Hampshire Avon 2023

My late father fished Winkton as a member of the old syndicate during the late 1970's through till the syndicate ended probably in the late 1990's. He always said it was tough going even in the days when there were a few more fish around. A pity he's not still around as i'm sure he'd remember where every fish he caught came from. I am pretty sure most were between the two weirs, but I do know he had several right up the top end above where Sopley mill stream enters and also caught on the lower water on the left bank opposite cowards marsh.

One other thing he always used to say was it fished better during high water, he thought any running fish used to come straight through the Royalty and have a brief stop at Winkton, so might be worth a try during this high water! Good luck everyone for the season ahead can't wait to get out.

Well done Dave, a cracking fish, well deserved. Fished the Royalty today, conditions are just about spot on but didn't see anything.

Fished the Royalty Tuesday morning, no contact with a fish, but I did at least see one pop up in front of me. Looked like it wasn't hanging around so there might be one or two in the system!

Managed to lose one at Somerley this morning, the fish took right at the end of the swing parallel to the bank, lost quite a few like this over the years. I think they just get pricked at the end of the snout, and you're lucky to get a good hook hold. Looked to be around 15lb to 16lb, encouragingly I saw another fish as well.Hope for better luck on the Royalty tomorrow

Lost a fish on the Royalty yesterday, on a devon. I failed to notice a tiny crack in the top eye liner and as the fish took off upstream it shredded the braid. All I could do was watch the loose end disappear after it. Doubly upsetting as it was the pink and black devon I caught my first salmon on over forty years ago. Lesson learned !!!

I think it is 8 fish from the river, 7 from Somerley and the captor of 4 of those fish is David Lambert not David Windsor, who has 1. It's certainly a remarkable achievement, but that's salmon angling !

Well it's 3rd time lucky, managed to get one to stay attached today at Somerley. A fine looking fresh fish of around 20 lb. It fell to classic Avon tactics of a devon minnow and 2 ounces of lead on a paternoster i'm buzzing !! Just heard of another similar fish from Somerley this afternoon pictures on the avon diary

I was fishing an area that I only really fish in high water, under normal conditions there would only have been 2 feet or less depth. During high water it's always looked right to me, nice steady glide, out of all the turbulence, I try to get the weight right so the pull of the devon will bounce the lead across the stream without retrieving and then sink and draw along the bank. This fish was hooked 3/4 of the way across the river as the lead was slowly bouncing over the gravel bottom

Just seen today's fish from Somerlley on Avon diary, what a fabulous fish, and what a season for David, I think there might be a few rods over the weekend!!

Some information on numbers from the counter at Knapp mill would be useful, as it stands we have no idea how many fish have gone through. The best we can hope for is that how ever many fish have entered the system have gone straight through to the upper reaches with the high water levels we have had all spring. Every year we pay our license fee and get very little in return, I don't think it's asking too much to be given regular updates, even if it is grim reading!!

Well deserved for all the effort you put in, lovely looking fish, gives us all some encouragement.

On the topic of hooks, there are some excellent tube fly singles on the market these days. I personally changed to these about five years ago, at the time I was having a bad run with lost fish probably two out of three hooked were coming off. Another angler suggested trying a single, used with a swing tube and from that point on I have used nothing else. I think I have hooked nine or ten fish on the fly since and landed all but one. The single hook seems to get a much better hold even in the bony jaw, one fish was hooked a quarter of an inch from the tip of its snout! Unhooking is much kinder to the fish, barbless or micro-barb, they hang on, but make unhooking in the net easier.

I have had three twenty pounders using single hooks, two of which were hooked in the hard jaw and the third in the scissors. All three recovered well and swam off strongly. The last fish I hooked using a treble was a big un, a high twenty, possibly a thirty, had it on for fifty minutes before the hook flew out, just as I was getting close to beating it.