Fishing Breaks — Local services in Test Valley

I was visiting from NZ and fished the Allen with Lyndsay. River clear but windy, cold and some rain. Fished the upper stretch in the morning and hooked and lost 2 fish. Challenging but enjoyable. Fished the stretch down from the hut in the afternoon and caught ~15 fish including 3 over a pound nymphing after a lot of leader and fly adjusting. Wild fish in a "wild" chalkstream. Magic. Lyndsay was great so I booked him for the next morning on Ole Muddy sorry the Nadder.

On the second morning we fished the Compton Chamberlayne stretch on the Nadder. I was very disappointed to find it the colour of milky tea. We left at 11 am and I came back around 4 and caught 2 fish bottom bouncing nymphs with indicators blind. I would not book the Nadder again due to this inconsistency. We were staying at the Beckford Arms and the upper Nadder was a discoloured canal at Tisbury the whole 3 days we were there but the Wylie and Avon were fine as was the Fonthill stream which has good numbers of trout and other fish.

5 stars for the Allen day and 1 for...

It's a pity that the first two days on the Test river the water conditions and even some of the weather (strong wind) weren't the best, but nobody can predict this and do nothing to change it. In any case, very beautiful places and river and a relaxing day in any case (one catch per day). Very beautiful and a pleasant surprise is the Kennet River and its park. In the morning on the main river very strong water, almost no activity a single catch. But in the afternoon I moved to one of the secondary channels and the fishing was good and plentiful with 7 catches all of important dimensions (iron blue dun 5 and also Mayfly 2), following Simon's advice on using flies. Thanks to Simon and his staff for their professionalism and kindness, both in the organization of the trip and for his precious advice on flies and guardians on the river. This was my second year and I plan to come back...

What a lot of rain on the day--I wondered if it was going to be worth it. I arrived at the very clear parking for Fishing Breaks and set up my split cane rod in the rain. Walking down to the river, I was very surprised to see a good number of rising fish. This changed my mood completely. However, I have fished this lovely stretch of river before and know how hard the rising fish can be to fool. I went for the small nymph and was soon rewarded by the gentle sucking take of a wild brownie. I had half a dozen by the end of the afternoon. An increasingly strong wind and some heavy rain began to take the edge of the day and so I headed home. The water is very clear and so I was able to watch my dry and emerger patterns being examined by some good size fish. They are large becuase they know the difference between the real thing and my attempts to deceive them. A good day...