The London Angling Association (LAA) – Hampshire Avon at Britford

Just below the Bournemouth roundabout in Salisbury is a mile and a half stretch of the Hampshire Avon known as Britford. The LAA  held the fishing rights at the time. The water was a very well known hot spot for specimen roach and chub. Gary, my brother, and I fancied having a crack at trying to catch a 2lb+ roach, so we made inquiries about it. 

We found out that the bailiff who patrolled the river lived in an end of terrace house in East Harnham, right next to the bridge which crosses the river at Harnham. We knocked on his door and asked how we could become an associate member of the LAA. He duly came up with the info and that is how we got to be able to fish the best stretch of river in the Salisbury area.

This stretch of river is the same one that eventually flows on past Savilles and Petersfinger Lakes. We knew because of this that there were some big carp inhabiting the river which escape from the lakes at times of flood and high water. 

This fact made it even more exciting to us as the possibility of catching the roach, chub, barbel and even bream in the river. To start off with we concentrated our efforts on the top end of the fishery, just below the Bournemouth roundabout down to the corner where it ran past the Salisbury College of Further Education on the Southampton Road. 

I think it was during the Summer months we made our first foray to the river.

As it was Summer the river was full of streamer weed and running quite clear. Just below the road bridge there was a line of overhanging trees leading down to the local kiddies playground and field, just opposite two large blocks of flats. 

Incidentally, I actually came to live in one of those flats later on, so it would become easier for me to just nip over the road to fish the river. At this time however I was living on the other side of town. It was very difficult to fish the river when it was covered in streamer weed so we did the majority of our fishing after the first frosts had bitten in early November. 

We did some fishing earlier than that but we were restricted to mostly legering with our rods pointing up at the sky to keep the line off the weed as much as possible. The first fish we ever caught from the river were chub and I am not on about small ones. These were sometimes over the 4lb mark and that was a reasonable specimen in those days.

 These chub resided under those over hanging trees on the far side of the river which was about 30 feet across. The best bait to catch them was Gary’s favourite cheese paste.  (Primula cheese in a tube mixed with crumb) We went to great lengths to make it as soft as possible because once in the water it would harden very quickly making hooking fish difficult. If your cheese was hard to start with it would be like concrete after 5 minutes in the cold water. 

Gary got the mix just right and we did quite well, catching our fair share of chub under the trees. We really enjoyed this type of fishing and we were able to catch chub from both sides of the river as long as we had a feature of some king to cast to. I think that about four and a half pounds was the largest we caught, but fish of that size were not to be sneezed at and fought like tigers. They would use their surroundings to their own advantage and it was never a foregone conclusion that a hooked fish would be landed. They were experts at diving into the thick weed beds or the roots of trees under the water close to the bank. I think that this was one of the reasons we enjoyed that type of fishing and it was a great challenge which we both relished.

The river really came into its own from December on-wards. After a few really hard frosts which hit the weed growth in a big way, followed by torrential rain to wash away the weed, the river then had colour in it and was a completely different kettle of fish. There would still be some beds of streamer weed to contend with, but that gave the huge shoals of fish the cover they needed and we were able to trot a float down between the beds and present a bait to the fish.

Although we took advantage of the whole mile of banks at our disposal, our favourite swims were on the island which was situated about 80 yards downstream from the Bournemouth roundabout bridge. The river actually split into two at the top end of this island. The main river branched off a little to the left and a small stream went off slightly to the right. You had to approach the island from the right bank and this included clambering over a little man made bridge which traversed the stream. 

Often in high water the island became quite flooded so you needed waders at that time to be able to slosh your way through the water and mud. Not a journey for the faint hearted. With all your tackle on your back, getting over the little tree trunk bridge with only a bit of rope to hang onto was quite hairy. Once over that potential man trap you then had to try not to get bogged down in the deep muddy pathway along the island. 

The island itself was quite overgrown and you would be forever pushing branches out of your way to get to the 4 or 5 swims that were actually fishable. The top half of the island had a couple of reasonably easy swims that were accessible, then you had the middle part of the island which had reed-beds of iris right along your side of the bank, making it very difficult to carve out access for fishing. It was not impossible and with a bit of hard work you could cut out access and trot down past the weed fringed bank on your nearside and of course this opened you up to fishing the middle and far bank parts of the swims. You would have to collect bits of branches or stuff that had floated onto the island in the floods to make a place to fish from and on most occasions you would be held up from sinking into the river by your little nest of branches and the roots of the reeds. 

You really had to be careful if you didn't want to take an early bath into the swim. It was still very worth taking the time and trouble to do the hard work. The best swims were from half way down to the bottom of the island and they were far easier to fish and were a joy. These were our favourite swims, but we have in fact fished every swim on the island and the little stream which flows just behind you. We have had some tremendous bags of roach, chub and dace from the main river island swims and believe it or not we have caught the same species from the little stream which is only about 5 feet wide for the length of the island.

 In fact, the little stream really comes into its own when we have had rain for a number of days and the main river has been high. The fish probably enter from the main river below the island where the stream re-enters it.

I have many other stories to tell about this wonderful stretch of river, but the one I am going to tell you now had the biggest impact on my fishing life up to that time. Both Gary and I knew of the potential of the island swims and more than once a famous angling personality had inquired of us while we were fishing there, whether it was true that you could catch 2lb+ roach from these swims. 

In fact we had seen roach of over 3 lb swimming just below the Bournemouth roundabout bridge so we knew there were specimen roach to be caught there. I don’t know whether Gary ever told anyone else about this fact, but I am fairly sure he didn't and I never did. I knew that if the fact got out we would probably never get the swims again as we would be inundated with specimen hunters and that was the last thing I wanted as I had never caught a roach over that magic weight before.

It was in the month of February I think. The river had the least amount of weed in it than was usual. It was fining down and turning from a tea colour to that lovely green tinge that told us this could be a good time to give the island a go. We were both very lucky that day. We caught loads of fish and amongst them we both caught 2lb + roach.

 Late in the afternoon I was very fortunate to hook into and land a huge roach which looked on the face of it to be over 3 lb. Because we were expecting the next fish on every trot down to be a specimen, I dropped the big roach into my keep net for weighing later. That was to prove a rather big mistake because when I weighed and had it witnessed and photographed later it brought the scales round to 2lb and 15 ounces. It is possible that in that final hour and a half it could have shed an ounce but I could not know for sure. 

Never the less, what a fantastic fish it was when you add in the fact that as it glided into the landing net the hook fell out, but not before the net was raised triumphantly above the surface of the water. I could go on boring you with how I played and its attempts to evade capture, but I won’t. 

I just feel very fortunate to have caught such a fish after spending a lifetime in search of one and that is enough for me. I will however make you aware that I made the two angling papers of the day and won a fishing rod in one of their monthly competitions. 

Enough of blowing my trumpet, everything comes to those who don’t wait, but work hard to make it happen.

Over time Gary and I have caught some memorable bags of fish from Britford and I may include one or two of them at a later date.