Good For The Mind

 It's said that angling is good for mental health. This may be true most of the time but some days can be spectacularly frustrating. Today was one of those days.

I drove the long way round because the council road works map said a road was still closed, I discovered later it was in fact open. Having got set up it was noticeably cold here in the forest than it had been at home, but I was at least sheltered from the wind. I then searched the car for my wading staff but it was nowhere to be seen. Having mentioned in conversation how useful they are when descending or ascending slippy banks I could have done with it as I descended to the beck. The soggy leaves didn't offer much traction and I started heading downhill very quickly. OI managed to grab a tree, but it wasn't a lot of good as it was dead and rotten and snapped. It did slow me enough to dig my heels in though. Only problem then was that I'd thrown the rod out of the way so as not to break it and it was now several feet above me. Eventually I managed to retrieve it with the aid of a handy branch.

Things got a bit better when in the second swim I got a take on a PTN jig. What I hadn't taken into account was that I was a couple of feet or so above the water and only had a little scope net, so I attempted to swing the little beastie in. One bit of aerial acrobatics and it was off. Oh well, at least I know the fly was working. A couple of swims later on I had another, taken as I allowed the nymph to rise in the water at the end of the drift. A quick strike and I hit the tree to my right bumping the fish off. At least the tree had a thick layer of moss on it which stopped the rod being damaged. Over the next few swims I thought i had a couple of takes but wasn't sure. I did snag up on a the odd branch or two and the occasional root but managed to retrieve the fly each time. One of the advantages of fly rod tip rings is that they're not lined and you can use them as a disgorger to retrieve the fly. 

The next section was a bit problematic navigation wise with fallen trees over the beck and hawthorns in the way. I also managed to raise a mallard couple that I hadn't seen which gave me a bit of a start and ruined a rather nice looking swim. I also discovered that there's a leak in the waders at about thigh height. I'm surprised there isn't more given the brambles, briar, and hawthorns about. Luckily the barbed wire fence is a good distance from the beck. Over the next hour I managed to hook and lose three more fish. Don't know why. I changed the fly after the first two just in case.

I fished on for a bit longer with out an success until I arrived at one of the foot bridges. A look at the time showed I'd been fishing for three hours although it didn't seem like it. Despite this I was only fifteen minutes or so along the road from the car. At least I had a nice path up to the road instead of trying to scramble up the soggy steep slope to it.

A rather frustrating session on a cold, damp, overcast day. A warming pot noodle for lunch lifted things a bit but then the drizzle started earlier than expected. One problem with this spot is that there's no phone signal. This means I can't look at the rain radar. One of the better uses of the internet. If you can't see the horizon you don't really know when the rain is going to arrive. As it was the drizzle stopped by the time I'd finished lunch, but if the weather forecast was accurate heavy rain was due around three. I decided to have a cast about on the pond as I'd just got a new line for the ten footer. The new line really suited the rod more than the old one. Maybe it was the shorter head that helped. I did see one fish in the pond and cast a nymph to it a couple of times. On the third cast I'd forgotten I'd taken a couple of steps along the bank and landed the nymph in the tree behind me. So had others judging by the flies up there. I was unable to use the rod as a disgorger as the tippet had wrapped round a few twigs by the look of things. I pulled for a break and left the fly up there to join the others.

The rain proper then started to come down eventually getting very heavy. I got back to the car before the heavens opened. It the eased a bit as I drove out of the forest, but by the time I'd dropped down the valley to the village it was torrential again. The roads were covered with big puddles and on parts of the dual carriageway only one lane was usable as the other was flooded. Having thought about the day when I got home it wasn't as bad as it could have been. I'd hooked five fish. Two I'd lost through my own fault. The others were just one of those things. So really the fly was the right choice and my nymphing technique must have been about right. I be glad when things warm up and they are willing to rise to a dry fly though.