Friday 26 May 2017

When the going gets tough....get wise.

Yesterday was the hottest day on record this year, until the temperatures were recorded today which beat yesterday's, however last night as I sat on the decking taking in the rays from the late evening sun I wondered how the river was fairing with all this glorious weather and severe lack of rain so decided to throw the kit in the car & go and find out.

20 minutes later I was stood on the bridge with the river passing beneath me and after seeing 2 fish rise decided that was it it, I was going fishing for a few hours, the time was almost 9pm.

The river was very low and incredibly clear but fish were beginning to look up and large dark olives were hatching and taking to the wing.

Moving upstream I seen a fish rise so decided to cover it and see if I could tempt it, it didn't take much as the first pass up it came & took my artificial.





Not a large fish but what it lacked in size it made up in beauty with its beautiful red spots.









A few moments later another fish decided it wanted some of the action but it couldn't have been so different from the first, gone were the beautiful red spots and it was more a neutral coloured fish.


Although hatches were coming off the river in abundance not many fish were rising and the fish that were, were all located in the tail end of the moving water in skinny water.

It was nice just to stand in the river observing all the hatching insects and listen to the Curlews & Oyster catchers calling out to each other in the fields behind.

The light was starting to fade out and I was hoping that in the next 30 minutes or so I might see some better fish moving out from their hiding places and take advantage of the hatching flies.

The first fish I saw which I thought was of decent size was just off the bank with some cover above it so manoeuvring into position to make the cast I had to go Indian style on hands & knees so I wouldn't spook it back under the cover.

Casting just above the rising fish the fly landed spot on first cast and moments later a fish sucked it down.


Unfortunately it wasnt the fish I was aiming for but I wasnt complaining as moments later the other fish came back up and just let me know exactly where it was lying.  

It took a few casts to get the fly exactly where I wanted and was rewarded when the fish came up and sucked the artificial down.






A lovely brown trout which was taken from the tail end of a run in less than 10 inches of water.








I decided to head back towards the car as the light was beginning to fade fast and not planning to have been fishing into the dark I hadn't packed any light sources in my vest should I need one.


As I jumped back into the car and started up the clock read 11.20pm. Just over 2 hours of fishing on a whim on the hottest day of the year with river levels as they are proves that when things are against you, you can still catch lovely fish, you just need to be a bit wise.


4 comments:

  1. Great result - and some great looking trout

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  2. thanks, it was a great couple of hours, especially as it wasnt planned :)

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  3. George, I love the variations of the trout from the same stream, and at times from the same pool. Lovely fish they are.
    It looks like some rain is needed.

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    Replies
    1. Alan, We did have some thunder storms last night with torrential downpours but the land is so dry it just soaked it right up with nothing entering the rivers & streams at all. Im out again soon but leaving it till later int he day again, seems the best tactic at present with the conditions the way they are.

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