Ignoring Balsam While Hunting WBT

 Today I spent a short time ignoring the huge stands of Balsam while hunting for trout on the bottom beat of the beck. The first fish I found were little fry around the 1-2" mark sunning themselves. Some of the beck now had nice clean, fish free, gravels. Other parts a seriously overgrown. It was in one of these areas I saw a decent trout as it shot away upstream as I stumbled over a sunken branch while wrestling my way through overhanging willow branches. I see to spook far more fish than I should on here.

A bit further on I came across a fish rising on a bend with a deep hole. The fish was in a back eddy across a rather complicated set of currents. I managed to negotiate the hole to get my self to the downstream end of the eddy. I watched the fish for ten minutes or so. In this time it rose three times. It never moved more than a few inches from the bankside vegetation. It took a few roll casts before I got my Elk Hair Sedge to drift along the edge of the vegetation. A tried a few more times but it wasn't interested as it rose twice for something else. I tried another good standby in the shape of a small daddy, but his too was ignored. I didn't put he fish down though as it did rise occasionally but not for my fly. I changed again to a size 18 double badger and second drift through it was taken. All hell broke loose when i struck as the fish raced about the pool before wrapping the leader around a sunken twig. Keeping tension on I managed to dislodge the twig. This now gave it chance to demonstrate it's acrobatics before it gave up and came to the net. A lovely WBT of 11".

I didn't see any more fish as battled my way upstream. It had taken some time to navigate the beat and it was now time to go. Still I was rather pleased to get the fish in a section where they appear to be rather rare.

I'm sure there are more in there but this is real jungle warfare at times and I'm pretty sure I spook far more than I see. Plenty of season left to get the hang of the beat though.