Spring has sprung on the Nadder

Lovely day on Nadder today with Red. Started on nymph and it was slow going to start but once I got the fly down in the fast runs I was starting to connect. Using my 8'6" today and I'm not sure whether I was rusty but I lost several fish not hooking firmly enough. The bites were incredibly quick and were without doubt the abundant small Grayling. As the day warmed up to a balmy 20C the odd wild Brownie start to take the fly.

Lots of Grannom were coming off by the early afternoon and little patches of river began to come alive with rises, mainly from the Grayling but also the odd trout. I soon switched to the dry and had much more positive hook ups catching half a dozen fish off the top. Nice stretch of river with a variety of pools, runs and riffles although lower section had the odd paddler and dog walker.

End of day we headed to Wylye which was incredibly quiet and running quite cloudy. Dry fly only here and with hardly a rise to be seen, or Grannom for the matter, our efforts were fruitless.

Nadder and the last Mayfly on the last day of summer?

Took a days leave today and met up with my bro Rich today to fish the Nadder at Salisbury. A beautiful sunny day with some light cloud and hardly any wind. The river looked beautiful almost gin clear with sun glinting on the boils and turbulence of the riffles and runs. We both started to work our way up the beat and immediately Rich hooked into a Chub under some Willows. After a bit of struggle he'd netted a good fish of at least 2lb on the dry.


First take of the day resulted in this lovely Chub.



I hooked up with a nice Grayling on the nymph but failed to net it. After a quiet next few hundred yards I found a great little run where the river kinked around a small bend with a little Willow tree just breaking the flow. In about 30 minutes I managed to catch 3 Grayling, 3 Brownies, a 2lb Chub and a nice Dace. Some of the Grayling on the dry and all the others on the nymph. Its amazing how the feeding fish congregate in such a small area when large swathes of the river fail to produce any response.

My 2lb Chub

Ended the mid day session with some hand size Brownies near a confluence with a feeder. Rich netted a Brownie and another two lovely Chub. The last one put up one hell of scrap and took several minutes to net in the fast flow.

Rich plays another Chub to the net.

After a couple hours break to do the school run we popped back for an evening session. The dropping temperature had obviously put the fish down despite a few Mayfly still coming off! I did net one fish, my best Brownie of the day on the nymph, and Rich caught a small Brownie. Still Rich had bagged up on all the Chub earlier in the day so I didn't feel too bad. Lovely sun set whilst leaving this little Nadder oasis in Salisbury. Known as a coarse stretch this section of the Nadder can still provide excellent sport on the fly for a very reasonable day ticket price.

Day out on Avon and Nadder

Crisp cold morning for a days fishing in Wiltshire. On the way stopped off at the canal near Seend to take a few shots. Mist was lifting off the water and the early morning sunshine was wonderful. Arrived at my brothers, Rich, to discuss the options for the day.

First stop Hampshire Avon North of Salisbury. Not much rising so fished a nymph under the dry. First few runs nothing doing but managed to spook a number of small Pike basking in the sunshine. Found a nice deep bend where Rich caught a lunker of a Brownie. It must have been all of 2.5lb. On its return I managed to get some lovely underwater shots. From the same bend we both caught Grayling and Dace on the nymph. On upstream and a tightly packed shoal of at least 20 Grayling, some in excess of a 1lb, outwitted us but I managed to hook into a decent Brownie of about 1.5lb in amongst them.

Next stop the Nadder in Salisbury. The usual shallow runs failed to produce so moved downstream to the deeper holes. Between us we caught a mixed bag of small Brownies, some reasonable Grayling and Rich had some chunky Chub. Most fish falling to the nymph but an occasional rise to the Klink. The cold weather had certainly kept the fish down but it was an eventful day nevertheless in the glorious Autumn sunshine. Water levels were about the lowest I have seen it.