Ever felt like a Prat

I think the heading about says it all really!
Last night it was my night to be a Prat.

Due to other commitments today I wouldn't get out fishing, so I decided to go out for a few hours last night. I drove into the parking area a short time after 7pm,  It was a glorious night, warm, hardly a breeze and I had high expectations of rising fish.

Sitting on the bank tackling up all I could see were Olives hatching everywhere, it really was a massive hatch yet hardly any fish were moving to them in this particular stretch.

As I moved upstream tackled up with a sparkle Olive Dun all I could see moving were small par supping down the Olives quite freely, yet nothing bigger was moving at all.

After catching around 11 or 12 of these small par I decided to swap over to the duo hoping that the larger trout were feeding on the nymphs, so after a few casts I felt something a bit better on the line, alas it was slightly better but not the species I was after.....out of season grayling.

For the next hour all I seemed to be catching were the Grayling, so wanting to try and get away from them I switched back to a dry fly pattern hoping that the Gloaming might see a couple of better fish coming to the surface.








I worked my way back down through a pool searching with the dry fly when right at the end of the pool an almighty eruption exploded from the water and took the dry. A lovely Big Wild Brown Trout well in excess of 3lbs, Yes game on I remember thinking........Then the Prat Appeared!

Trying to play the fish off the reel I let the fly line gather at my feet and then the fish decided it wasnt happy in this pool and wanted to go downstream, so I went to follow only to get the line trapped around my feet and yes you guessed, I tripped and down I went, not in deep water but in less than 6" of water as I got myself up using the one strong leg I rely on to raise myself from such a position the Brown trout took one last leap and Im sure I seen it wave its tail as me as it got free.......& it was gone!

Well as you can imagine I wasnt in the best of moods and the language turned a little bit blue in the next few moments as I called myself various names I cannot repeat. So taking time out I sat up the bank staring at the pool where the fish had just gained its freedom when out of the blue came an otter,
I haven't had the privilege of seeing any otters on this particular stretch so as I lay on the bank watching I tried to get a few photographs but the light was fading and I didn't want to put the flash on as I knew it would instantly disappear. It was diving and swimming around as if playing then the next time I saw it appear it had a big crayfish and it sat on the stones on the opposite bank and crunched  the crayfish to pieces, I was all for this and it was a lovely sight to see, Im just glad it never had the trout I had lost 15 minutes previous. Its great how nature can instantly cheer you up whilst your on a downer as the loosing of the trout after seeing this seemed insignificant. On studying the photographs of the otter today all you can see is a black outline in the gloom so nothing worth putting on the blog.

It really was a lovely sight and after about 20 minutes of watching the otter it disappeared upstream am sure in the search of more crayfish, as for me I walked back to the car feeling a bit better but still thinking to myself....what a Prat!