Finally some rain

Hey guys down here in the depths of Berkshire I have the Thames at a virtual standstill, I have the river Kennett low,slow and gin clear, the river landbourne is almost so low its unfishable in places and again hardly moving.
How are the Rivers shaping up in your own little bit of country?

I'm working in South Wales at the moment and the rivers are roaring through, never short of rain is Wales!

The Test is lower than I've seen it at this time of year for ages, it's a worry unless we have a pretty biblical winter.

I`ve never been to wales and the rivers not roaring to be honest, one of my favorite country`s, there rivers dont have the abstraction and pressure that English rivers have though.
has the test levels affected the fishing barrystar?

Not yet for us - the key is having clean clear water so you can see the fish. We have had a lot of problems with water quality over the last 3-4 years, one year it was like coffee all year and you could hardly see anything and the catch was right down. This year the catch was up because the water was so clear. One of the features of our water is that it holds fish everywhere in decent conditions - you don't get shoals in deeper pools. Eventually when the water goes right down they do start to shoal in the few places where there is deeper cooler faster running water and they lose their appetite - then I don't like the fishing nearly so much as the element of stalking and keeping awake because they might be anywhere goes. In some of the places you just have to stroll up to the deeper pools and chuck a fly in and you know it will get looked at by about 10 fish in a shoal and you start to think "so what".

There's an increasing problem in the Test Valley with water abstraction and poor sewage treatment and obviously that is more enhanced in a year of low water than high water. The towns are popular and they are increasing and they need water and the infrastructure is not improving at the same rate so it seems.

As an aside just seen in my local paper that some plank left the gates to a lock open and has almost completely emptied on of my favorite stretches of canal,
Might just give up on the running water for the winter it seems the gods are against me atm.

What a moron.

I'm off fishing Saturday in mid-Wales. Little wild brownies and grayling being the target. Not on the fly though, I'll be trotting a stick float down. One of my favourite types of fishing, probably the favourite actually.

sounds fantastic fists

I'll let you know how it went when I return on Sunday. Won't be any specimens involved but may upload a photo or two. They're always high quality fish, beautiful regardless of size.

Decent day on the river yesterday chaps. Plenty of little wild brownies, and a couple of grayling pushing the 2lb mark I would have thought. Cracking specimens, I'll try and get a photo or two uploaded this week.

sounds good fists, was the river in a good state?

Yeah it was, running through nicely and with decent colour.

Main issue was the wind, a very strong upstream wind causing problems and very much disrupting the trotting of the float. Wasn't too bad initially but reached a point whereby it was causing a real problem and the quality of the fishing dropped. Thankfully, that was toward the end and I'd had my success by then.

I know not the most exciting subjects, but it holds an appeal to me,, how are the rivers looking this time of year near you guys? down my way i worry what they will be like come summer if it continues as it is

Still very high at the moment after the torrential rain of a week or two ago.

The river Test is terribly low for January, more like June/July, I can't imagine what it will be looking like in the summer.