The Fog On The Moors Is Mine All Mine

The day started dull and drizzly, but changed to thick fog by the time I got onto the top of The Moors. Thick fog and Ewes with lambs is not a good combination. The lower the visibility the more likely the dozy ruminants are to be on the road. Thankfully there was very little traffic about so the occasional bit of evasive action wasn't a problem. I was listening to the latest Countryfile Podcast with Kevin Parr  about Adders, among other things. If it hadn't been so foggy I'd have stopped somewhere and had a wander round looking for one. The soggy Moors are not the place to be wandering far in the fog on your own though.

The river, as expected, was a few inches up and peat stained. It looked quite good, apart from the lack of fly life. I worked my way up using a duo rig with a black klinkhammer and a gold bad pheasant tail. I had the occasional poke nose around the gorse and scrub for adders, but like the fish they appear to be absent. A change to a gold bead red tag nymph produced a couple of knocks dragging the klink off to one side or the other. Three noisy oyster catches circled round me  a couple of times before heading back across the fields.I was then witness to a few martins, both house and sand, as well as a few swifts swooping over the river in the hope of food. 

I eventually spotted a couple of risers and after a a knock or two on the nymph a trout hit he klink the moment it hit the water. Quite a decent fish for the river. After this I suffered the attack of the mini trout including one that leapt over the fly. In the past I've watched them, in clear water, rise of the bottom and launch themselves in the direction of the fly. Sometimes they hit it and you may be lucky enough to hook one. Often they miss. Sometimes when there's a couple of them the faster of the two will end up in the air. It's great to watch, but very frustrating if you're trying to catch. 

 

I tried changing to a smaller emerger pattern, but they didn't seem interested in it. With the klink back on the hits continued for a while before fading away. I moved on but got no more action at all. As I walked back towards a gate between two fields the sheep in the far filed stampeded toward me. Stood staring for a little while before heading up the hill. Not sure what breed they are but it was rather strange behaviour.

Good Grief, A Trout

The weather forecast for Friday was not bad, or good. Intermittent/ isolated showers, this means it'll rain on me but there'll be sunshine over there. The river had been up a foot on Tuesday, but dropped back down nine inches by Friday. There was still a bit of colour in it, not as bad as I'd expected though. The ewes and their lambs had been turned out into the field on the opposite bank and were making a right racket. I spent the morning throwing streamers about with out an success. As lunch time came around the skies darkened, but swept over with only a bit of drizzle.

After lunch I headed to a shallower section to fish the duo. Heading to wards the river hail started to come down. The horses  trotted to shelter under the trees, the cattle and sheep just lay in the open ignoring it. After a while the sun came out and my nice black jacket went from being nice and snug to an oven with the sun on my back. With the sun came a hatch of sedge, but no sign of trout looking up. I'd worked my way to the top of the stretch when it started to darken again and a steady drizzle of the extra wet type started. I really was rather wet by the time I got back to the fence post I'd left my waterproof on, and forgotten about.

As I was putting the waterproof back on a fish rose near the bank. I licked the rig just upstream of the rise and almost immediately the the dry sedge shot upstream. A chunky 10" trout had grabbed the nymph. Apart from one leap when I struck it came in with out much of a struggle. By now the rain had turned to sleet. Wrestling the phone with wet hands I somehow managed to alter the settings. This meant the flash went. I abandoned any more prodding about with the phone, returned he fish and headed back to the car. First trout of the season. Sadly there's no video of it either as I had zipped up the jacket and aha been videoing the inside of the coat.

 

As I headed back to the car there was a long loud rumble of thunder. I sat in the car with a cuppa looking for some sign of brightness but it didn't look like it was forthcoming so made my way home. The combination of sleet and loose chippings on the road newly surfaced made dodging a stray peacock more stressful than it should have been. Despite the fact it had hardly rained at home it had persisted on and off for much of the evening where I was fishing.

So Near, Again

With appointments on Friday morning fishing was going to be afternoon into evening, but the weather forecast was iffy at best. In the cloudy weather and chilly breeze, despite the trees turning green and the dandelions along bank, the river looked rather uninviting. I decided on a klink and dink rig to run over some of the shallower runs as I'd been concentrating on the deeper holes previously. As I popped over the flood bank two cute little furry faces were looking up at me from the river. A pair of young otter disappeared under the water with a trail of of bubbles Probably last year's pups. There's been otters on here for years so I wasn't too worried they don't seem to have affected the fishing much at all.

After about an hour of fishing with only a few twigs to show for my efforts. At no point had I seen any thing rise. This was hardly surprising as I'd seen nothing hatching. While hatches on here are generally not prolific I'm surprised not to have seen anything on my trips here. With darkening clouds I arrived at a stretch where the river has pushed past the wooden piles. Second cast something took a lunge at the dry fly, taking me by surprise. Despite reasonable reactions I failed to contact. I managed a couple more casts over the area before the rain started. I waded across the river to try running the rig down the tree line. Fourth cast I was in the trees .By now the rain was getting rather heavy so after retrieving the flies I retire to the car. While partaking of a cuppa the rain eased off the got heavier several times. A look at the rain radar suggested this may go on for some time, so I set off home. I really dislike been wet and cold while try to fly fish.

A natter with another angler who'd failed to catch trotting worms. I assured him there was trout in the river, some very good ones at that. The fact a fish went for the dry fly was encouraging just a pity the weather didn't cooperate, but it is a bank holiday weekend.