Trout And Other Fishes

 Last Thursday I had a bit of a wander  along a stretch I'd not fished for a long time. I only had an hour. I'd set up a duo rig for a bit of searching about if nothing was showing. As I got to where the public footpath deviates from the route I needed to take there was a hare apparently pointing me in the right direction. The section was far shorter than I remembered and I was soon at the bottom of it. There appeared to be a couple of fish rising on the far bank under the trees. I flicked the rig out into the river to start to cast and the klinkhammer shot away and in came a dace. I tried again and same thing, as dace had grabbed the nymph. Looking down from the top of the bank there was a very large shoal of them.

I cast over top the far bank and again the klinkhammer shot under. This time, though, it was a small grayling. I moved upstream and had another cast over to the faster current on the far bank and got another grayling. The slow current on the inside appeared to be full of dace and the faster current on the outside grayling. A I wandered up I had a few more casts. If I got a bit it was either a dace or grayling. All the same size like peas in a pod. I moved up to one of the faster riffles. This was full of ravenous minnows either try to sink the klink or devouring the nymph. The wind then got up and made a nuisance of its self. If it was blowing down stream the fly got dragged along faster than the current and if it was blowing upstream the fly line was held stationary in the slow current. This made fishing the far bank nay on impossible. Anyway time was up.

As I wandered down the stretch on Sunday there was the usual black stuff flittering about, along with the occasional Yellow May. Waders probably weren't the best idea in the heat but the wind was only light so I should be able to get a decent drift.  Near the bottom of the stretch I spotted two, possibly three, 10-12" trout apparently feeding in the shadows near an over hanging branch. They weren't rising but were darting about grab something or other just below the surface.   I set up a duo rig like last time only this time I put on a yellow klinkhammer. It took three casts to get the drift right but right it was. A larger trout of some 18" porpoised grabbed the klink and was away. The overhanging branch must have trailed well into the river as the line was going round it as the fish fled down stream. Sinking the rod tip caused the line to come loose and also the fish. Poo, or words to that effect.

I waited a bit but the other trout didn't return. A bit further up another trout was spotted in the shadows and first cast the nymph was grabbed. A spirited fight and a bit of leaping and my new floating landing nets was christened. A trout of 10" or so. A similar scenario played out a few minutes later this time with a slightly bigger trout. When i released it it sat for a while before launching it's self straight towards the bank and beaching it's self. It didn't make that mistake second time. It was a long release on the next two trout. One took the dry the other the nymph.

It was quite a while before I saw any more fish activity, apart from the parr leaping out of the water. It's surprising how far these little 4-6" beasties can get above the water. I was also surprised I hadn't hooked any. Given the heat I was about to give up when I spotted a fish of a similar size to the others casually swimming upstream in the middle of the river. I dropped the flies ahead of it and it slunk away before rising up to inspect the klink. It continued upstream, as did the klink. It must have grabbed the nymph as it exploded when I struck. Despite keeping the rod low it leapt about all over the place and was an absolute bugger to net, but net it I did. The biggest of the day at 12".

With lots of small grayling, some large shoals of dace and plenty of par about things are looking quite good for the river. A light flush through would be nice with the thunderstorms about. I also noticed a awful lot of pin fry in the margins. How many of these will survive I don't know. Many of the them will end up fattening the trout up. On the way back to the cat I noticed a kingfisher staring into what can only be described as a puddle. It shot away as I approached. Watching the puddle I could see a few 3-4" either dace or chub. I assume they'd ended up there when the river last flooded. A passer-by asked what I was looking at and when I pointed out the fish they suggested I could rescue them with my net. I suggested they were probably best left where they were to feed the kingfishers or what ever. They said they'd never have thought of that and that maybe things like that were supposed to happen to give the youngsters a fighting chance. The opening day of the coarse fish season is soon so I'll see you all then and tight lines to you all.