Fifth Session Sixth River Of The Trout Season

 Thursday, before the bank holiday traffic took hold, I headed up to the valley of cheese in my pursuit of trout on fly. Whilst I've fished the river plenty of times before I've not fished this stretch. I've seen plenty of trout come out of it when I've walked the myriad of paths in the area. On arrival I had a wander up and down the length perusing the clubs notes at the same time. The river appeared to be very much as described with the upper section looking the best. The only thing I saw rise was a couple of mallard, three oyster catchers and the odd wagtail. I did, however, spot an interesting bit of bank protection restoration using old rubbish. Judging by the old MW/LW radio facia I'd say it had been there a long time.  By the time I got back to the car the sky had got greyer and a chill breeze had got up.

As I sat by the car having my cuppa a rather panicky ewe came trotting up the bank and on to the road. She made an attempt to get through the sprung gate onto the public footpath before heading to the field gate and back again. By this time her bleating had attracted her two offspring who came over and attempt to get through the fence. Luckily four bikers turned up. I held the small gate open while a biker held the field gate open and the other three attempted to shoo her towards the gates. She had other ideas though and with a couple of strides and a leap hoped over the barbed wire fence into the field. Her and her twins raced off to the other side of the field well away from us. gate secured the bikers went on their way.

 

With no insects about, apart from the odd bumble bee, it looked like a nymph and/or spider sort of day. A small flashback PTN on the point, a partridge & orange, then a pearly butt bloa on the top seemed a good starting point. Third cast and I was in. A small grayling on the partridge & orange, quickly flicked off the barbless hook. Where there's one there's normally more so I waded further up. Further up the tip of the fly line jagged again and I hit something heavy. It came downstream slowly, like a large twig or some other debris. With only a few feet of fly line out of the tip it suddenly turned into a fish and swung out to the middle of the river before heading downstream a rate of knots. I managed to slow it down before it turned towards the nearside bank and started to head towards some tree roots. A bit more pressure to stop it and it came adrift. What do I have to do to keep them on the hook. By the tattered look of the partridge & orange it was that that was taken. A tad pissed off I headed back to the car for a cuppa and something to eat.

I ventured further upstream flicking the team of three ahead of me until I reached a nice looking spot where the river narrowed somewhat. A couple of casts and in again. Another small grayling to the partridge & orange. A gentleman appeared on the opposite bank, fishing rod in hand. Grayling? he inquired. We had a natter. He'd fished his club beat half a dozen times this season and all he'd had was grayling and one trout that fell off. A comparison of flies showed we were fishing very similar setups. He had a copperhead mary on the point, a bloa on the middle and an partridge & orange on the top dropper. He said he preferred dry fly as nymphs and spiders tended to attract the grayling, but fly life had been scarce when the river was fishable. A deer hair emerger or something small and black were his recommendations for dries unless you can see what the fish were taking. We wished each other tight lines and started fishing again. A few casts later I was into another small grayling on the partridge and orange. 

Further up I thought I saw a rise. I sat on the bank and watched. Over the next couple of minutes there was three more rises in the same area. I changed to a DHE and waited. Nothing rose again. I made a few speculative casts to the area but nothing was interested. Wandering further up I spotted a couple of rises on the far bank. The occasional rise continued as I waded across the river to a suitable spot for a cast. The first two fell short. The third was spot on, and the fly ignored as a rise appeared closer to the bank. My cast was too close to the bank and the fly snagged some trailing vegetation. I had to wade up to release it which kinda ruined the swim. Thankfully something was rising upstream in the middle of the river.  It took a few casts and a change to spot to get a drag free drift. Eventually something took my fly. Another damn grayling, slightly bigger than the previous three.

I wandered to the top of the beat with out seeing any more risers. By now the breeze had got stronger and it was starting to feel cold. As I headed back it started drizzling. Time to go I thought. I kept scanning the river and saw a couple of rises in the spot I'd first tried with a dry fly. I had a cast from the top of the bank and was taken by surprise when the fly disappeared. It was another grayling that refused to fall off the hook even when I gave it slack line. I slid down the bank grabbed the leader and slid my hand down to unhook it. The moment I touched it it flipped off the hook. 

 

That was it as the drizzle turned to rain. By the time I'd got back to the car and made a cuppa it returned to drizzle. The other angler returned to his car. He'd managed a 12" trout to DHE and four grayling on the same method. As he said you just have to persevere and hope a trout gets to the fly before the grayling. Despite the lack of trout it was a pleasant enough exploratory day and I'll be back. The drive home showed how patchy the rain was. You'd be driving through a heavy shower, turn a corner and the road was bone dry.