A walk on the wild side

Today's trip was the first outing for a couple of weeks due to river levels and work. I was watching the levels of the river since Friday night hoping that the persistent rain Friday night & then most of the day Saturday wouldn't make things unfishable, happily the river was up slightly and a bit peaty when I arrived but looked good.

As I walked down the path along the side of the wall, the aromatic smell of the wild garlic was heavy in the air and it was nice to see the leaves finally out on the large oak trees.








The first fish of the day wasn't big by any standards but it was a wild fish  and a pleasure to catch.

It seemed that although there was a large hatch of flies in the water there weren't many fish rising to them and those that were from what I could tell from the sounds of the rise they were Grayling with the tell tale sipping.
 

I walked down to the middle of the beat where the old mill house is located without touching another fish but seeing plenty grayling sipping at the flies on the water.

The 2nd fish was better than the first in size and again another wild fish.
It seemed the fish were getting bigger & better till I hooked my 3rd fish which brought it back down the scale again but again another wild fish, and if I was perfectly honest I would rather have 3 of these small wild fish to one large stock fish any day.

 After lunch I headed back up the river and got the feeling I was being watched and low & behold sat on the lower branches of the fir trees was a large buzzard looking for its next meal but as I got my camera out I must have moved to quickly and it took to the wing, up and over the trees and out of sight.

Concentrating on the faster water just out of the shade I managed to hook fish no 4 again another wild fish which fought like a fish larger than it actually was in the faster water.

As the afternoon wore on, one more fish came to the fly which I managed to release at long range.

It seems since my last visit that the Grayling have finally stopped chasing my flies and are more content on getting on with things which is a good sign, as I didn't touch one all day even though a few were sipping away at the naturals.

The views on walking back to the car were as ever outstanding and I'm privileged that I get to fish in such a beautiful and wild part of the country.