River Test

The River Test is a chalk stream in Hampshire in the south of England. It rises at Ashe near Basingstoke and flows southwards for 40 miles (64 km) to Southampton Water. Settlements on the Test include the towns of Stockbridge and Romsey. Below the village of Longparish, the river is broadly followed by the Test Way, a long-distance footpath.

Much of the Test is a 438-hectare (1,080-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest. It is part of the Solent and Southampton Water Ramsar site and Special Protection Area The river is used for fly fishing for trout from its source to its tidal limit.

Fishing

The River Test in Hampshire is widely renowned for the quality of its water, its pastoral landscape, the wildlife it supports and the fishing it provides. Internationally, it is a byword amongst anglers for very high quality fishing in an idyllic environment, steeped in angling history. The prime quarry is the brown trout Salmo trutta, but there are productive atlantic salmon Salmo salar and sea trout (also Salmo trutta) fisheries in the lower reaches and coarse (non-salmonid species) and grayling
(Thymallus thymallus) fishing is increasingly popular in winter.

Due to the high demand for trout fishing throughout the season, the majority of fisheries supplement their stock by regularly introducing farmed fish. Nonetheless, fish population surveys throughout the catchment demonstrate that wild trout are abundant wherever habitat quality is good enough, which is typically in unimpounded, less modified reaches.

In common with most rivers, the number of fish species present increases farther downstream, but unusually, the Test has relatively steep, fast-flowing sections in its lower reaches, so the species that are typically representative of the upper parts of the river, especially wild brown trout and grayling, also thrive here.

Several fish species found in the Test are of international conservation interest, including Atlantic salmon, European eel Anguilla anguilla, bullhead Cottus gobio, brook and sea lamprey Lampetra planeri / Petromyzon marinus.

Anglers fishing for salmon and sea trout on the lower Test occasionally catch coarse fish species; most frequently perch Perca fluviatilis, pike Esox lucius and chub Leusicus cephalus, but carp Cyprinus carpio, common bream Abramis brama, roach Rutilus rutilus and eel Anguilla anguilla have also been recorded in the catch records.