Day Three And Another New Water

 Wednesday I headed for the club's new beat. The route to it involves a precipitous decent down an unmade road with no passing places. I was wondering what you do when you meet another vehicle ascending the road, or vice-versa. This worry intensified while I was having lunch. A large tractor towing a trailer set off up the hill. I know the vehicle going uphill has priority, as do large tractors, but i really didn't fancy having to reverse back up.

All that been said it was rather nice down at the bottom. First thing i did was have a wander along the path above the beck. When I say above I mean above. You get the sort of views of the beck that one would get with a drone. Access points were limited to where the path dropped as the hillside is steep, very steep in places. Having accessed the beck I set off back upstream along it's banks. This is no mean feat either as the are many fallen trees. I'm not sure this is expensive breathable wader territory. Although mine got through unscathed when I started fishing later. A couple of ladders to help you get out and a bench for a contemplate have been put in by a work party.

After a cuppa I wander part way down with rod in hand. the usual Elk Hair Caddis on the end of the leader. As I approached a ninety degree bend. something had a go at the fly. Several more attempts were made by what appeared to be rather small trout. There seemed to be quite few in the area as no matter where I cast something had ago. They obviously had eyes bigger than their bellies. A bit further round something a tad larger grabbed the fly. A wee spotted beastie of 6" which looked like a monster compared to the ones that had previously attacked the fly.

After some lunch while it rained I headed further down the beck. I'd added a dropper with a small Copper Head Mary nymph. The fallen trees mean you have to get in and out of the beck to get round them. Sometimes doubling back down the beck to where you got in. At one point there was a small hatch of Iron Blues but I didn't see anything rise for them. I continued on with the duo rig. This too was problematic at times when it got snagged. This meant spoiling the swim to retrieve the snagged rig. Better than leaving litter though.

Eventually I got to the riffle where I'd had the fly attacked by little trout. Strangely the seemed to be happy attacking the dry fly but showed no interest in the nymph. Eventually I took one on the nymph but it turned out to be foul-hooked behind the gill plate. Probably four inches long the slippery little beastie was back in the water before I could photograph it. Little fish like that are a good sign even if they're a menace at times.

Despite the size of fish and the lack of numbers it was a fun day out and there's still plenty to explore. In the mean time here's another steam train.

When it was home time I decided to leave by the other side of the valley. This turned out to be a very silly idea. While the first part of the unmade road was OK a section in a dip was very very wet and had eighteen inch deep ruts in it. Even A 4x4 would have trouble. It was a tractor only job. I then had to reverse some hundred and fitly yards back before I could turn and take the route out by which I'd arrived.