Stalking Magic

I managed to get out for a few hours up the Dale yesterday afternoon, the sun was high, the river was low & crystal clear so very challenging conditions but I have to say the Buzz the few hours gave me you just could not bottle the feeling.

The view upstream shows how much the river is down to bare bones, almost dry in some places and some of the deep glides I wouldn't dream of wading are all wadeable and gives me a good mental map of the bottom when the rivers rise again.






I walked the river looking for likely fish holding places with my polaroids on and I knew of once spot which would have some shade and a bit of depth to it, as i got closer I crouched and watched over it for a few moments and sure enough a few chub were taking insects from the surface scum that was floating down, with that in mind I tied up with a slightly larger sedge pattern I would normally fish in fading light and crawled into casting position.

The first couple of casts nothing came to inspect the fly but on the next I had some interest from a chub, but it turned away at the last moment. Not to be deterred I cast again and this time a big pair of white rubber lips came up from below and sucked down the sedge. Fish on!

Not renowned for their hard fighting but a few runs on my 3# rod made for more excitement  and then the fish was in the net. Battle scarred from spawning, a quick photograph and it slipped back into the depths to join the others. I sat for some time to see if any others would appear again but the word was out and no others made another appearance.

Moving upstream to another location I came across the few Geese with the goslings.








I sat and watched a few Chublets and small Grayling  cruising the shallows but were not tempted by the small dry I had changed back to.

I could see a few ripples from below a tree which looked like a fish sipping as it was hardly making any disturbance to the water,  After 10 minutes of continually watching I decided to give it a cast and see what happens, so putting on a small parachute dry midge pattern I cast just above the rises and sure enough first pass it came up and sipped the fly, the fish then went for a fast first run when it found itself hooked and I knew it was a decent fish.

A few more runs and this golden beauty slipped into the net.

At almost 40cm long this sort of fish I did not expect in conditions like this but just shows no matter what the conditions are a fish will always find a spot to feed and this fish wa barely breaking the surface when feeding, so much so I thought it could have been a Grayling smutting.

I couldn't ask for anymore in these conditions, a happy man.

I was contented as I headed past the hawthorns in full bloom and the old gate post on my way back to the car.

I arrived back at the car just as the light was starting to dip over the Dale, 4 hours had passed but doesn't time fly when your having fun.

Foot Note:

I have to apologise to two blog followers, John from the USA and Tom.

I accidentally deleted your comments when moderating them the other night, my sincere apologies for deleting them, Thats the reason you cant see them in case you were wondering. Once again please accept my apologies.