The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

Has anyone fished the Test near Romsey, & in particular, the day ticket water at Timsbury Fishery?

I'm going to try to catch my first grayling on Monday so would welcome any tips, paticularly if this cuts down on the amount of tackle that I take & have to carry [I prefer to "travel light" when river fishing].

I thought maggots/ smallish worms, size 16 hook, run out for an as yet untried cane rod. Thought I'd also take a few larger worms as trout bait in case the grayling aren't falling over themselves to get caught! In which case I might take a second, slightly heavier set up too.

Thanks,
Craig.

I have fished Timsbury a couple of times. In fact it is where I caught my first grayling. Bait and method will depend on conditions and where you fish. The main river can be trotted in places, close in by the trees on the first bit you come to (across the bridge, in a line with the car park). There are two smaller "streams" one is like a canal the other like a mill race. The slower of the two can be trotted and has produced big roach (all I caught there were small perch and a huge rainbow trout)
My suggestion would be red maggots and red worms either trotted or in a light feeder. The stretch also contains a real mixture of fish. There have been some big roach caught in the main river (over 3lb). I have caught roach there but not to that size, on maggot feeder and ledgered bread flake. Be prepared to catch some big trout as a by catch, which most fluff chuckers would love but can be annoying if you are targeting grayling (I had brown trout to 4lb and a 5lb sea trout on ledgered bread )

Good luck, it is a lovely looking stretch. The outside of the bend below the trees produces roach. Slightly downstream of that is a riffle with a big far bank tree (which produced my first grayling). Travel light and stay mobile, there are plenty of places to try

Fished there many times. It was better when they had the stretch of fast carrier above the footbridge; there was a banker grayling pool about a hundred yards above the bridge which most people ignored in their eagerness to get to the main river, or work downstream on the carrier. As MGs says, travel light and keep moving until you find the fish. At this time of year you'll be lucky to get a shoal anyway, as they tend to get spread out into little groups by the dominant trout. The best time to fish there is late October, all of November and through to Christmas when the trout are getting ready to spawn; the grayling shoal up in the classic trotting glides then and you can make a big bag.

There are also some big roach and chub to be had. The chub mainly hang around the island half way down the fishery, but a friend once had two good ones right down the bottom end. The roach shoals traditionally hang out down by the road bridge, and may or may not be present within the confines of the stretch.

One tip; don't overlook even the shallow spots. If you can find a slight depression in an otherwise constant run of fast shallows, it can hold a surprising number of grayling. There are a few such holes in the upper part of the fast carrier - some obvious (and well fished), others rather more obscure and undisturbed.

EDIT: Forgot to say - take some redworms with you. If the grayling are dour, cross the lower end of the fast carrier by the footbridge (just above a ninety degree bend where the carrier turns to meet the main river) and fish the pool below the footbridge over the slow carrier. Plenty of perch there.

Many thanks for the advice.

The river & carrier were very low & clear & the fishery was crowded [overcrowded in my opinion]. This meant that the swims all seemed to get multiple occupancy over the course of the day.

Perhaps I'm spoilt on my local rivers where I often have 100s of angler free yards to myself!

Sea trout from the main river [2 & a half lbs] & plenty of perch up to 12oz from the slow carrier pool. Plagued by minnows when on maggots. Still to break my grayling duck, but several small ones & a 1 & a half pounder were landed.

I enjoyed the day.

Aah Timsbury. Oh the River Test.

What is so incredible about the river is the way it flows. All the way across, from one bank to another, it pushes at the same pace. It seems to me that rather than being pulled by gravity, it is pushed from its spring.

I was fortunate enough to have a monstrous roach of 3lb and 2oz from there back in 2007. I could post a picture if you are interested.

My tip would be to lace your maggots with turmeric. It degreases them and they fall faster, just the ticket in such laminar flow.

The Idler wrote:I was fortunate enough to have a monstrous roach of 3lb and 2oz from there back in 2007. I could post a picture if you are interested.

Idler please post we are most definately interested. :hat: .

Yes. Photo please :D

champ wrote:

The Idler wrote:I was fortunate enough to have a monstrous roach of 3lb and 2oz from there back in 2007. I could post a picture if you are interested.

Idler please post we are most definately interested. :hat: .

Ah, yours would have been the fish the bailiff was telling me about, I was there not long after your splendid catch.

Like an old war veteran turned geography teacher- I require very little encouragement to start recounting the day when piscatorial history was made.

School boy red herring: “Go on Sir – tell us about the time you dealt with a Fritz Tank using a heavy assault rifle and grenades”.
Mr Kenyon: “Well it had been a long and arduous day for the troops. I used stealth tactics to…”

Obviously my barber was on long term leave at the time.

Now thats a nice fish!

Well done sir. :hat: