Late Evenings on the River Itchen

Early mornings and late evenings…

Following on from last week, the settled weather has pushed water temperatures up across most of our beats, and with that comes a change in when the fish actually want to feed. Midday sessions have gone quiet on several stretches this week, with trout tucking themselves under weed beds and undercut banks to avoid the strongest sun.

Here is Henry with a lovely River Itchen wild brown trout taken in the fast water on a tiny Parachute Adams from my trusty box of July dries.

The upside is that early mornings and late evenings are fishing brilliantly. We’ve had some excellent reports from first light sessions this week, fish rising confidently to small dark olives before the heat of the day sets in, and then the evening rise taking over again from around eight o’clock onwards. If your schedule allows it, this is genuinely the best strategy for chalkstream fly fishing in a summer heatwave, fish the margins of the day and rest through the middle hours.

Terrestrials and small dries still leading the way…

As we mentioned last week, terrestrial patterns continue to produce some of the most exciting fishing of the season. Ants, beetles and the occasional daddy long legs are still blowing onto the water from the meadows, and fish that have grown wary of standard patterns after weeks of pressure are still falling for a well presented foam beetle.

Alongside the terrestrials, it’s worth carrying a good selection of small dark olives and pale wateries in your box this week. These smaller upwinged flies have been hatching steadily through the cooler parts of the day, and matching the hatch precisely has made a real difference to success rates on the more heavily fished beats. A size eighteen or twenty imitation, fished on a fine tippet, has been the standout choice for several of our guests this week.

A note on river levels…

With the settled weather comes an inevitable conversation about river levels, and it’s one we take seriously. Chalkstreams are fed by groundwater, which means they’re generally more resilient to short spells of dry weather than rain fed rivers, but a prolonged dry summer can still bring flows down noticeably by August.

We’re continuing to monitor levels closely across all our beats, and so far things remain healthy, helped by a wetter than average spring which topped up the aquifer nicely. Our riverfly monitoring this month has also shown strong numbers of caddis and olive nymphs, a good sign that the fly life remains in good health despite the heat. We’ll keep you posted through the summer if anything changes.

Beat spotlight: Wherwell Estate…

Throughout the summer we’ll be shining a light on one of our beats, and this week it’s the turn of Beat 4 at the Wherwell Estate; a beautiful half mile of classic chalkstream, winding through water meadows with excellent access and a real mix of pool, glide and riffle.

It’s a particularly good beat for an intermediate chalkstream fly fisher, with generous casting room and a healthy population of brown trout averaging a pound and a half, with some notably larger fish holding in the deeper pools beneath the overhanging trees. Grayling numbers have also been building nicely here over the last couple of seasons, making it a beat worth remembering for the autumn too.

Here is a stunning example of a wild brown trout from the River Test at the Wherwell Estate, taken on a small black klinkhammer.

Wildlife on the water…

It’s not just the fishing that makes summer on the chalkstreams special. Several of our guests this week reported kingfishers working the margins on the lower beats, a flash of blue that never gets old no matter how many times you see it, along with a good number of banded demoiselle damselflies dancing over the weed beds in the afternoon sun. Keep an eye out too for otters, tracks have been spotted on the mud at two of our access points this week, always a sign of a healthy river.

Tightest of lines!

That’s all from me this week, a longer read than usual, but a busy week deserves it. Enjoy the long evenings on the water.

Wishing you the very best of luck and the tightest of lines if you’re beside the river in the next few days.

Best wishes,

Jamie Hayes-Pankhurst

Founder & Managing Director