Owls, Curlews & Brown Trout

A spur of the moment decision last night to go fishing at 7.30pm, off I set to a stretch of water not too far from the house, having set up and sat on the bank looking for rising fish just after 8pm.

The river was slightly up after a few days of rain and heavily coloured but although there was plenty of insect life, virtually no fish were showing on the surface, so a couple of spider patterns would suffice for the hour or so I had planned on fishing.

As I moved up the river I spotted a barn owl sat on a fence post across the other side of the river, so stood and watched as he took off, hovered then dived on his seen prey, unsuccessful he glided around the area then came in to hover again this time he was on the ground for a few moments then as he took off I saw a small mouse or vole gripped in his talons. 

A lovely sight and if I hadn't decided to get my backside off the chair a sight I wouldn't have had the pleasure of seeing.

A few moments later I was into the first fish of the evening, a lovely small brown trout.

Moving upstream I had the pleasure of sitting on the bank for about 20 minutes watching 4 curlews flying around over my head at a low altitude, calling to each other before finally landing out of sight in the field opposite. I grabbed a few photographs but they didn't come out as expected.

The evening was all a glow as the sun started to dip over the horizon.

Another trout soon followed to the point spider.

The sun dipped away on the horizon but still a very impressive light show as I headed back downstream towards the car. A lovely couple of hours unwinding after a rough day at work. Who says you need to catch fish to enjoy fishing!