River Itchen - Urban Fly Fishing For Brown Trout

Episode 2
Welcome back to the reel… and welcome to urban fly fishing.
What is urban fly fishing, or just urban fishing? Well to me it is fishing somewhere that the fishing rights aren’t monetised, in other words free, often located nearer towns or residential areas and as a result you’re more likely to bump into people and the surroundings aren’t always welcoming.
So a lot of people might think, why? Why would you want to fish somewhere that is sometimes busy with other people, kayakers and dogs or even people that like to jump in next to where you’re fishing, or in places that have litter and graffiti here and there? Well it came about for a couple of reasons for me.
1. Reasonably priced day ticket waters aren’t always within easy reach if you want to fish a short session, and particularly as I’ve gotten older, had kids, more responsibility etc. fishing time becomes a bit harder to come by and being able to steal an hour here or there means I can fish more often. I’m also lucky that my nearest local stretch of free, urban fishing is within a couple minutes walk of my house.
2. The second reason I was intrigued by urban fishing, particularly urban fly fishing, is the opportunity to target brown trout. Round my neck of the woods my local river waters for trout are all the classic chalk streams which also come with premium day ticket fees. When I started fly fishing I couldn’t afford to shell out in excess of £100 for a days river fishing, which to be fair is still the case most of the time, and it seemed daft to spend that kind of money when my casting was questionable, which to be fair it still is.
Most of my time spent urban fishing is from May to July, there is often a decent Mayfly hatch and a couple of times I’ve enjoyed a half hour of decent fishing on the Mayfly. So I can head out at a minutes notice, as these opportunities to fish are often spontaneous, I have a bag ready with what I need and a rod set up so I can just pick it up and head out. I don’t change flies very often, if there’s not a decent amount of Mayfly around I stick to something generic like an Adams or my current favourite which is an Elk hair caddis dry. I’ve also been fishing a New Zealand style duo where I’ll tie a nymph onto the bend of the dry flies hook. That accounted for a small sea trout recently.
This was a nice little out of season grayling that slammed my dry fly, I find grayling will come from nowhere, at speed, and hit your fly hard so it’s hard to avoid catching them in the close season. I crush the barbs on my hooks so I can get them out nice and quick and slip the fish back.
So if your looking for your best chance at a local, free fishing spot, Google is your friend. I’d start on Google maps and investigate what the nearest rivers are to you and you can normally figure out if there is public access. Next thing to do is search the rivers name and free fishing and any proper, free fishing spots are normally discussed on forums or even listed on council websites. If you can’t say for sure it might be worth giving your local council a call to see if they know, better to be on the right side of the law.
I had a decent evening session on the New Zealand rig, after my first few casts and dodging the nugget box which was later relocated to the bin, the Elk Hair Caddis dry took this first fish which I’m on the fence as to whether it’s a brownie or a sea trout. I soon lost a second. A bit later on I had another which handily unhooked itself when I got it to the bank. I noticed a decent fish rising on the edge of some weeds but no luck rising that one. And then typically I had a couple of casts before going home after putting the GoPro away and this spotty little brown took the nymph.
I’m going to admit I’ve not caught anything of a decent size fly fishing this urban river, I’ve seen and cast flies to nice trout but caught the better ones in the 1-2lb region on spinners and jigs early in the season. The dream is to catch a nice brown, a pound or more, on a dry from a free stretch but the bigger fish I’ve seen hang out in areas where there is little flow and don’t rise freely.
On my way back from trying to stalk that brownie I did some sight nymphing in my favourite spot between the bridges. A grayling grabbed my beaded hares ear.
I decided on a whim to head out one morning and try the nymph again and almost left the camera at home. I got to talking to a guy who was also a fisherman and he had spotted some decent fish hanging around by the bridge, biggest was a trout about a pound and a half. He kindly helped me spot the fish as I drifted the nymph at them and eventually I hooked into a better fish and my best from this stretch on the fly.
Well, there you have it, it’s not the idyllic picture you might have in your head when you think of fly fishing but it’s a way I’ve found to get out more and keep the itch at bay, like they say the tug is the drug, anyway tight lines, and I’ll see you in the next one.

[@Kernow-lerf]

Amazing

[@TheTroutFlyFisherman]

Great stuff mate. As you say, time on the water where it’s free means it’s more achievable. Your channel is a breath of fresh air.

[@thereel7071]

Thanks mate, appreciate your support 👍

[@batch6792]

I have a no5 set up I keep in the car with a floater & a small pouch of bits. There's often bits of streams and rivers to free fish.

[@woodlandbiker]

I used to fish the last point before gaiters Mill. Had some amazing grayling and chub from there and many many brown trout and sea trout. When I finished there I would move down stream towards the bridge and then go round to the reservoir at the back. I've seen in recent years that the spot by gaiters Mill has change greatly and where I used to sit and stand is covered with water now.

[@thereel7071]

The chub are insane all the way along the stretch, last Summer I’d often see 30 or so up to 5 or 6lb, hooked a few on dry flies but kept losing them in the weed as the river was choc full of it. The sea trout run is still pretty good, I often see groups of them sat in the shallows in the evenings and the bait anglers always complain about catching them 😂

[@woodlandbiker]

@The Reel I caught the same trout 6 times in one morning while trotting at gaiters Mill. It had one eye and a big tooth mark in its side. I also caught a female and netted two at the same time as a male insisted on continuing to try to breed with her while she was on the hook. Good luck with your channel. It's great to see familiar places.

[@shaunpreston2839]

This is my local river there's big fish in there salmon seatrout brownies and unfortunately rainbows its just knowing where they are, iv had hundreds off good fish!

[@scouser2230]

Here in Ontario Canada other than privately owned trout hatchery ponds, all rivers and lakes are open to public fishing as long as you have a fishing license, which costs about $25 annually. When you reach the age of 65 you are not required to get a fishing license in order to fish. One of the only benefits of getting old, so enjoy it.

[@thereel7071]

Sounds a lot better than in the UK, although being a small country there would probably be a lot of overfishing if we did it that way. I’d love to fish in Canada one day!

[@scouser2230]

@@thereel7071 I was born and lived in Liverpool England, until our family emigrated to Ontario Canada when I was seventeen. I had been an avid fisherman from the age of ten and didn’t know how big and plentiful fish were until I moved to Canada. Undoubtedly in Canada we are spoiled for free access to world class fishing opportunities. I both enjoy course and fly fishing, and I am grateful for the abundant supply and varieties of fish within an hours drive from my home. We have salmon, rainbow, brown, steelhead and brook trout, bass, jumbo perch, muskie lunge, northern pike, white fish, walleyes and several other fish species available. It certainly is a great place for a fisherman.

[@oldsmugglerflyfishing]

Awesome video. I subbed to your channel. All the best from Argentina.

[@thereel7071]

Thanks man 🙏 appreciate it 😊

[@grahampayne8376]

Way to go bud

[@SiSiChi44]

Awesome video bud! Not a bad little stretch down there, I did manage to find a private stretch of the itchen up in Bishopstoke under EADACs Hiltingbury permit cost me like £45 for the year and that includes one of their club lakes in chandlers ford area aswell, its good stretch for rainbows, browns and grayling :) well worth a look mate! Tight lines!

[@thereel7071]

Thanks man 🙏 that sounds interesting, I was thinking about joining EADACs main ticket but that is much more wallet friendly! Will have to look into it, cheers 👍

[@ninocrudele]

great stuff mate, no idea why councils le people owning a river for money...

[@woodyeck73]

Nice , ive just started to fly fish , usually go to Winchester but will try around there as its alot closer 😊

[@thereel7071]

It’s worth a go 👍 tight lines!

[@woodyeck73]

​@@thereel7071 i was told it was coarse fishing only along there ? No game fishing? I will be up there tomorrow to have a look and have go 😊

[@thereel7071]

@@woodyeck73 as far as I can tell game fishing is allowed, there are signs with the dates for salmon, migratory and non migratory close seasons, it even mentions only using fly or lure for salmon and trout until the 16th of June.

[@woodyeck73]

@@thereel7071 Down there now, there's a few around until the paddle boarders went under the bridge

[@thereel7071]

@@woodyeck73 it can get pretty busy down there, might be worth trying early in the morning to avoid it

[@brameijkman330]

Hello. Nice film. Thanks. I'm going to Winchester for a few days, early May '23 and was wondering, can I fish there with only the UK fishing license? Where can I park my car if I want to fish near the highway bridge. It would be nice if you could help me. Regards Bram

[@thereel7071]

Hi Bram, can you DM me on Instagram? @thereel.dan I’d be happy to help you with some info 👍

[@Aaron-pu9gg]

What was that first fish also the second was a brownie

[@thereel7071]

First one was a grayling, they often hit the fly before any other fish has chance to see it, often more aggressive than trout. You’re right it probably is, just looked quite silvery.

[@fishingwithash4376]

Nicee I’ve been fishing this part last week as I’ve just started down here for work from up north just looking for a place to rent might see you one day 🤘🐟

[@thereel7071]

Have you had much luck? It can be tricky but it’s full of fish. See you on the bank 😎🎣

[@fishingwithash4376]

@@thereel7071 had a couple browns and a sea trout and you got instergram I’ll follow you

[@thereel7071]

@@fishingwithash4376 oh nice 👌 I’m not Instagram at the minute but I’ll sub to your channel 👍

[@lewis_scootz6250]

Hi I live up the road from riverside/river itchen if you would like to do a video together