Back on the Hunt

A week longer than I first anticipated but after 7 long weeks away from having a rod in my hand I can finally say Im back on the hunt.

The river's  are desperate for water so toying with my options I decided to head North to my happy hunting grounds and it paid off for me. Sitting on the bank this morning scanning for any surface movement was surreal & I can only say I was very thankful to be there, watching the kingfishers dart up and down the river and the oyster catchers slightly upstream calling to each other.

There was a sporadic hatch with yellow sallies & olives coming off the water but no fish were interested in them so the spider option was decided upon.

It didn't take too long until I felt the first pluck & I lifted into a small grayling, what could be better to be welcomed back onto the river than a grayling.

I was very contented at that moment in time & all the weeks away were soon forgotten about.






Working my way upstream over the next 20 minutes or so resulted in another small fish, this time a small brown trout.

The water was looking really good after last nights splash of rain with a nice colour running in the river. 

The next fish done more aerobatic's than anything it spent more time in the air trying to throw the hook than fight in the river a very feisty wild brown trout.

I decided to change the point spider for a small weighted pheasant tail variant that I knew worked well in these parts so switching over I continued on and it soon paid off for me.

 

46cm or 18" if old school of sheer pleasure followed and the switching of the point fly had totally turned the day around with this beautiful big grayling, what a welcome back.

To say I was a very happy angler at that point was a sheer understatement.

Fishing up through the pool resulted in no further fish, so time to leave it alone to rest and head upstream to my next part that I had marked in my mind to fish.

Again I sat on the bank scanning for movement that didn't appear all the time my nose being filled with the fresh aroma of the wild mint & flowers that surrounded where I was sitting.

After sat observing for 10 minutes with no sign of any surface movement from fish I tarted at the head of the pool in the fast water and the first cast resulted in a lost fish, so there was fish there.

A couple of cast later & I was bent into another decent fish which stayed deep until almost at the net & again another lovely big grayling.

Wondering if there was anymore fish I flicked straight back into the pool and sure enough another big grayling took a liking to that point fly.

I suspect from the amount of dangling flies that are amongst the opposite bank trees there has been a few other anglers trying for these fish since my last trip here, as its too deep and quite a technical pool to fish and the overhanging trees will gladly take your flies from you if your accuracy is off, thankfully mine wasnt!

Nothing further came from the pool but I  really didn't care I was on a high and this was more than enough fish for me, so taking a short walk upstream I sat and watched as a heron tackled with a crayfish it had captured and as it flew off I went and had a look where it was standing, scattered all around was fresh crayfish leftovers.

I dont think the heron will ever eradicate these critters from our rivers but I know that a few other species such as the otters and other wildlife now depend on them as part of their staple diets, its just a shame the damage these things do to out rivers.

Having a few more casts resulted in another couple of small fish.

I didn't want to push my luck with my injury on the first day so as I was about to climb back out the river this mallard decided to bring her new clutch past me for a visit, this has to be her 2nd clutch or its a very late laying mallard as most of the young along the river are now well past the fledgling state.







With that I called it a day and headed back to the car where I stood for almost an hour chatting to a member who was just starting out as he turned up just as I arrived back at the car, Seems my few big fish were the first in a few weeks as he has been on the river the last few weeks without anything of that size making an appearance so I really do feel humbled to have them on my first day back.