A Few Trout And More Damn Balsam

Thursday I descended into the valley to fish the upper reaches of a moorland stream. After wandering down the path to the downstream end of the beat contemplating what fly to use I noticed a few more trees had fallen here and there. A couple had come down over the river where there was already a bit of a log jam. The only insects I could see were the usual black stuff. On went a Double Badger as it had done well in the past.

There seemed to be quite a few trout rising, but they mainly looked like small stuff. This was confirmed with the first fish. A six inch WBT. Soon followed by an other slightly smaller one. I then missed a series of takes. The problem with little trout is their aim isn't very good at times and they can miss the fly but it looks like a take. Halfway up a smooth glide a larger fish was rising near some tree roots. My first cast was a about a foot wide and the fish didn't seem to want to move far for a meal. The second was within an inch or two of the rising fish but the fly drifted into the roots and snagged up. As I moved up to retrieve the fly a good ten to twelve inch trout shot upstream. I had two more instances of this where the fly got snagged and I ruined a swim with a decent trout in it. By the time I got to the end of the beat I'd amassed five small trout and missed or lost many more.

 

After Tea I wandered down to the beat below. I stopped at the pool at the top of the beat to find quite a few olives hatching. Nothing, though, was rising. Fifteen minutes I sat and watched but not one fish showed itself. Wandering down the beat I didn't see anything rise even though there were a few olives about. There was, however, a lot more balsam than I'd seen and pulled last time. Spent about an hour pulling and/or recording it's location. Keeping half an eye on the beck. Nothing rose while I pulled the damn stuff up.

I swapped the Double badger for a large Elk Hair Caddis in the hope that this may prove to be a tempting mouth full for a trout. Casting it into likely looking spots as I wading back upstream. I suffered the usual problems of trees grabbing the fly. Landing it in tree roots or bankside vegetation. The wading was a bit trick at times. Some deep holes within inches of the top of the chesties. Eventually I spotted a rise and cast to it. The current as the beck came around the corner was a bit all over the place. As soon as the fly began to skate the trout took. A nice nine inch fish still with it's parr markings.

 

That was it for the evening. Nothing else was seen. I did try skating the caddis  but it didn't attract anything else. Quite what the trout are up to I don't know but they don't seem keen on taking dries apart from the little 'uns.