Several Changes of Plan

 My original plan for Thursday was to park up at the top of the stretch I intended to fish, walk down to the bottom and fish back to the car. This idea was stymied by a fallen tree across the track. I could drag it so far but it had fallen between a couple of large rocks which would require me to lift it  as well. My back suggested this wasn't a good idea. Annoyingly I'd taken my bow saw out of the car earlier in the week. There's nothing much in the way of phone signal around here, so it was back to the village to get in touch with the appropriate people. Having informed them I set off back round to the parking at bottom of the stretch. Before that I had a look at the weather forecast as it seemed to be drizzling for longer than I'd expected. I suspect my clumsy fingers had brought up Friday's forecast and not Thursday's.

Arriving at the bottom of the stretch the drizzle had now turned to rain. A cuppa seemed like a good idea while I contemplated whether to fish or not. The drizzle eased off and I decided to stay. It was while setting up that I discovered I left my box of nymphs at home. I been sorting the fly boxes out during the week and had replenished the nymphs and put them in a separate box. Given the complete lack of fly life nymphing seemed to be the way to go. Others had been catching up to a dozen fish on nymphs. A small goldhead PTN was found in an old fly box in my bag. This went on and started chucking it into the deeper holes. This plan soon fell apart when it became snagged in one of the deep, three foot, holes. Despite paddling across the beck I was unable to get to the nymph which seemed to have disappeared in among the roots.

It was now dry fly time, whether I liked it or not., I tried anything from a large retirer sedge to a little IOBO and everything in between. In the time I fished I managed to spook only two fish and saw one rise once under some barbed wire across the beck. After another cuppa I had another change of plan. This nearest fly to a nymph I could find was a small Black Magic Spider so this went on and I had another got but to no avail. As i got back to the car as the drizzle turned back to train another angler arrived. After a natter he went on his way with some nice heavy nymphs while I went to have a wander round the pond. The rain had stopped but you wouldn't have known it under the trees round the pond. Every gust of wind brought down a deluge off the leaves. Quite a few of the stocked browns were showing but out in the middle. When I spotted one close to the bank I couldn't resist having a go. I cast the little spider out in front of it. It cruised up and grabbed it. It was at this point I remembered I only had a 2.3lb tippet on and there's a fair bit of weed in the pond. Luckily for me the 17" brown was cooperative and stay away from the weed. It did have an attempt at gathering twigs by swimming along the bank, but none caused a problem. By sitting on the bank I was able to gather it up in the little scoop net.

I did contemplating getting a longer rod out of the car and doing a bit more in the pond but the strong wind made life under the trees very unpleasant. One day I'm going to arrive on a pleasant day with abundant fly life about and trout rising everywhere, even to my fly and have a nice day.

More Partying & A Spot Of Fishing

After viciously attacking the brambles, hawthorn, etc. that were creeping over the path around the pond creating trip hazards and or the potential to poke your eye out I had an hour or so on the little beck that runs along side. This one doesn't get badly affected by the rain and tends to run clear, very clear, most of the time.

There were a few olives fluttering about and the odd mayfly, lacewing, and small daddy also seen. Dry fly seemed the obvious choice, but what to tie on the end. A quick natter with the local sheep reviled them to be from the Oliver Edwards semi realistic camp. The one that caught my eye as I went through the box was a Nigel Nunn inspired YTP type thing. Somewhat lighter dressed though.

The trick with little streams like this is to stomp along the bank spooking the fish so you know where they are. You then wit for them to settle before snagging the fly on the barbed wire fence or chucking it into the overhanging branch the fish is hiding under. This is what it seemed to be like to me. Eventually I landed a the fly on the water and a fish went for it at great speed. It grabbed the fly somersaulted out of the water and spat the fly out again before I knew what was happening. The next three fished that may or may not have grabbed the fly I missed. Eventually a fish stuck to the fly and a little plump 9" WBT was landed.

After a couple more attacks that I failed to contact with I did hook another that somersaulted off the hook. One f the problems with small trout, especially if there are two or more in a pool is the eagerness to grab food before the others get to it. This means the come at things too quickly and often miss, but look like they've taken the fly. With the sporadic hatches we've had so far this year this problem gets exaggerated. A bit of settled weather and a decent hatch life will be a lot easier.

Work Party & Fishing After The Rain

 Wednesday it chucked it down for most of the day. Some places ended up with more than a months rain in that time. It was, therefore, no surprise that the beck was up a couple of inches and rather coloured. We did manage to remove some annoying vegetation. Mainly dead stuff dangling over the beck that was impeding access.

After some lunch a bit of angling was called for. Some insect life was hatching in the afternoon. A few mayfly, the odd olive, and a solitary yellow may. Given the colour and the lack of rising fish nymphs seemed to be the order of the day. I have to admit nymphing isn't my favourite pastime but seemed to be the only way of catching. I started with a gold head PTN jig which was clearly heavy enough in the fast current given the number of twigs it dredged up. Eventually it managed to attach itself to something heavier than a twig and was lost. I didn't have a great selection of nymphs with me as this should be dry fly season. 

I was going to fish a spot where the beck narrowed but spotted a fish rising in an eddy just upstream. I tossed the nymph into the eddy and a lovely little trout hit it hard. A nice WBT of 8". The next cast produced a slightly smaller fish of 7". The third cast a fish hit but I failed to make contact. The fish took the nymph in the top foot or so in a 3-4' deep hole. I fished the eddy a while longer. For nothing else.

I continued on upstream but only managed a few more twigs and the odd tree. Considering the state of the beck and my dislike of nymphing I'll take two little fish as a good result. The other lad fishing with me managed a 10" trout fishing nymph with a tenkara rod.

 

I'll be out again tomorrow, Friday, on another work party and a different beck that doesn't get as affected by the rain.

Once More Into The Valley

 Driving up to the fishing in the drizzle wasn't the start I'd wanted but it did keep the dust down on the track up the valley. The drizzle got heavier as I arrived at the parking place so a cuppa seemed like a good idea. Once the drizzle had stopped I wandered through the woods to the beck. Every time a gust of wind blow I got rained on again. This was going to make spotting rising fish a bit of a problem. The gusts also brought down large quantities of scales from leaf buds. While they are quite useful in showing you were the flow goes, it's not always where you think. They're a bit of a menace when it comes to casting a fly.

With precious little fly life about bar some 'black stuff' I put on a small DH Midge and proceeded to chuck it about into the likely looking spots and anywhere else for that matter. The leaf debris and the aftermath of the drizzle been blown form the trees got to be a bit of a nuisance to say the least. I really couldn't tell if fish were rising or not. I also developed an uncanny knack of landing the fly on the leaf debris.

Eventually the debris cleared long enough to spot a fish rising midstream. A couple of casts and I was into a lively little 6" wild brown trout.

 

I continued on up to the weir with nothing else to show for my efforts. No large insects had shown all morning. Time for luncheon. When I got back to the parking spot a couple more anglers had arrived. A bit of a discussion took place with everybody offering to let everybody else have first choice of where to fish. One chap was to go over the section I'd fished and and another was going upstream with me following  once I'd had my lunch.

More fish were rising in the afternoon and a fair few mayfly were fluttering about. I saw a trout rise for one but miss it as the mayfly took of from the water just in time. I tried a couple of larger flies but the trout weren't interested. The chap above me hook but lost one. The chap that went up the lower section took one on dry, the only rise he saw, a fifteen on nymph. I suspected the nymph may be the tactic but I much prefer dry fly and for now I'm sticking to it. I think, as do others, that the very sporadic hatches are one of the reasons the fish aren't really looking up. If the weather would just settle I think we'd have some great dry fly action here.

RFM and Fluff Flinging

 The bank holiday was also a RFM day, so off I popped up to the beck for a bit of creepy-crawly counting. There are two sites for the count. One above town and one below. Along with the invertebrates used for the count there were a fair few chironomids, a fingerling trout, a minnow (the first in several years apparently), and a few bullhead were also dredged up. The counts went quite quickly with plenty of us helping. Chasing BWO nymphs around a large white tray isn't the easiest pastime.

 

Cased caddis	110	3
Caseless caddis	8	1
Baetis	130	3
Stonefly	4	1
BWO	20	2
Heptagens	40	2
Mayfly	40	2
Gammerus	60	2
	ARMI score total =	16

Cased caddis	30	2
Caseless caddis	5	1
Baetis	110	3
Stonefly	20	2
BWO	40	2
Heptagens	250	3
Mayfly	30	2
Gammerus	80	2
	ARMI score total =	17

After a spot of lunch I headed up to the woods for a spot of fishing. Others attacked different beats. Some did better than others. I stuck with dry fly. An olive klinkhammer was to be flung about. Not long after entering the woods I saw a fish rise. I sat and waited to see if it would rise again, which it did. The first cast was not only short of the mark but on the wrong side of the beck. A couple more casts in the right place and the fish took the fly. A rather nice 10' WBT. 

A bit further along while casting to likely looking spots I spotted another fish rising. I waited a while for another rise, and got two odd looking ones. The another very splashy rise, but this time I saw something plummeting to the water. looking up I spotted a squirrel faffing about. The bits of debris hadn't passed me but were being pushed into the bank by the current. As I made my way past the squirrel I got a fright from a mallard leaving her nest hidden among some brambles.

Around a rather twisty bit I spotted another fish rising. It was a fish as I could see it. The current here was all over the place. After a couple of cast I managed to get a decent drift. I saw the fish come up, but the fly was suddenly dragged away by the current. I had a few more goes but didn't see the fish again.

Just round the corner another fish was rising. I have no idea what any of them were rising to as I'd seen nothing hatching. A stunning first cast in tight surrounds saw the fly drift a couple of inches before being taken. The moment I struck it shot down stream at great speed and I had trouble hauling the line in quick enough to keep contact with it. After a bit of faffing about I had the fish in front of me, but I was up on the bank with a little scoop net. The water under the bank looked deep, but with no way of taking the fish up or down stream I crashed into the water. It was only knee deep the shadows had made it look deeper and darker. Another WBT of a similar size.

I decided against speculative casting and wandered along the bank looking for rising fish. I did find another but it didn't seem to like my fly. I soon came to the bridge, no sign of a bridge trout, which is about three quarters of a mile from the car along the public footpath. No idea how far I'd walked along the very wiggly beck though.

While had a cuppa back at the car I did a Big River Watch survey. A kingfisher kindly shot past as I stood on the bridge. The first I've seen on the beck.

I managed to avoid the worst of the holiday traffic getting home. At home I discovered a problem when trying to transfer the day's photos. Every one of them was corrupted. As they phone only backs up over WiFi I had no other copies. I got the files off with a lot of messing about but can't convince any software that they're photos. A scan of the SD card showed some corruption so, with everything else backed up, I reformatted the card. Things seem to be working OK again now. If I manage to sort the files I'll update the blog with the photos.

Down The Bottom And In The Woods

 As I wandered down to the bottom end of the stretch looking for signs of life in or on the water I spotted the flash of a fish. I got myself in a position to have a cast at it. I had a klink 'n' dink rig with a small gold head PTN on the bottom. Second cast and the Klinkhammer skated on the surface and I was into a fish which turned out to be a 7-8" out of season grayling which kindly flipped off the hook as I grabbed the leader. It was certainly livelier than the previous grayling I'd caught.

As no more fish were forthcoming I continued to the bottom of the stretch. There was still no fly life. I cast into all the likely places to no avail. About half way back I'd cast over to the far side when I thought I saw a fish jump. I forgot about the flies that had now swung into the near bank. Another little fish jumped the other side of some trailing roots. The rod tip then jagged about. By the time I'd realised what was happening the fish had vanished. I had a couple of casts by the tree roots but ended up getting snagged and ended up wrecking the swim retrieving the fly.

 

Nothing more was forth coming on that stretch so I retired for a late lunch. After lunch I headed up to the woods. I'd changed to flies to an Elk hair caddis and a lighter copperhead olive bug/nymph. Quite why I'd changed I don't know but a change seemed like a good idea. Again there was no fly life about nor any sign of fish. Again I just cast into the likely looking spots. The trees we layered a few weeks back had come into leaf and new shoots showing.

Further up the beck the first sign of fly life fluttered past. A olive upright. Still no sign of fish though. A couple of bends later and the caddis shot under the water the moment it hit the water. A swift strike and I was into a reasonable fish. A lovely 11" wild brown trout eventually graced the net after a bit of acrobatics near the net. It must have hit the nymph soon after it hit the water. A few more casts in the same area produced only a twig.

I continued on but my right leg was now feeling decidedly wet. The deep wading had found another hole in the waders. When I reached a spot I could climb out I decided enough was enough. I had managed a couple of fish so called it a day. Apparently there had been a fair bit of fly life furtehr upstream just not on the stretches I'd fished. That's trout fishing for you.