1st Day of Fall

Well its officially the 1st day of fall in the northern hemisphere, and what better way to spend it than on the river. 

Down by around 2ft on last week's levels but still carrying a bit of colour so opted for the nymph set up when I arrived at the river just after 8am this morning, same nymphs as last week to see if we could tempt any of those big fish back out their lies again.

It started off relatively slow and the first couple of pools produced not even a knock from anything subsurface. 

It wasnt until just before 9am that I finally got my first sight of any fish, a small brown trout in the fast pacey water taking my trusted 1st dropper.

It was nice to see a fish as I was starting to doubt my choice of nymphs but I knew they took fish after last weeks brilliant day so didn't want to start looking for a change.

It didn't take long after this for the 2nd fish to again take a liking to the 1st dropper, again another small brown trout. 

I started to see some fish movement with very small grayling starting to come up and sip flies off the surface, It was pleasing to see and gave me a bit of a confidence boast so where there is small grayling their is always the odd bigger fish around. I was starting to get a few small grayling coming to the net, the bread & butter sized grayling for this stretch of river.

I lifted into a heavier fish but I dont think it had taken the nymph properly as with a single roll on the surface it freed itself and slipped back into the depths where it had just come from, but it was pleasing to finally see some movement in the river and I continued fishing through the runs. Not long afterwards, the line went taught and a decent fish on, a heavier grayling than the rest and a few movements later I slipped the net under it.

Almost at the top of the club limit I sat for a few moments and watched the river for any further movement and then I heard a noise behind me & I turned to find a fellow angler I often see join me on the bank. 

We sat chatting for an 20 minutes or so & he had fished down from another club stretch above us and hadn't touched one fish so I was pleased at what I had as my fellow angler is no slouch. Swapping a few nymphs I let him go down in front of me and gave him a 10 minutes head start before I followed.

I watched as he fished a run and I knew there was some deeper water just beyond where he was fishing so after he vacated the run I slipped in just a bit further over than he had been fishing and the line tightened on the first pass, The surface erupted as the fish broke the surface and my colleague turned around to see me connected with a big brown trout, I wont say what the next sentence out his mouth was but if his breath could turn the air blue it would be a very deep shade of blue....

He sat on the bank behind me "Im sure he was cursing me to loose it...lol"  as I played the fish and after a few long moments I finally managed to get control of the fish and he came over & slipped the net under it for me. 

Taking one look at the fish he turned the air blue again, I have to say I felt gutted that he hadn't touched a fish but on the other hand absolutely jumping inside that I had took it from the run he had just vacated...the friendly banter ensued for the next few moments as I took a couple of photographs before slipping it back into the river.

What more could I say but take the proverbial banter out of him...

We both fished on to the bottom of the stretch without any further fish coming to either of us but I didn't really care I had what I came for. We shook hands and he headed back in the direction of where he parked his car & I left feeling rather happy, back home for 1pm and a nice roll on sausage & a coffee as I reflected on the morning.