They Should Tidy Up The Fallen Trees

When ever I go through the gate onto the unmade road I have to suppress the urge to go full Stig Blomqvist down the track When I arrived at the parking spot another vehicle was already there. They were fishing the pond, with out a great deal of success at that point. I readied myself and headed to the beck. I didn't pick the best route down through the trees as it was a bit boggy but eventually got to the beck. Where the first thing I did was spook a couple of trout.

There isn't a lot of room for casting in these parts. A lot of it is only accessible by bow-and-arrow casting. The first few swims were rather tight but I managed to get my Elk Hair Caddis into most of the right spots with out getting hung up. Eventually, have spooked a few more fish, I got to a little beach with a bit of casting room and had a couple of nice drifts with the fly. Third drift down a little trout shot up towards the fly. It missed it but leapt clear of the water and disappeared under some tree roots. Another cast to the top of the riffle produced a positive rise and a seven inch wild brown trout was soon in the net.

 

 A Few more spots were tried, but mainly I just seemed to be spooking fish as I tried to spot them while walking. Not a good idea as I either walked into branches or was tripped by brambles. I then spotted a nice slack but the only access was right above it. As I took a bit of a detour to avoid spooking any residents I came across the feathery remains of a a kill that a small bird was picking over. Presumably for nest lining. Round at the slack I lowered the fly into the water. It had nearly reached the fast water when it disappeared. A strike and I was in to something. The line had got caught on a trailing briar. The little trout quickly flipped itself off the hook.

A few more swims were tried with out any action. I then got to a smoothish glide where the fly attracted the attention of a small trout which had a splashy rise at the fly. Next cast the fly had only drifted a couple of inches when if was snaffled. A little spotty of around five inches. I managed to raise another little fish in the next riffle. I was now thirsty and hungry so made my way back up to the road ascending alongside an old moss covered dry stone wall.

After lunch I had a short session on the pond as I'd seen a couple of fish rising. Only one of the anglers was still fishing and he lost is only fish of the day taken on nymph. After they ignored my caddis I tried a small Dynamite Harry. This too was ignored. I then spent a little while using it on the section of beck than runs by the pond to no avail. Clearly not all the fish are looking up yet. Another angler had a couple on nymphs following me.

Clearly there are a fair few trout in this beck as evidenced by my spooking them. I'll have to get my stealth mode practiced some more. As for those big creatures in the pond. I think they're best ignored for now.

What the fishing now needs is some settled weather and less rain as I would like to get up to the Dales as well.