No Insects - No Fish

 I'd have preferred to fish on Friday, but appointments, etc. meant I couldn't, so Thursday it was. Despite the north-east wind on both days Friday at least had some sunshine, whereas Thursday was dull and overcast. Looking from the bridge the lack of life was astonishing. A couple of bees, a butterfly, and few black things were all the insects I could see. A dipper and a few mallard with ducklings were on the river. Three oyster catchers flew over head making a racket. Never understood this as the oysters must be able to hear them coming and have time to go into hiding.

Rather than fish I decide to have a wander along the river and see if anything anywhere was happening. The answer was no. The odd tiny fish could be seen dimpling the surface. Others gave a splashy rise. Nothing of any size showed at all. No of this was surprising given the weather conditions and the state of the river. It was low and weedy with horrible green slimy algae around. The area looked some what desolate apart from the sheep and a flock of gooses. There were a few interesting looking riffles that may hold fish. The deeper sections looked dire and covered in debris and in some places a brown scum. My local canals have more flow. Herbicide had obviously been recently sprayed as well given the wilting thistles. They lack of insects around the sheep shit was also a tad worrying.

After an early tea I set up a spider rig to fish the riffles. Despite the long walk between the ones deep enough to fish I set off with hope. This had faded by the time I got to the top of the stretch with nothing to show for my efforts. On the way back I switch to dry fly. A klinkhammer and a small black beastie were rigged up. The pink post on the klinkhammer allowing in to show up among the bits of debris and also allowing me to have an idea where the little black beastie was. All that happened they they hit the water was for little fish to attack them. Nothing of any size made an attempt, as far as I could tell, to take the flies. I also tried a nymph in the faster riffles but it always ended up stuck in the weed and slime.

I waited nearly to dark hoping something would happen, but no. not a thing. A spot of rain and a change of wind direction would do wonders for the river and the fishing. I now, however, have a lot better idea of the the parking spots and access places for my next visit.