A Brief Window.

I knew the fishing today was going to be hit or miss with the rain that was forecast overnight & sure enough when I checked the river I wanted to fish this morning it was carrying almost a metre of extra water so that was that out, searching around I soon found a river which hadn't been touched, well thats what the gauges said on the measuring station.

I knew it probably wouldn't stay that way for long so decided to venture out for an hour or so & see what happened.

I had all expectations of having to use bugs, which I'm still tying up in small numbers for something to do in an evening, Im not into having loads of different patterns and carry box upon box of flies I generally keep to a few patterns throughout the season which always work for me.

a couple #16 & a single #18 pheasant tails with collars, a neat way to highlight them and adds a bit more weight to the 2.5mm beads.

 Arriving at the river just after 9.30am the gauges were indeed correct, the river was very low and fish were rising! which didn't really surprise me as its been very mild over the last few days and there was hardly any wind blowing.

I sat & watched for 20 minutes or so to make certain before tackling up and although it was mainly very small fish that were rising there was the occasional better fish mixed in, so the dry fly option was taken.

Small Grayling took an interest & it was hit & miss with them most of the time as they half heartedly took the #18 Gnat.

Moving upstream into the slightly streamier water I watched as a single fish  occasionally smutted something from the surface, it was difficult to tell what size of fish it was from where I was stood.

A couple of casts and it took interest in my fly but I was too fast and pulled it away too soon, a few moments later I didn't make the same mistake and the fish was in the net.

I hadn't noticed as I was concentrating on the rising fish but a lot more leaves were coming down the river & I knew this was the river starting to fill up, I observed a dry stone on the bank & within 3 minutes it was covered with water, it was coming up fast.

It was turning into a right leaf soup so I sat on the bank & decided to see how fast it really was coming up, I placed a few markers by the edge of the river 30cm or so apart using the rule on my rod as a guide and in the space of 9 minutes it had risen 90cm up the bank.

I decided to quit and head home, I had my fix albeit only 2 hours, looking at the gauge on my return home it had a bit more movement than when I had started, all upwards.

The new set of waders got to see water as my last set has seen better days & with the winter coming in I would prefer to stay dry, I opted again for another set of Vision Ikons with Zips they have served me well through the years and are reliable and generally hard wearing.








Gummi Boots Mk11 came with them but for now I will continue to use my Simms wading boots.

I wasnt impressed with my first set of hoppers a couple of years back but Im told these are more hard wearing and the soles are stitched on unlike the Mk1 versions, time will tell!