Plenty Of Food, But No Fish

Had a rather frustrating day waving a fly rod about on a local beck today. After my previous visit, when it was rather coloured, it was nice to see it had cleared up. Not crystal clear though, as it generally has a bit of a tinge to it. As I walked down to the bottom of the stretch it was clear there was plenty of insect life about in the shape of midges and the odd hawthorn fly. The only thing missing was rising fish.

 








Not long after entering the water I came across a shoal of dace completely ignoring the swarm of midges above them. This happened a couple more times as I made my way upstream. Eventually I came across my first trout picking out the odd hawthorn fly from in among the midges. A precision cast saw my stunning imitation land 6" upstream and to the right of the fish, which promptly swung 2' across the stream to take the real thing. This went on for another three or four casts, until a small dace grabbed the fly. I quickly flicked it off the hook so I could concentrate on the trout. Unfortunately the short commotion had frightened it off. I waited a while, while I had a drink, but it didn't start feeding again. Round the bend further upstream it was nice to see one of the larger residents picking off insects in among the trailing brambles. I doubt this fish will ever be caught as it's impossible to get any sort of bait to it and as it's on the outside of a bend food just gets washed towards it.

Further on another trout was spotted under a hawthorn again just selecting the hawthorn flies from in among the midges. As there was no way of casting upstream to it due to the long hanging branches I snuck around upstream of it. I dropped the fly well short of it and fed the line out, as it drifted down stream, by shaking the rod. Just as the fly reached the area I'd seen the fish rising in I realised I'd read the current wrong. The fly line got caught in an eddy and dragged the fly across the water spooking the fish and sending it panicking downstream.

The next couple of hundred yards is unfishable with a fly rod due to the low hanging trees, but it does open out into a nice pool were two or three small trout were feeding. The winter floods, though, had scoured out a deep channel at the tail end were it flowed between two large trees too deep for waist waders any way. So I found myself perched on slippery tree roots in order to get a cast to them. With one of those strange casts only anglers on small stream use I somehow managed to land the fly in the right area. It was taken the moment it landed, not by a trout, but a large chub that appeared from nowhere. Within moments of striking it was in the tree roots and the line parted. Some what miffed I fished through the last couple of pools half-heartedly, with a variety of flies, but the only thing in them seemed to be minnows.

The shortage of trout rising despite the abundance of insects was a bit puzzling, there again angling is generally a a bit/lot puzzling. Next time I think I may try the UL lure rod along the tree tunnel.