Salmon Fishing?

Sunday saw me making my way to the Esk, a river I hadn't fished for decades, for my third attempt at catching a WBT this season. My first attempt was on a river that was still a bit high and the second, on a small beck, resulted in one fish hooked and lost when the rod tip got tangled in the branches of a Hawthorn.

With no sign of fish moving I decide to fish a couple of spiders upstream. After an hour I'd seen no sign of fish so started heading back to the car when I spotted a splashy rise in the middle of a glide. I little tug moments after the flies hit the water resulted in a salmon parr. Another cast in the same area produced a second. As I continued my wander back to the car I picked up three more salmon parr. No sign of any trout though.

I moved to a another section of the river hoping for more trout and less parr. Here I soon spotted a trout nosing catkins about in a small eddy. I cast a Grey Duster dry fly at it a couple of times before another little parr snatched the fly. By now the wind had changed direction and got stronger, making accurate casting a bit awkward. A bit further along  a couple of small fish were rising, to something. Covering them with the Grey Duster resulted in nothing, but a change to a John Storey ssaw me land my first WBT of the season. Several more, all rather small, followed. By now the strengthening wind was making cast hard work as it swirled around the high banks. It was getting cold as well, with less and less fish rising.

I had a short wander along a third section with only the occasional cast finally managing a double figures in WBT. Eleven WBT and seventeen parr seemed like quite a good day to me, even if they were all rather small.