I had to head some distance south west today into what looked like some rather rainy weather. Despite this I'd put some fly tackle in the boot of the car as I'd have to amuse myself for a few hours while the elders attended a funeral. I search of the web had suggested that there was a stretch of free fishing on one of the revitalised industrial rivers. The articles and videos were quite old though so things may not be true. Between the photos. videos, and google maps I'd thought I'd worked out an accessible stretch with some parking. My guess proved right. A quick wander about down in the valley showed there to be a rather nice looking river and if it wasn't a few bits of graffiti on the industrial buildings you could have been anywhere.
What little info I'd found suggested a small pheasant tail nymph and a spider was the way forward. Looking at the river this seemed reasonable. After a few casts it became clear the gold head nymph was too heavy as I was constantly snagging the bottom. A change to a little brass head one elicited a violent take on the second drift down. I was taken completely by surprise by this and completely fluffed the strike and failed to contact. A bit further upstream I had another take, not as violent, that stuck momentarily. The rod lurched over then the hook came adrift. I don't know what I'm doing wrong, if anything, but I can't get trout to stick this season. Maybe I'm not striking hard enough with my new lighter, longer rod.
By now I wasn't far off the Private Property notice with only a couple more runs to fish. As I waded along the edge of the river it changed from stoney to sandy. Suddenly I went from ankle deep in water to over my waders. I plummeted into a hole of semi-rotten vegetation judging by the smell of methane. Luckily I was able to grab a tree root and pull myself up before too much freezing water got down the front of the waders. The bottom had looked no different to the rest of the sandy area. It had now decided to start rain as well. I can take a hint and retired to the car. Of course my bag of spare clothes wasn't in the car. They'd got slightly damp after being in the car so long so I'd taken them out and washed them but not returned them. I did have the waterproof seat cover though.
Luckily I wasn't too wet and the stuff I had on was fairly quick drying. After a cuppa with the car heater running I was only damp. With the rain coming down heavy I pondered what to do next. A look on google maps showed Peaks Fly Fishing to be nearby so I had a drive up there. With the aid of Vanessa, and a nice black lab who's name I forget, I soon managed to spend a three figure sum on some essentials.
After a spot of lunch I had a drive back along the road by the river and hunted down a couple more access points with parking. If the wind and rain sort themselves out I have three directions to travel for some trout fishing. Hopefully I'll get one to stick to the hooks soon.
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