Hardly a fair contest.
In the lefthand corner, the near-undisputed champion of the world, a heavyweight among trout streams, from Hampshire, The Mighty River Test.
In the righthand corner, the challenger, a little-known lightweight with no history to speak of, from Hertfordshire, the little River Ver.
Seconds out…
ROUND 1: Water Quality.
The clear waters of the Ver
The round starts with the two trading blows equally – both the Ver and the Test are chalkstreams, with everything that implies about clarity of water, alkalinity and richness in minerals.
Both support good growth of weed and large populations of creatures like freshwater Shrimp and Bullheads that are indicators of excellent water quality.
One odd feature of chalkstreams is that, on occasion, perhaps for 1 or 2 seasons at a time, they suddenly seem to flow with more colour than usual. This happened in 2008 and 2009 on our River, but in 2010 it has run crystal clear all year [except in the aftermath of heavy rain of course]. On the Test, the same thing happened in the middle of this season, although by October it was running clear again. Still, the contest is even.
But as the round goes on, the Test’s bigger size begins to tell. The Test is supplied by countless springs and tributaries, with the flow steady along many miles of the main river along with miles of carriers that run in parallel to it. [It has been estimated to total over 86 miles of river.]
The broad waters of the Upper Test
By contrast the flow in the Ver is subject to the variations caused by everything from the Mill downstream raising the levels of water held back, to lack of rain causing the aquifers to run dry. The truth is that excessive abstraction of water has reduced the Ver from the river it once was – which was more than twice the width of the stream we now see – and the lack of flow means we constantly have to battle to stop it from getting clogged by silt.
On flow alone, then, the Test certainly has the Ver on the ropes.
SCORE: First round to the big fella.
ROUND 2: Fly Life.
One result of the uncertain flow of the Ver is that it doesn’t support the kind of fly life you find on the Test. For a start there is no Mayfly hatch, something the Test is famous for, and which provides ‘Duffers’ Fortnight’ when anyone who can land a large artificial on the water is likely to come away with a fish, as they feast on the giant Ephemera Danica. Another blow landed by the Test.
The mayfly is not the only upwing to hatch in numbers on the Test. Every kind of upwing from Blue-winged Olives to Caenis has its moment, when the fish are turned on to them by huge hatches.
By contrast our hatches on the Ver are much more sporadic, although improving as the years go by. For the most part there is a very different balance of food on the Ver, with flies like Caddis, which don’t all hatch at the exact same time, being more important, and terrestrials playing a huge part. The river is so narrow, and has so much growth overhanging it that terrestrials – Daddy Longlegs, Hawthorn Flies, Alder Flies – regularly fall or are blown on to the surface. Our fish are rarely fixated on one food source, although on occasions the cobwebs that stretch across the river testify that there has been something of a hatch going on.
SCORE: Another easy round to the Test
ROUND 3: Fish quality
A wild Ver Brown Trout
So far the contest has all gone the Test’s way, but suddenly, in a fine show of counter-punching, the Ver comes back into it.
All our fish [apart from the odd escaped Rainbow] are wild Brown Trout bred in the river. Not so the Test. Most of the large trout there, although they are Browns, are stocked fish. True the biggest are larger than ours, but they lack the brilliant colour and finely tuned instinct of a wild trout. This is a big blow landed by the little Ver, and the Test rocks back.
The Test is unexpectedly on the ropes. But in a fine display of defence it counters – what about the Grayling? These beautiful wild fish are prolific on the Test, and grow to huge sizes for the species – 2lb fish are common, and even 3lbers are caught with some regularity. Once they were regarded as a pest that competed with the trout for food. Frank Sawyer, who was a keeper on the Test, developed his Killer Bug just to catch and kill as many Grayling as possible.
A test Stockie
Now the Grayling has become a sought-after quarry in its own right – and rightly so. The truth is, the rich waters of the river can easily support both species. Although they will readily take a dry fly, the under-slung mouth of the Grayling indicates its favoured place to take food – on the bottom, unlike the trout that take at any level in the water.
Also unlike the Brown Trout, the Grayling breeds in the Spring [as do Coarse Fish and Rainbow Trout]. This means that there is fishing on the Test almost all year round – when the trout are off-limits, the Grayling are in season and vice versa.
Test Grayling
So good defensive work from the Test, but the Ver shades the round with its wild browns.
ROUND 4: History.
The Test is out of its corner quickly and straight back into the contest. The Test is one of the most written-about trout waters in the world, dating right back to the time of Frederick Halford, the orginator of modern dry fly fishing. It heaps a bibliographic bombardment on the Ver, as the little river backs up against the ropes with both gloves in front of its face. Halford, Skues, Plunkett Greene = names familiar to any angling historian, all wrote about the Test and its tributaries.
The Ver has little to come back with. It is rumoured that Eric Morecambe did fish our section of the Ver in the 1970s, but that hardly counts as fly fishing history.
But then the Ver suddenly switches from defence to attack – with a huge haymaker of a punch. The first ever written account of fly fishing in England was the Treatyse of Fysshynge with an Angle from the Book of St Albans. The rumoured author was Dame Juliana Berners, Abbess of Sopwell Priory. Those who know St Albans will know the ruins of the Priory in the town – sited on the banks of the Ver!
For a moment this huge blow staggers the Test. But the ref immediately steps in. It seems the attribution of the Treatyse to Dame Juliana is dubious to say the least. It’s a low blow, and although it has definitely hurt the Test, it is ruled illegal by the ref.
ROUND 5: Price.
The Test is well ahead on points by now, and as they come out for the last round, the Ver is on wobbly legs.
But attack is the best form of defence, and the Ver comes out swinging.
On price, the Ver definitely has the advantage. It’ll cost you less than £20 to fish the river at the fishery, with every chance of a good sized wild fish.
It can also cost you a mere twenty pounds to fish parts of the Test. But only out of trout season, and then you’ll be lucky to get that kind of price. Even in Grayling time, some beats on the Test and its tributaries can cost £80.
People come from the world over to fish these sacred historic waters. And that’s why, at the height of Mayfly time it can cost you several hundred pounds for one day’s fishing.
A strong last round for the Ver, but is it enough?
Sadly no. A definite points victory to the heavyweight. But a good performance, nonetheless, by the little Ver.
