gusto and i (not really expecting it to rise again) strike to early and miss it completely. this time the fish has seen sense and is off like a shot. walking back down to the hatchgate bridge i see 2 small trout tight to the my bank around 10 yards downstream of me so i give them a wide berth and spring my attack from behind them. i put my klink over them 3 times and not a bit of interest so i change to a small PTN and have a cast, a terrible cast and 1 of the fish rumbles me. the other was either brave or stupid as it stayed behind as his mate shot off. another cast this one was on the money and it took it, the fight begins. it is all of 8oz and leaps free of the water and throws my barbless hook. a fantastic few hours and will be back over next week end to even up the 3 nil scoreline

Cliff, thanks for the offer and I would of taken you up on it however after my battle with a WW tree which resulted in by 7ft rod being reduced to 6ft rod I ended up buying really cheap fladen vantage 7ft 3# which is actually pretty good and got me through the remainder of the 09 season. Was planning to use it again this season but popped into my local tackle shop last week to pick up some leader material and ended up walking out with a grxi+ 7ft 3#. No idea what the the difference is between grxi and grxi+ but the rod performed ok on it's maiden outing today (think I may prefer the cheap fladen though). Again thanks for the kind offer.

We had a little boy "Harry' who is now 3 months old. It was a bit of a shock to the system for the first 3 months but coping well now and enjoying the experience.

Managed my first outing of year this morning. After all my talk about fishing the lower stretch and sticking to dries only I started off at the hatchgate with a size 14 gold beaded GRHE nymph. Began in the pool immediately below the bridge and fished up under the bridge with nothing showing. Second cast in the hatchgate run pool and I was into a decent fish that put up a very good fight. Fish was in very good condition and around the 1 - 1 1/4 lbs mark. Managed a couple of low quality pics without having to remove the fish from the water.





A few casts later I lost a smallish chub at the net and hooked up with another trout on the run on the left hand side of the same pool. Selectively fished all the way up to the farm and missed a handful of takes but didn't catch anything else.

On a different note found and removed a mepps spinner from a tree at lunkers.

Popped down the river last night. Didn't see any hatching insects, no rises, no fish movement at all. The river was quite cold (and I seem to have a small leak in my waders!) and flowing quite quickly.

Still it was nice to get out and I didn't lose any flies up any trees so the casting was working pretty well

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Cheers,
Lawrence

after my great day on the whitewater last sunday(although no fish), i was invited to join cliff on the upper part of the river by the farm today. we arrived at around 10 am and were on the water for about half past. the water is still cold and not a lot of fish were spotted as we walked down past the farm, we got in the water between the farm and the new bridge and waded and fished each pool in turn. it wasn't until we got up past the farm that i had my first fish

a wild fish of about one and three quarters, a lovely fish. wading up a bit further, i was fishing a nymph and landed another lump, a stocked fish just over the 2lb mark. a fantastic day and fantastic guiding, cheers cliff. jon.

Had another session on the WW on Sunday. Started at the Hatchgate around 10am with the water much lower and clearer from the week before. With the weather looking favorable I was optimistic that the fish might be looking up so I decided to fish a size 14 elk hair caddis and size 16 gold head PTN NZ style. In almost a carbon copy of the week before I landed a decent fish from the hatchgate run on the PTN but blanked for the rest of the day. The fish put up a good scrap but wasn't in nearly as good condition as last weeks. It was around a pound but on the thin side with a distinctive black thumb mark on one of it's flanks near the tail.

There were plenty of insects coming off but very few rises - I did see a very good fish rise a few pools downstream of the Hart confluence but that was about it. Selectively fished up to the farm and spotted the Cliff and Jon double act stalking in the farm bridge pool. Decided against disturbing them and headed all the way down to the concrete pillars for my first foray below the hatchgate. The river certainly has a different feel about it in these lower stretches with some quite deep pools with access in and out of the water a bit on the tricky side. I didn't actually cover much water instead just scouting out some of the more likely looking spots.

The water above the hart is almost gin clear. I bumped into Mick the bailiff fishing just above the hatchgate and he said the new groynes that the EA installed along the copse have contributed to the clarity of the water.

A good day out but very little action.

The interesting thing about Jon's second fish is that it was certainly a grown on stockie (definitely a different fish from last year's "big fella" - a shade lighter and without the dorsal fin damage although the fin edges were a little ragged).

Managed to rise a couple of fish to a klink, one near the farm where I missed the take and the second just upstream of the road bridge where I missed the first take but connected on the second - a wild brown of less than half a pound I would have said - unfortunately I struck so hard, it flew backwards out of the water by several feet and came off after a few seconds - oops! It did not come up again.

Typical WW in April I would have said - surface action possible when it warms up but not until after midday.

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Tha mo bhàta-foluaimein loma-làn easgannan.

Popped down the river last night. Didn't get any action but did see a fish rise twice in the 2nd pool above the cattle drink. Spooked a fish above the Heckfield bridge late on. A few sedges were hatching and buzzing round.

Had a quick chat with Jon (oops, sorry it was Dougie) as well. Nice to meet you.

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Cheers,
Lawrence

Popped down the river last evening for a couple of hours after work. Met Lawrence retrieving his fly from a tree at the farm pool and had a chat - good to meet you Lawrence.

Having spooked two decent fish in the first pool along the back straight on my last visit I decided to start with a few casts there. Nothing showing so walked on up to dead cert corner to give that a go, again nothing. Fished on up stream and landed a 3 inch wildie from the small weir pool just below the farm. No more action until I got to the farm bridge with the mink trap. 3rd or 4th cast flicked my nymph just under the bridge and 10 seconds later was into a solid fish. The fish put up a good struggle before heading off down stream, eventually managed to get below it and let it drift into the net. Fish was my biggest of the year probably 1.5 to 1.75 lbs. It was a deep golden colour and again on the thin side - probably a stockie from previous years. Saying that he was developing a hooked jaw - anybody know if the stockies are all triploids ? If so he may have been a wild fish.

Felt a bit sorry for the old chap - couldn't help thinking he may have been one of the fish that Jon had caught on Sunday. He did have a bit of a wound on his lower jaw right at the front but it didn't look like it was caused by a hook. It was quite a big, fresh looking wound but it appeared more like it had been rubbed raw on something !!

Fished on up to the Hecklefield bridge where a big fish (possibly a chub) rose under the bridge but I couldn't tempt him. Caught another wild fingerling from the riffles above the bridge before calling it a day and heading home for baby feeding duties. All fish were taken on a size 16 gold bead GRHE.

This has definitely been my best start on the WW with regards to size of fish caught. What's also encouraging is that I think only my first fish would have been one of this years stockies.

dougie, i dont think the fish was one that i caught, the wild fish i caught was thin also but immaculate and i think it was a hen fish. the stocked fish was just that, really stocky with a fair set of shoulders.

that day was worth the yearly membership fee alone. i have paid a lot more while catching a lot less. hope to see you up there again soon, jon.