River Ise (Ise Brook), Trib of the River Nene

[gary]

After much research on the net I have stumbled across a Nene trib by the name of The River Ise (or Ise Brook) which is said to be the only river in Northamptonshire to contain a small self-supporting population of Grayling! Please see 2nd last paragraph on attached report. (Which I hope has attached OK, as this is the first time I've tried to attach... )

I had a free hour yesterday so went for a walk along the Ise, taking photos as I went. Too windy to fish (didn't have time anyway), but will post the photos and report later when I get time.

Tight lines

Gary

Attachments:

[custheyder]

Interesting. I'm looking forward to the photographs.

[Paul G]

Very interesting, I did a walkover survey of part of the Ise several years ago now for the WTT.

[gary]

Thanks Cust and Paulg... really looking forward to sniffing out those Grayling, assuming they're still there! If you can remember which stretch you covered on your survey Paul, I'll go back and try out my lovely new Eso 410 and see if I can tempt an offering

Okie dokie, back to the Ise...

Have found a few comments on various blogs about the Ise, some mentioning the Grayling, some the WBT and 'bows, some the 'famous' very large Roach of up to 3lb!

Here is a splendid intro, written by a chap by the name of Nick King on another forum site:

An Introduction

The river Ise, or Ise brook as it’s better known as, has it’s origins in a part of Northants called "Naseby Field". All you history buffs out there may recognise the name for it was here on the 14th of June 1645, forces belonging to King Charles the 1st, took what was really a damn good hiding from Parliamentary force’s "new model army" led by Sir Thomas Fairfax and one Oliver Cromwell. This was the first battle undertaken by the Parliamentarian Army, employing new weaponry, armour and new methods of fighting, during the English Civil War. The Battle of Naseby, ranks alongside Hastings and Bosworth as a major turning point in English history.

The path of the Ise has changed over time, probably none more so than to accommodate the building of the A14 link road, but as you travel along it’s banks, beauty and points of interest and history abound. A sight of scientific interest, a peasants rebellion against the local gentry and subsequent massacre, the English seat of the Duke of Buccleuch and various documented hauntings, which include the mysterious ghostly figure of a monk (that bloke gets everywhere) are just some of the points of interest to be found, before the Ise joins up with her big sister the River Nene at Wellingborough, also in Northants.

The information I found on the Ise Grayling seemed to be located in the stretch from Barford Bridge railway viaduct and
the village of Geddington, so off to Geddington I went...

Geddington Bridge:


Upstream from the bridge (you can see the causeway bottom left):


Had a quick walk around the village, trying to locate some accessible spots, but they were few and far between, and a lot of the river downstream from the bridge runs through privately owned property (lucky people having such a pretty, crystal clear stream in their garden!). Jumped in the car and followed the road upstream to the tiny village of Newton...

Newton upstream:


And downstream:


Some really good pools along this stretch, albeit with heavily overgrown trees/vegetation... but spotted dozens of fish! Some more of the river upstream of Newton:


And a pretty 'lil bridge about half a mile upstream of the village:


This stretch was so pretty I just kept on walking upstream:








After about a mile I turned back, got to the car and drove to a stunningly quaint village named Warkton, just outside Kettering, and on the edge of Boughton Estate which is run by the Duke of Buccleuch (forbidden waters with who knows what fish residing! I'll try and find out how to get a permit for the Estate waters, as, seemingly, it was the Estate who introduce WBT, 'Bows and the Grayling...)

Warkton Bridge (with parking right beside it):


River is different here (downstream from bridge, as if heading back to Kettering), with a gravel bottom, and beautifully clear:


Has a path all the way to Kettering, so easy access to every pool:


There are so many places to enjoy:


All of them loaded with fish (Spotted chub, roach, perch):


Perfect Tenkara stream:


And so many more lovely spots! The Warkton to Kettering stretch definitely looks the most promising (so far) so will get my full attention next time I have the chance to have a wee cast ;D

Headed back up to the bridge, taking one more photo before leaving, this time into the 'forbidden lands of the Estate' taken from the bridge...



Link to Estate webpage if anyone's interested: www.boughtonhouse.org.uk/

Will try and get some time to actually fish this weekend, and post the report here ;D

Tight lines

Gary

[custheyder]

That looks like some challenging water. Looking forward to hearing how you get on.

[Deleted]

Hi Gary.
That brook looks just like my sort of place.
I fish lots of streams very similar to that around Leicester and the Peterborough area( where Peter my usual fishing buddy lives).
Kettering area isn't too far away either so I recon we'll have to give it a bash over the weekend, probably Sunday.
Might be with tenkara or might be with "proper" fly gear. ;-0
Both of us are pretty skilled at catching coarse fish on fly, especially from brooks, so if you wanted to meet we could swap knowledge?
Fingers crossed I'll have my package of new rods by then...waiting for 8 in the post!!!
Yes, I did type eight. ;-)
I didn't hear much mention of dace?
Is it fairly dace free?
Shame for winter if it is as they are very reliable, when you know how, even in the worst of the winter.
cheers for posting the pics.
Dee

[gary]

Hi Dee

would love to go out fishing with you and Peter! I moved down to Northampton from Inverness a couple of years ago, where Salmon and Sea Trout were my main quarry... Tenkara has given me a re-kindled spirit for exploring the local streams and brooks, and now that I've caught a few course fish on the fly I'm 'hooked'

The Grayling in the Ise would be my favoured sport, to be honest (if we can find them! lol)

I'll PM you with my contact details, and see if we can sort something out for Sunday.

Tight lines

Gary

[gary]

Sunday 14th, morning session:

Had the pleasure of meeting Dee (skateboarddave) and Peter on Sunday morning for a session on the Ise, downstream from Warkton. A beautiful morning for Tenkara fishing, but... unfortuntatley the Ise was high and pretty coloured. The three of us gave it a couple of hours, but to no avail.

After lunch we headed off to another part of the Nene, where I very much enjoyed learning the new coarse fishing techniques so eloquently demonstrated by Dee and Peter, where both guys caught a few chub and perch... Unfortunately I broke my rod tip on some of the low lying branches... Was more than happy to watch my two new fishing friends though and very much enjoyed the day!

Thanks for sharing!

Looking forward to the next expedition gents!

Tight lines

Gary

[gary]

Extract from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Ise

River Ise
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The River Ise at Burton Latimer, Northamptonshire.
Country England
Counties Northamptonshire
Source Naseby Battlefield
Mouth River Nene
- location Wellingborough
- coordinates 52°17′42″N 0°39′59″W
The River Ise is a river in Northamptonshire, England and a tributary of the River Nene.
The river rises in the very field that hosted the Battle of Naseby at the north-western tip of Northamptonshire. Flowing east past Desborough and the Eleanor cross at Geddington, through the grounds of Rushton Hall[1] it then turns south and passes Kettering, though Wicksteed Park, past Barton Seagrave and Burton Latimer before joining the Nene just south of Wellingborough.

Fishing on The Ise

The Ise contains many varieties of coarse and game fish, including roach, perch, barbel and chub. It is also the only watercourse within Northamptonshire to contain grayling (thymallus thymallus).

Tight lines

Gary

[eddiepedalo]

I've fished the Ise all my life. These pictures are of the very upper Ise. There are few fish in this part of the river, odd pockets of roach, and the occasional escapee trout. It gets a little wider and deeper further downstream. Grayling? I wouldn't believe it, but I have caught one, once in thirty years. We locals call them the golden chalice, because very few anglers have ever seen one, let alone caught one. The river contains in order of commonness; Roach (some monsters), Chub (again, some very big fish with a high average size), Perch, Dace (appeared about 2010, becoming more common), and jack pike... there are a few rainbow trout, (now)rare gudgeon, the odd escaped carp, the afore mentioned rare as rocking horse s@%£ Grayling, and though I've never heard of one caught, I've seen a couple of bream in the past few years... and sadly now signal crayfish (thankfully we are still otter free. I've had reports of otter but in 100% of cases, they are always mink) Barbel were stocked into the lower Ise, where it meets the Nene during the 90s, but didn't spread upstream. As it's a nene tributery, there may be some right at the end of the river, after some impassable weirs, but for angling purposes the river is devoid of barbel, grayling and bream.