With the trout season closing on Saturday and the weekend weather looking rather nasty, I managed to get up to the moos midweek for a final fling. The river was remarkably clear, but running about 4-5" inches up. A couple of anglers were trying, unsuccessfully, for sea trout in one f the larger pools.
With nothing showing I opted for a nymph set up, which I chucked about for an hour with only a small parr to show for my efforts. A few small uprights stated to appear as the sun put in an appearance and the odd fish started to rise. A change to a foam dun immediately brought a small trout followed by a parr. For a while after the fish just seemed to slash at the fly. A change to a black emerger pattern produced more hook ups, mainly from parr.
For the next couple of hours I managed the odd fish here and there, mainly parr with the odd trout in between. The largest fish of the day, at around 10", was clearly camera shy an slipped from my hand just before I got a photo. After a couple of hours the rises stopped and there was no more signs of insect life.
Not a bad end to the season. I lost count of the number of fish, mainly parr, caught If the predicted rain over the next couple of days isn't too bad I may be able to get out Saturday, but I have my doubts.
With my first choice of venue sill rather high, and looking somewhat coloured, I enacted plan B. A smaller river, still slightly high, but reasonably clear. Walking down to the bottom of the length I saw past the horses that seemed to be having a natter over the fence, no signs of fish activity so opted for a small gold head PTN, which I intended to toss into likely swims.
After 1½ hours of nothing I spotted a fish rising. A change to an emerger and I quickly had a pristine little grayling to hand. It was nearly another hour before I found more rising fish. I managed to bump the first one, but landed the second grayling, slightly larger than the first.
Round the next corner several more fish were rising, but by the time I'd got my self in position one of the cattle had decided it needed a drink. Not content with sipping at the edge, it decided it need a paddle as well. This put a stop to the rises and with more cattle heading in this direction I moved on.
The sun was now out, but the wind had got back up. It did, however, bring the fish up to the surface. Unfortunately they all seemed to be tiny tiny dace about 1-1½" long. Near the top of the length I managed to hook a slightly larger one which kindly abandoned the hook just out of reach. With that I called it a day.
It was getting on for mid Sunday afternoon before I got down to the river. After reports of fishing topping everywhere on Saturday afternoon, it looked decidedly dreary not really helped by the gusty breeze and spots of drizzle.
Putting on a recently tied daddy long legs, there was loads crawling about in the grass. I decided to see how well it rode in the faster more turbulent water. Very well as it turned out. Third cast and a small fish had a go at it. A couple more casts and I was in, momentarily. I had a few more casts before wandering upstream. With nothing stirring I was just prospecting in various likely looking spots. Apart from the odd tiny tiny dace nipping at the trailing legs, nothing else stirred.
Further on I spotted a reasonable fish under some weed. With a bit of top class casting, and help from a gust of wind, I managed to land the fly with a mighty plop, a good two foot from the weed. No matter, the trout shot out from under the weed and grabbed it. Clearly the feather like touch f the last couple hours had been the wrong approach. After a short, but spirited fight it was in the net. My first trout on dry fly from this stretch, after years of trying.
I was amazed how far it had managed to get such a big fly down it's throat, Thankfully I’d de-barbed the hook, so it was easily removed. Quite pleased with my self I set off upstream to see if I could find any more. I saw nothing more as I neared the top of the stretch, as the skies were starting to darken somewhat I headed back to the car. After a brief shower things brightened up a tad and the wind dropped so I decided to try a different stretch for the last hour before dark.
The only fish that were active seemed to be hoards of tiny dace, so small the couldn't even manage a size 20 IOBO. I did eventually manage to hook a couple of 4" specimens. Hopefully they'll survive the floods and we should see some decent shoals of dace in this stretch again.
There was also a notable increase in frogs and toads becoming active as it got dark, presumably fatting up for their winter hibernation on all the cane flies crawling about.
