A Trout At Last

Today's, Bank Holiday, trip in search of trout was to the Rye. Although famous for it's trout, to the extent people will pay a small fortune to one of the exclusive clubs, this stretch is more of a coarse fishery with a few trout. A wander up and down the upper stretch showed little sign of insect life and nothing rising. A few speculative casts along the tree line failed to produce. The first sign of life was in front of a cattle drink. As I sat trying to see what the rising fish were taking I heard the familiar snort of cattle and sure enough they had turned up for a drink and not top nosey at me. At least they were calm, not like the lunatic beasts that were in the field last year.  I continued to the top of the stretch with out an luck. Returning to the cattle drink to find it empty and clear with the fish still rising. I suspected they were small fish from the splashy rises and staring down from the top of the bank I could see little bars of silver dashing up from the bottom to grab what ever they were feeding on. Classic grayling stuff. A spot of luncheon then on to the next stretch seemed a good idea.

By now there were a few uprights flitting about, along with a variety of other flying beasties. A couple of which landed on me long enough for a photo. A size 14 foam dun seemed about the right size.  a few speculative casts here and there produced nothing. Eventually A couple of trout were spotted rising to the uprights. They were in a particularly awkward spot between what use to be the bank and the new bank. A row of piles  marked what used to be the bank. I've had problems here before trying to land fish, but still if that's where they're rising so be it. Really it's no worse than casting close to the trees and their roots. First cast and I was in. Initially I had things under control, but then it decided to head between the piles. Of course I'd forgotten to switch the action cam on. Paddling upstream I managed to get the line from round the pile and play the fish in the 'proper' river channel. The next problem was the little scoop net I was carrying. Thankfully it was in the net second attempt. A rather silvery beast for this water around 17". Not bad for the first of the season. A couple of rather poor photos later and a rest in the net and it swam off strongly.

A couple of fish were rising above where I'd caught this one. The first cast saw a little 'un charge the fly. Don't know if I missed or it missed, both, but no contact was made. A few casts later and I was in the bit of willow on the bank just as a tout rose where my flay should have landed. Thankfully if fell out with out snagging. I then missed the take a few casts later as I was looking at the wrong fly. I gave it a rest while I had a drink. The fish was still rising though and a couple of casts later I was in, only for it to throw the hook  with it's first jump through the piles. Sadly I had to paddle through the swim to retrieve the fly from one of the piles. By now the fly life was petering out and despite a fair old wander didn't see another fish rise. Still it was nice to finally net a fish and a pretty decent one at that.