I had a spare afternoon so, despite the ominous looking clouds, I set off in search of a fish I've wanted to see for a long, long time - Grayling! I'd been in contact with Simon Layton, a keen naturalist from Romsey in Hampshire (just a few miles from where I live). He'd suggested a couple of sites for Grayling near him, it seemed rude not to give it a go.

I parked up at the appointed site, Kimbridge Lane where the river runs under the road, and set to scanning. Thanks to overnight/early morning rains the river had coloured up a bit and was flowing pretty fast. Too turbulent to see very much although I did spy a few trout in a calm area. Mostly Brown Trout but one very beautiful Rainbow Trout too. No sign of Grayling so I tried the next bit of river that passes under the road just a hundred metres further along the lane. This was even worse, a pool on one side sluicing into a stream on the other side and just a heapload of fry for my efforts. Darnit. Looking up the lane I spied a small, shallow stream running alongside the lane for maybe 100 metres. May as well have a peek...

The very first fish I saw was a fair-sized Sea Trout, nice and silvery with no red spotting on the sides. Then another, followed by a couple of smaller, pale grey fish. They slowly moved around until, at last, they were in an area of calm water and I could see all the detail I needed - slender fish with a deeply forked tailfin and an enlarged dorsal fin flopped over the top of their backs - Grayling!!!! Success - I double-checked, yep great big dorsal just hanging there all concertina'd and folded up but diagnostically huge. I grinned to myself as one fish briefly partially raised the fin as it manouevred through the current. Cool, these were small individuals probably only 7 inches in length and not the graceful gleaming beauties I'd hoped for. That'll be another day, but I was happy with these.

I wandered the stream finding a deeper pool by the far end. Overhanging branches and the added depth created an ideal spot for three or four largish Chub and about 30 Rudd. A Minnow threw itself onto the fish tally. Very pleased I headed back to the van, stopping only to admire a good show of Monkeyflower, Purple Loosestrife and my second lifer of the day - Burdock Mildew all over burdock leaves. Sweet!

Jumping into the van I headed back to Lower Itchen Fisheries at West End for another crack at the Salmon reputed to occur there. I'd been there a few days earlier and seen a few Sea Trout and Chub but nothing more. It's a strictly private site with no public access and CCTV all over the place so wandering around all over the gaff was out of the question, but another sneak mission was definitely on the cards. I really, really wanted to see a Salmon! 

I arrived and started chatting with a coupla kids fishing the public section just outside the fisheries' land. They'd never seen Salmon but pointed to an overhanging tree and told me there were a load of Chub and trout underneath its branches. They also told me that Barbel come close to the banks in the evening. Never seen a Barbel...that'd be very nice! I did my Stealth Ninja trick and snuck into fisheries territory, keeping my eye on the CCTV cameras and making sure nobody was coming/going. But I didn't see much other than trout shapes in the fast flowing water beneath. Suddenly I spied a whole shoal of trout in shallow water just opposite where I was hiding. Easily 40 fish, all about 18" size or more! Sod it, I broke cover and blatantly wandered into CCTV coverage. I stood on the bank and through my 10x binoculars began to grill the shoal (not literally, that'd be wrong!) Most fish were trout, large obvious spotting on a silvery brown base colour. The large tail fins were squared off or slightly convex. What I'd been seeing before, basically. BUT - amongst them were several silvery fish with contrastingly darker tail fins that were noticeably concave, some appearing almost crescent-shaped! No obvious spotting on these, just smaller spots restricted to the uppermost part of the body. Completely clean below the lateral line. One even had a deep pink flush to the body. Holy shoot - I was looking at Salmon!!!!!!! Yee-haaah, after all these years I'd found not just one but a whole gang of them! It started to rain, I didn't care! A car drove by but didn't challenge me. I didn't care! I debated waiting until they started to head towards the nearby falls but then realised I really was getting wet and wasn't wearing a coat. I wandered back to the lads who were packing their stuff away and told them about the Salmon. Then I headed back to the van parked at the nearby pub. I debated a celebratory pint, then saw the throngs inside and thought better of it. A glance at the river revealed a shoal of maybe 300 Minnows in one area. Very nice! I quit the site a very happy chappy. Tomorrow I'm going back with Tony Davis, let's hope the fish play ball.