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.

River Fly Monitoring and Stuff

Saturday there was to be a work party on the new section of beck, so I got there early to have a bit of a fish before hand. A simple nymph rig was used with a single weighty hare's ear bug. Fished in the traditional upstream style rather than the more modern euro-nymph style. It wasn't long before I latched on to a fish which I bumped off when a pheasant shot up from behind a tree squawking like fury and frighten the crap out of me. I know they taste nice and have some useful feathers for fly tying, but the really are an annoying bird. Anyway I made my way upstream chucking the nymph into likely looking spots eventually latching on to another fish. With out any drama a 7" WBT was landed. No picture as I'd left my phone in the car. Rather stupidly I'd left it on the dashboard in full view of the world.

The section of beck we worked on is to be left 'wild', but there were several fallen trees that had got hung up and these were to be removed as they're damn dangerous. While they didn't come down easily it'll be Sod's Law that they'll come down in the slightest breeze when you try to pass under one when fishing.

Sunday was River Fly Monitoring day on a different beck. Again I arrived early to have a bit of a fish on the bottom stretch before things started. While I didn't catch using a simple klink-n-dink rig I did mange to spook a decent trout and also saw a dozen or so small dace/chub in a shoal.

As I was having a cuppa the troops gathered. There are two monitoring sites on this beck. One above a sewage outfall and one below. We started on the the upper one first with the following results.

The results were very much as expected apparently. At the site below the outfall I did the sampling. The first thing I did was get stuck on the soft sand at the side of the beck as I got in. A V-weir has been placed just above the site and is scouring the bed out nicely but the sand is being deposited on the sides and the vegetation hasn't taken hold on it yet. It's the same where wiggles have been reintroduced the sand is still soft as the vegetation starts to take hold. The results where as follows. Again much as expected. Although it was pointed out there were enough shrimp for a paella. There was also a fair bit of toilet paper debris. Hands were thoroughly sanitised afterwards.

After a spot of lunch I had a fling about with the klink-n-dink rig on this upper end of the stretch. I managed to spook a couple of fish when retrieving flies from overhanging bankside vegetation. Eventually I got to the lower monitoring spot where I knew there was a deep hole beside a tree. Second cast and something powerful took the nymph. After the initial run upstream it came back quietly before kicking off again at the net. A rather pale trout of 11". Something went a bit wonky with the phone when taking the photo. Not only did it end up in a low resolution mode, but it looks like the flash went off as well. Wet hands and touch screens aren't the best combination.

 

Near the top of the stretch, where there's a bit more streamer weed, I spotted two or three smaller fish. I tried to cover them but the nymph kept snagging the bottom. Rather than shorten the tippet I put on a black spider instead. First cast and I was in. A small, and again, silvery coloured 5" trout. As I brought it in several others, of a similar size, shot off.

By now it was time to go. We know there aren't many trout in this stretch at the moment but there does seem to be more moving in. While I was there I didn't see anything rise or any hatching insects. I will, however, have to tie up some shrimp patterns as I don't seem to have any for some reason.