RFM & Hunting Aliens

 Thursday started with a spot of River Fly Monitoring. Four of us kicked sampled a couple of sites above and below a sewerage outlet. The results were much as expected with no alarms apart from a large increase in blood worm below the outfall.

Site 3 11 July 2024, 10:00	Count	ARMI
Cased Caddis	46	2
Caseless Caddis	1	1
Baetis	500	3
Stonefly	0	0
Blue Winged Olive	14	2
Heptagens	0	0
Mayfly	0	0
Gammerus	300	3
Trigger level = 6	ARMI score total =	11

Site 4 11 July 2024, 11:00	Count	ARMI
Cased Caddis	22	2
Caseless Caddis	8	1
Baetis	200	3
Stonefly	0	0
Blue Winged Olive	31	2
Heptagens	0	0
Mayfly	1	1
Gammerus	300	3
Trigger level = 7	ARMI score total =	12

A few Bullheads and a solitary Stickleback put in and appearance as well. The Bullheads are far more tolerant of pollution than was previously thought. 

After a spot of lunch it was time to try and capture some of the escapee rainbows. There were a couple of hotspots for them. One chap fished fly larva under a float in one spot. While another fished nymphs on a French style leader in the other. I had a wander downstream with a euro nymphing setup. Euro style nymphing is not something I do very often, which is probably why I'm not very good at it. A couple of runs down between the weeds and the indicator showed a bite. It felt like something of a decent size but didn't feel like a trout. Through the clear water I could see an eel which plunged into the weed and snaffled my fly.

A couple of swims later I managed to hook a reasonable brown trout which I managed lose with the classic poking the rod tip into the over hanging hawthorn technique. In the next swim I spotted a couple of good sized grayling. They were over the other side of a weed bed and to reach them I'd have to wade. The beck though was quite a way up following the rain earlier in the week. While it was three foot deep next to the bank it was a bit deeper further out. The bottom was also softer and after stating to sink I decided better of it. The kerfuffle of me get back to the bank spooked the grayling. A few more swims were tried as I continued upstream, along with changes to fly. Eventually I managed a couple of the escapee rainbows.

I didn't catch any more by the time I'd reached the others. My couple of fish looked a bit pathetic to the numbers they'd caught. As they pointed out though, they had been in the hotspots.

After another go a couple of us had another go but the rainbows were happy to follow the flies but not take. Only one more was caught. I had ago from below the hotspot with spiders but this was the same. I could see the fish following them turn away. We'll be back to remove some more.