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.