Nice Day For a Paddle

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.