Sussex Trout Fishing … and Devon

‘Where the Bright Waters Meet’ – Harry Plunket Greene

I found this book in my local Oxfam shop several years ago. The black and white photos transported me back a hundred years to a time when gentlemen anglers wore tweed suits and moustaches. I didn’t know the author. Skues and Halford had overshadowed him.

Harry Plunket Greene was 6’ 4”, handsome and a celebrity singer for over 50 years. He was a key figure in English music, working with the famous English composers. He was born on 24 June 1865 in Ireland. He was a Professor at the Royal Academy of Music and a member of the MCC. He was also a keen fly fisherman.

I have read Where the Bright Waters Meet several times. It describes his fishing experiences between 1902 and 1912 during which time he lived in Hurstbourne Priors and had a rod on the River Bourne. The Bourne is a feeder to the Test. It rises at St Mary Bourne and joins the Test near Whitchurch.

He kept a detailed fishing diary and although the book was not written until 1924, it paints a vivid picture of an idyllic lifestyle beside the river. In the beginning he praises the Bourne, “the finest small trout stream in England“. Three miles of crystal clear, shallow water stuffed with big trout.

However, between 1902 and 1904 he and the other rods overfished the Bourne. He estimated that 1,000 wild trout were removed from the river in 1904 alone. The river could not sustain that abuse. In 1905 the rods decided to restock the river. They introduced 2000 yearling brown trout, 500 two year olds and 200 Loch Leven browns. That was far too many fish.

They ruined the fishing. The average size of the fish plummeted as they competed for food and starved to death. He wrote that the fish were ‘pitiable’ and that the river ‘can never be the same again’. From 1909 to 1912 he hardly fished the Bourne, he played cricket instead.

In 1923, just before the book was written, he complained of tarred roads polluting the river, watercress beds abstracting water and that the river was overstocked with non-native fish.

He was correct on all counts. During the 1990s Vitacress Salads Ltd., a large producer of watercress, discovered that the cress washing process released  phenylethylisothiocyanate, a naturally occurring mustard oil. The toxin dispersed the invertebrates and the trout disappeared. The company now recirculates the cress washings and the water is cleaner. In 2007 a survey of the Bourne found good levels of invertebrates and fish.

The old Test trout had been replaced by the ‘yellow bellied’ Kennet fish they had stocked in 1905. He wrote that the true Test trout were short, deep fish with a diminutive head, tremendous shoulders and were bright silver.

Last year the Bourne was described as “unusual among chalk streams in that it holds only wild brown trout and in the 2014 season, several of those caught weighed four pounds or more. Two pound fish are almost commonplace.” The ‘wild’ fish are the offspring of Harry’s stocking and therefore not truly wild Bourne fish.

In the last chapter of his book he wrote “somewhere, deep down, I have a dim hope that one night the fairy godmother will walk along the tarry road . . . the little Bourne will wake and open her eyes and find in her bosom again the exiles that she had thought were gone for good — the silver trout, and the golden gravel, and the shrimp and the duns.”

Harry Plunkett Greene died on 19th August 1936 and is buried in Hurstbourne Priors Churchyard between the cricket ground and the River Bourne. If he were to return to fish the Bourne, I think he would be pleased to see that the river has regained most of its former glory. His headstone is inscribed . . .

HARRY PLUNKET GREENE

 Singer

 1865 to 1936

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In January Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) stopped production of the Land Rover Defender. After 68 years the last Defender rolled off the production line.

An iconic English vehicle has been terminated by an Indian steel Company. Tata Steel bought both the Jaguar and Land Rover brands in 2008. Since 1948 more than two million Land Rovers have been produced. Defender number 2,000,000 sold at Bonhams for 400k.

The JLR website still praises the qualities of the Defender. The JLR 2015 Annual Report shows that annual retail sales of Defenders went up by 19% compared to 2014, whereas the sales of Jaguar sports cars went down by 4.5%. It was very successful.

Why was the Defender discontinued ? The Defender could never meet the silly environmental and safety regulations imposed by the EU and the USA. The rumours of a replacement Defender have fizzled out.

I bought my first Land Rover in 1984. I spent very little maintaining it and four years later I sold it at the price I paid. That was cheap motoring.

Until 2016 you either loved the Land Rover Defender or you hated it. However, nostalgia and the lack of an alternative have boosted the prices of used Defenders and the demand can only grow.

Knowing that production was ending, I spent most of 2014 looking for a good ‘un. There were very few that had not been messed about with. Why do people want drug dealer wheels, tractor tyres, winches and enough spot lights to illuminate a night club ?

After a lot of searching I found a low mileage, unmolested TDi 90 just a few miles away. Since I bought it, five people have knocked on the front door asking if it is for sale. It’s not. It’s my fishing wagon 🙂

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The shooting season ended at dusk today, 1 February. What an odd date to choose ! I think a civil servant must have got ‘inclusive’ and ‘exclusive’ mixed up when drafting the Regulations.

During the winter I stocked up on my feather collection. I no longer buy exotic plumage, it is expensive and the trout don’t appreciate it. Pheasant and Partridge provide a lot of material for fly tying. When faced with a game cart containing hundreds of birds, I can select the best quality tail and shoulder feathers. The markings vary tremendously between birds, some birds are melanistic other birds are very pale. Each week I sneak a few feathers when the Keeper is not looking.

I also like to use feathers that have been dropped during the moult; Goose, Swan, Duck etc. I sometimes find Crow, Owl, Buzzard and Pigeon feathers when I am fishing. I tuck them away in my fishing bag and put them in cellophane folders when I get home.

I used to buy exotic plumage because as a professional fly tier, the traditional dressings had to be followed or customers complained. Veniards provided me with top quality, exotic materials for many years but I now rely on ‘foraging’.  The only feathers I buy are hen and cock capes; some natural and some dyed to the required shades. When my stock of exotic feathers is exhausted they will not be replaced.

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The 100 yard stretch of river immediately above Keepers Bridge is demanding because the back cast is restricted and the far bank has several mature Alder trees under which the trout live. There is usually a good hatch along this stretch and swarms of flies gather just under the trees. The trout are hard to reach and ‘experimental’ casts are required. Bushy, stiff hackled flies bounce off the low hanging leaves in a very life like manner.

This stretch of the river holds a lot of fish, under the trees, alongside the streamer weed and in the fast run at the top bend. It pays to sit and watch the water for a while, when the fish are rising I can spend an entire evening here. I limit myself to 3 fish and return them all.

On the South bank the evening sun drops down below the trees on my left, upstream of me. Shadows are not a problem and I take advantage of the fringe of plants the Keeper has left along the edge of the bank. The water is shallow and standing up to cast is the kiss of death, the trout immediately dash into the tree roots along the far bank. I sit still and wait for a trout to rise, walking about and casting frequently is not the answer.

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I arrived at the river at about 11:00am. The water was lower than last week and a little clearer. The sun was shining and the wind was warm, from the south west, perfect fishing conditions.

A few Olives were hatching and there was a lot of debris on the surface of the water from the bankside Willows and Alders. I walked downstream until I found a fish rising. I cast upstream with a dry Pheasant Tail and after a few misplaced casts, I put the fly just above the fish. It rose and took the fly but I missed ! I rested the fish for 15 minutes and tried again. The first cast landed perfectly, the fish rose confidently and this time I didn’t miss. He was about 8oz and went straight back.

By now I was hot and thirsty, the pub was calling me. I went to the Badgers at Coultershaw Bridge and had a homemade burger and a pint. It was superb and I felt like a sleep. When I got back to the river, I found a sunny spot with a good view of the river and made myself comfortable.

Almost immediately a fish rose, then another just next to me. The Mayfly had started to hatch and were fluttering about everywhere. This was too good to ignore so I tied on a recently made Mayfly imitation and covered a fish. After a few casts the fish took the fly with a big splash and was hooked. The fish was about 8oz and I returned it to grow bigger.

There were hundreds of Mayfly hatching so I put the rod down and took some photos.

Then I fell asleep !

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