Two Days To Go

 Two days to go until the end of the trout season and Monday looking pretty dire weather wise I headed out to the beck. Not too early as we'd had our first frost of Autumn. The beck was a couple of inches up and carrying a peaty tinge. It doesn't take much to alter the behaviour of a small beck like this. Some of the slacks were now more like whirl pools and various bits of debris had been washed down. I did pick up quite a few twigs while fishing. With little or no insects about I intended to fish Little Bugger Jig flies. If that didn't work a Gold Head PTN was my next option.

I spent some time drifting a white Little Bugger about in some deeper holes with out success. A change to a heavier Olive version produced a couple of tentative tugs in one swim but that was all. I then tried a Gold head PTN but this was really too light for a lot of the holes failing to get down before reaching the end. I made my was back to the car for a cuppa and a rethink.

The beck was getting a bit clearer and dropping slightly by the time I'd finished my cuppa. I opted for the Olive Little Bugger again. The second swim I tried that produced the tentative tugs first time round produced a solid take. After a bit of thrashing about a nice 11½" Brown trout. Scale samples were removed in the prescribed manner and placed in the envelope. The little beastie rested in the net before being released. Plenty of time for a couple more I thought. Unfortunately as I headed to the next hole I wrong footed myself stabbing the bank with the tip of the rod. I now had a five piece rod instead of four piece.

Most of the time I have three or four rods in the car, but Sod's Law I only had the one, so that was that. Oh well. Still two days to go, but Monday looks dire so maybe just the one.

Nice But Nuisance Grayling

 Thursday started a bit chilly but came out bright and sunny. A typical Autumn day really. While bright and sunny is rather nice for a spot of River Fly Monitoring it isn't really great for trout fishing. No shortage of Baetis and Gammerus. A surprise Stonefly nymph was found. A first for the beck.

Site 3 19 Sept 2024, 10 am	Count	ARMI   2 Bullheads
Cased Caddis	25	2
Caseless Caddis	2	1
Baetis	600	3
Stonefly	1	1
Blue Winged Olive	1	1
Heptagens	0	0
Mayfly	0	0
Gammerus	500	3
Trigger level = 6	ARMI score total =	11

Site 4  11:00 am	Count	ARMI   Bloodworm
Cased Caddis	8	1
Caseless Caddis	9	1
Baetis	105	3
Stonefly	0	0
Blue Winged Olive	5	1
Heptagens	0	0
Mayfly	0	0
Gammerus	120	3
Trigger level = 7	ARMI score total =	9

After lunch we participated in a spot of angling. I had a wander upstream while the others had a wander downstream. As expected it was tough going in the bright sunshine. It was nice to see the pods of grayling up and down the length. These though would become a nuisance later.

 

A the only fish rising were the little grayling I avoided dry flies a stuck with nymphs drifting them next to the weed beds euro style. The only tout I saw were escapee rainbows. Thy did a great job of ignoring my offerings most of the time. When they did show interest a grayling would usually dive in before them. I was interesting watching the grayling's reaction to the small nymphs. The silver bead one was generally ignored. They seemed to prefer the copper bead, along with the killer bug and a black spider.

 I took several of the little grayling despite me trying to avoid them. Apart from one, for a photo, the rest were shaken from the barbless hook in the water. The others had given up earlier than me and moved on to a more productive water. I did do a spot of balsam bashing though. A pleasant day by a beck even so.

Spiders On The Moors

 As I was up the top of The Moors this morning with a couple of hours to spare, and the rain hadn't arrived, I thought I'd have a chuck about with the fly rod. It was very dull day and looked like it could rain any moment. The river was the lowest I'd seen it this year, but carrying it's usual peat stain.

For the first half hour or so I tried a variety of dry flies. Apart from one rise to a Griffith's Gnat there was no interest at all. I then opted for a couple of spider patterns instead. A Williams favourite on point and a Black Magic on the dropper. Can't go wrong with a little something in black.

 

This combination worked straight away. The first cast into a swirly riffle and one of the small residents grabbed hold of the Black Magic.. A couple more little 'uns from the same riffle. These would be this years youngsters. In the slacker smoother water above the riffle I hooked one of last years fish, but it came adrift. I continued on fish the riffles as I moved upstream over the next hour or so. Eventually amassing eleven of the little 'uns with both flies taking their share. They were all between four and five inches. Swinging the flies down and across in one of the wider sections I hooked another of last years. Around the nine ten inch mark this, like the previous big 'un came adrift. The drizzle that had started was now coming down heavier so I made my way back to the car as it got heavier and heavier.

 Not a bad couple of hours considering the conditions. A little bit more water wouldn't go amiss, but not too much, as previous times I've been in the area it's been way too high. This may please the Salmon and Sea trout anglers but it doesn't make for good trout fish.

Fly Fishing Dropshot Style With A Killer Bug

 Last Thursday, after a spot of invertebrate sampling, I headed down to a beck to try a bit of nymphing. I much prefer dry fly, but the various work parties on the beck had shown the trout to be hiding in the deep holes by the tree roots. Drift a dry fly or dry dropper near them wasn't easy because of the complicated currents. So I'd decided to use a dropshot style rig. This is like a two fly nymph rig but the bottom fly is replaced with a split shot. It's advantages are that there's only one hook to get snagged and it's a lot easier and quicker to replace the shot if different weights are required. As there are lots of shrimp, gammarus, I opted for a Sawyer Killer Bug.  The first hole I dropped it in a rather nice 9" WBT shot from under the bank and grabbed the nymph. I'd only dropped e rig in to see how it behaved.

I had a few more goes in and around the hole to see if the trout had a friend but nowt more appeared. The next hole was a tiny thing about afoot diameter besides a tree growing out from the bank. The bite was very savage for a tiny 4" WBT, The next couple of similar holes produced nothing.

The next couple of holes failed to produce before I got another good tug which failed to connect. Another couple goes were had before a gentle tug was felt and a rather splendid 11" WBT was hooked and landed. Another few tries before moving on produced another tiny little 4" WBT.

Another few holes were tried before coming to a four foot deep hole half full of weed and debris. I'd just about given up when the rod lurched over. Another little WBT around the 5" mark. These little 'uns don't half hit the bait.

It was then quite a while before I got another take. An L shaped tree jutted out from the bank just past a corner creating a very nice looking hole that I'd always thought should hold a fish or two. I'd drifted dry flies about the area but to no avail. With only a № 1 shot on I could drift the bug right under the tree, eventually. After several goes a trout swam up looked at the bug I gave it  a twitch at which point it was engulfed. After a great deal of leaping about the trout managed to beach it's self and was scooped up in the net. The biggest of the day at 12" it's colours really don't show in the photo but it was more fawn than brown.

Not a bad session at all, and finishing on the best I've caught from this beck. No sign of the escapee rainbows either. A little brook lamprey we disturbed today while removing the weed and debris from a couple of spots that were allowing a silt build up.

The reason for the late delivery of this post is because I made a right cock of a computer upgrade and also decide to allow my phone to upgrade to the next OS version while a I waited for the computer backup to restore. The nearest i normally get to multitasking is sit down and shut up, so this wasn't a good idea. Hopefully things are back to normal now on the IT front.

RFM And Trout Fishing

 The started with a spot of River Fly Monitoring. No real surprises. Numbers slightly down below the CSO which isn't surprising given the recent rain had it running. Having completed that I headed down to near the bottom of the stretch for a spot of fluff chucking. The beck looks like it should hold good numbers of trout as is does above the village. The bankside vegetation is now very lush and makes some parts a bit claustrophobic. The level was up just a couple of inches or so.  I only managed to raise one fish which I missed. I did spook several more hiding under overhanging branches that were trailing in the water. I had run flies as close to them as I could but I don't think they were really looking up. I did see a shoal of small silver fish on my walk down. Probably dace, maybe. So here are a few pics of the beck.

After a cuppa I tried to fish another short length, but a couple of mallard kept spooking the fish. The ducks would fly a little way upstream then drift back until they saw me. They'd then take of again and land a bit further up and drift back towards me. In doing this they did spook a few of the small escapee rainbows.

Balsam Bashing Then Stockie Bashing

The morning was spent balsam bashing along the banks of one of the becks. The amount of balsam has markedly decreased f the last few years but it's now mainly growing in among the nettles and hiding under the trees so takes a bit more work to spot. Persistence is the key.

After we'd finished some of decided to retire to one of the ponds for luncheon and a maybe a bit of fishing for the stocked browns. While the other two bobbed about in the boats I decided to have a fish from the bank.

While the other two fished a duo rig with a small PTN on the end I opted for a small sparkle tail Griffith's gnat as fish were rising close to the bank. The first to take my fly was one of the recent stockies at 16" which put up a fair fight on the weight three rod.  The PTHs were catching but I persisted with the dry. The next fish was lost when it throw the hook. The boat anglers were getting some unmissable bites that they missed. I the suffered the same. The fly was getting sucked under but I could hook them no matter how quick or slow I struck.

Time flew past pretty quickly and it was soon time to go. The nymph anglers had half a dozen fish to the net I had just the one on dry. A nice way to waste a couple of hours.

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.