The perfect Gillie
Pic: A true Treatise on the Art of Fly fishing William Shipley 1838

I have many friends that just collect works of antipodean origin and that is their choice but it was not for me.   In my enthusiastic past I laid down a set of parameters and that was to build a library that represented fly fishing down through the ages.   A big call I know, but I got pretty close and I do have some gems within my collection.

To collect them all for me is nothing but a dream.  Between 1496 when Dame Juliana Berners wrote our first fly fishing book and the writings of Halford and Skues, angling publishers have produced some 5000 plus works on fishing.  To collect all of these early books was not part of my model, my goal was to sort out the classics and go for those.   With the baby boomers coming into the collecting scene some of the prices now being asked are well beyond my means.  Such is life.

Works from England dominate the early days of fly fishing and it is difficult not to collect a pile of books written about the chalk streams of Hampshire, especially the river Test.  Its history is rich and long.  Some of the earliest writings of the Test come from Colonel Peter Hawker of Longparish House where it is reported in 1814 he used to fly fish from horseback.  I wonder if today’s challenge would be from the roof of a Hummer!

It was written by Sir Ralf Payne Gallwey in 1893 of Colonel Hawker, and quoted in part: “In figure Colonel Hawker was over six feet and strikingly handsome and up to the end of his life was very erect. He was, no doubt, somewhat of an egotist but it was in a good-natured way and a confirmed but amusing grumbler against his personal ill-luck.”   

On the Upper Test
 Pic from the South Country Streams - G. A. B. Dewar 1899

F M Halford, on the River Test
Pic from Dry Fly Man’s Handbook 1913

Since the time of Hawker most of fly fishing’s great authors emanating out of Great Britain have had their roots entangled with these chalk streams.  Names like Halford, Skues, Sheringham, Hills, Senior, Dewar, etc. have all left an indelible mark that will last the test of time. 

On a recent trip to England to attend the British Fly Fair International at Stoke on Trent, I was offered the opportunity to join Ole Bjerke, marketing manager of Partridge of Redditch and three of his guests to spend a day on the River Test.  The venue was on a private estate known as Wherwell, just above Chilbolten and not far from the famous Mayfly hotel, Fullerton Mill and the town of Stockbridge.
Being so late in the season, our invitation was to fish for Grayling, as is common to assist in the culling back of this species.  As we were to see, the fabled Brown Trout of the Test were already in spawning mode and in some sections of the river they were already very active on their Redds

Ole on the Partridge Stand, sitting after a long day at the British Fly Fair International.
This guy is always working; great dedication and a great host.

Our host “awesome” Ole on the Brockhill water just out of Redditch in Worcestershire

We arrived at our beat on the river around 9am and for the last part of our drive down from Redditch we drove in thick fog, a fog that unfortunately was to last all day long.   Not to be daunted, we set up our gear amongst anticipation and to talk over the chatter of Ring-neck Pheasants playing around in the wooded area behind us.

The river banks were partially cleared to allow ample room for your back cast and along the beat were benches to sit on.  These are not only for resting but to sit and watch, for it is interesting to note that that chalk streams run at more or less at a constant temperature for most of the year and it only drops a few degrees over the winter period.

Mayfly, mostly Baetids, can emerge most of the year but as you would expect, only in small numbers over the colder months.  Even in late October there were caddis coming off.

After a little explanation of the water, flies to use and spotting spawning trout right out in front of us, we split up to try our luck.  Ole and I went up from our semi enclosed fishing hut.

A little instruction about the fishing and spawning trout

I crossed the river and I only walked a very short distance before I spotted a school of Grayling and a very large Brown Trout tucked in against a bunch of weed.

I ran a weighted nymph past the pod of grayling a couple of times without a single reaction from those fish  That was until the fly drifted by that resting Brown, a flash and it was on but not for very long because the huge fish simply headed for the weeds and it was all over.

To me fishing is not only about winning but the knowledge one learns from losing.

To be honest, I did not expect to hook into such a large fish so early in the day.  Standing there talking with Ole about my loss we had a call from Terry to come back down to a small shallow spillway as he was into some Grayling and that he had caught four in a very short period.

Terry Beale releasing one of his Grayling

Heading back down and crossing the river again I was handed a very pink Shrimp pattern, ‘here, tie this on and cast up along that bank and let it drift over those clear spots amongst the weeds.  That’s where they are sitting.’

A little instruction from Terry helped a lot

Well within a cast or two my bright pink bit of greasy wool that we used as an indicator went under and I was into my first Grayling.

Thanks Terry my first Grayling. It should be noted that we do not have Grayling in Australia.

I am not sure how many Grayling we took out of that section; collectively it must have been eight or ten fish. 

For some reason Grayling have been treated like a lesser species and in many waters they are unwanted. Yet there are just as many who love them.  Me, I think they are awesome.

Although t he trout season was closed, if you inadvertently caught a trout, it had to be released.  As you would expect waters such as these are stocked with sizable trout. These fish do spawn in the river as we witnessed and to catch a prodigy is a gift.  The wild brown trout of England is revered as it should be.  For its size England is the most populated country on this earth.  You can imagine the pressure on its water systems and it is amazing how the respective groups have worked to keep their streams healthy enough to maintain and even, in some instances, enhance their wild trout fisheries. One of big highlights of the day was catching a wild Brown Trout, my first in Britain and it had to be from the River Test.

A very healthy wild Brown Trout.  How did we know it was a wild species?  Well the fish that are stocked in this river each year are much, much larger than this little beauty. The gear used was all Partridge: Partridge rod, Partridge reel, Partridge flyline; what better could you get?

By mid afternoon we had our fill and it was time to try and trace the footsteps of F M Halford and co, all those years ago.  The first stop was Stockbridge and the Grosvenor Hotel, home of the famous Houghton Club which was founded way back in 1822.  We were cheeky enough to go in and ask if we could visit the club rooms but it was not to be.   Just next door to the Grosvenor was another pub called “The Hatch”.  Terry and I were going to go in there but we ended up at the Orvis store opposite.     

The Grosvenor Hotel right in the middle of Stockbridge

Two huts that were actually used by Halford and friends so long ago.  Can you imagine having lunch at that table with people like Halford, Marriot, Skues, etc?

The log book was an interesting read and believe me there were many recognisable names between its pages.