My Favourite Pool ~ "Time Wasters Corner" Martyr Worthy, Upper River Itchen

Ron Holloway

If asked which is my favourite pool to fish with a dry fly it has to be “Time Wasters Corner” on the Chilland beat of the River Itchen at Martyr Worthy where I was until retirement, most privileged to have been the river keeper for almost thirty years.

This particular pool is so aptly named as over the years many an angler has spent many an hour, and on many an occasion the whole day on hands and knees trying to coax the wily wild brown trout residents that made this spot their home, rise to their artificial.

This corner is a natural 90 degree bend in the river where the flow turns this corner at some speed for a chalk stream, and as it does so it increasingly splays out as it flows around the corner giving a variety of ever changing current speeds as it proceeds round and heads downstream. Each delicately presented cast invites the dreaded drag no matter how one used and tried all the various well known slack line casts that professional AAPGAI instructors try to teach us!

As the dry fly lands upstream of the rising fish the current takes hold immediately but at this point the flow moves in two directions at the same time firstly and naturally downstream but also it moves across the river slowing down as it progresses. No matter what angle the line and leader is cast to cover fish every downstream drift of six inches includes three inches of sideways drift. The drag thus formed is horrific and even a good slack line cast would only present the fly without drag for a mere inch or two! As soon as drag took hold the wily resident trout ignored the artificial and continued with very annoying and arrogant alacrity sipping every natural fly that passes over them.

These resident wild trout are very free risers and clearly visible to the observant, hidden angler kneeling behind the fringe on the river bank, and these trout seemed to know that they were completely safe from danger. Even the slightest hint of drag by an artificial fly in the gin clear water would be ignored by these trout, neither would drag frighten or deter the trout from continuing to feed avidly on naturals, unless a real splashy presentation was made. One almost sensed the trout were taking the Michael by cynically putting two fins in the air to the angler!

“Time Wasters Corner” has for me to be the most challenging, frustrating and yet exciting casting on any chalk stream any where in UK or perhaps the world. I have over the years watched many expert dry fly fishers tackle this pool, mostly without a great deal of success but to a man all have come away with the comment at close of play that it is the best and most challenging casting they have experienced. Yet success can be achieved on “Time Wasters Corner” else it would not have attained such notoriety. Other than using a delicate unweighted upstream nymph (size 18 PTN) to a nymphing trout, there is a possible chance of rising a trout to a dry fly if there is a downstream breeze blowing that gives a slight feathery ripple on the water surface which can mitigate the visible effects of even the most minute hint of drag. This breeze also makes natural flies skate a little at times and it these times when the observant angler may be in with a chance to fool a fish.

This beat has been recognised by many famous fishermen including the legendry Sir Edward Gray as the finest there is. This is underlined by the fact that the late Dermot Wilson that doyen of chalk stream fishing who fished this beat for many years when he requested in his will that his ashes to be cast along the banks of the best stretch of chalk stream in the world, the banks of the Chilland beat of the River Itchen around “Time Wasters Corner”.

When last fishing this water just recently this Summer I had distinct feeling that Dermot was looking down on me and smiling at my pathetic attempts to avoid the dreaded drag on “Time Wasters Corner”!