Refusing Their Food

Despite the threat of a strong breeze and the bank holiday traffic I made the late decision to have a go at a local beck.. Not far into the journey I abandoned the slow moving traffic on the main road and dodged down the single track roads to my chosen venue. Not long after arriving I had a quick chat with a fellow angler, out walking his dogs. Like me he had spotted a few Hawthorn flies about. He'd also spotted a couple of fish rising on the downstream stretch he'd just walked along.

With a faint smell of garlic in the air as I crushed the vegetation making my way the the bank side I saw a rise. Flicking the Hawthorn imitation in as best I could between the over hanging branches I got a fish rise to it straight away, but the fish turned away at last minute. As I repositioned myself on the bank it had another look, this time resulting in a splashy rise, as if trying to sink it. Another cast resulted in a similar train of events This also occurred when a natural fell on the water. After this there was no more rises in the area so I moved on. Over the next half hour I witnessed this behaviour several times. I know the trout in here are generally small at around 6", but a Hawthorn fly is not a massive insect and well within their capabilities.

Further round while wading in about 8" of water looked down to see a very small pike holding station along side my foot, disappearing as I reached for my camera.

After this I didn't see any fish rising for quire awhile and was considering a change to nymph when I arrived at one of the large pools to see several fish rising. The Hawthorn was again treat with contempt and as I couldn't see what they were rising to, I put on a small DHE. First cast  and I was into one of the typical little 6' WBT. With fish still rising I unhooked it and cast again. Another, slightly darker WBT of the same size, another quickly followed before. The next fish very quickly shed the hook. Looking round the rises had stopped a few speculative casts produced nothing. I sat and had a drink and waited to see if anything would rise again, but there was nothing.

I continued upstream, but a nasty breeze had sprung up. The occasional Hawthorn fell on the water, but nothing seemed to want to eat them. With nothing much happening I set off back to the car dropping a gold-head PTN into the occasional deeper run around the tree roots, which only resulted in the occasional need to un-snag the nymph. Despite the fact that small trout are supposed to be greedy little fish they can be very fussy and frustrating at times.

It was only when I got home and upload the photos from my phone did I realise that, in my excitement I'd failed to take any pictures
of the fish.