Fly Fishing - The Final Month

3rd September

With 2 weeks off work i was cramming as much time in as i possibly could with the season end drawing near.  Today i opted to fish a hole i hadn't fished for a while. the heavy rain we had last month which had people panicking about a repeat of last winter had happened since then and there had been a few changes to the river path from that. But despite bits and bobs of rain the past couple of days the river was it's lowest i'd ever seen it.  It was raining when i left the house so i changed plans and went to see if Big Barry was about.

10 minutes in and nothing was showing, as i continued to nymph the bend Big Barry leaps out the water in hunting mode and slips back in to the depths with a huge splash. You know the saying about if a tree falling in a forest would anyone hear it, well i often think does Big Barry do this when i'm not here or does he literally torment me. Anyway i popped a nymph over when he'd gone back in, i'm an optimist you see. The indicator slipped under! I struck and it was a fish! A damned minnow. Obviously Barry had been hunting minnows and i'd cast into the shoal he was feeding off. I did consider a streamer but i knew i had time to get him before the season closed so i moved on up.



The water clarity was decent considering the rain, a good 2 feet or so, you could see the brown silt lines below the surface from the rain.  Knowing the river was low i fished the deeper pools that had a flow into them and hit into a couple of trout, the fattening up for winter has begun and even these trout where packing a punch from their early summer counterparts.  I took a couple of good trout in the first pool before heading on. I took my time with each trout, they fought hard and had twice the energy, allowing themselves to tire out, even with the occasional jump and the death shake the hooks held firm.



Further up i hit into another few trout, non of a particular size but showing that these smaller trout don't fare as well against their older counterparts, not as fat but still surviving, they'll know what winter is soon enough.  I was chasing rises and missed one take before a couple of lads fishing on the tip rolled up. Unfortunately just upstream of the rises and they spooked them as nothing came back up. With 6 trout in the bag and the conditions remaining the same i decided that my original place to fish was worth it. I was soaked through but the river hadn't risen much if any nor had much colour changed so it was a gamble. A 40 minute gamble.



Upon reaching the new spot through every invasive species you can get on the Irwell i found it was in tip top condition. You see this is a very wide but deep stretch, the bend hits a sheer 100 foot cliff so it just digs away each time the river floods but it is also a healthy stretch. River grass and ranunculus grow here in between the bedrock which is another reason this stretch is particularly tough, deep water and very slippy bed rock. The actual only time i slipped today was walking down a muddy hill, i ended up half running down a hill about 30 metres before i managed to dig my feet in, still clean.

The water here was a dark olive green, and clarity was easily 3 feet, which gives a false impression of shallowness. The lowness of the river allowed me to negotiate the gravel banks allowing me to cross 20 metres or so of 'dead water' to reach the rivers flow. It always flows heavy through here, large underwater rocks kicking up the water into a sort of a torrent but these provide cover in the rough and there is small pockets of calm to.  I hadn't french nymphed here before, but i swapped my point fly for a heavy nymph, for some reason the weather had tangled my lines up all day, i'd tie a fly on and somehow the dropper had got in some spiderweb of a mess on its own, this had been gradually getting worse all day.

Frustrated i positioned myself, barely able to see through my poloroids through the rain, but still essential so i could watch my step, i waded in. It was almost impossible to see my indicator in the rough water and the rain so i watched the tip of my rod, i made sure the line was almost fully tight and as soon as the tip pinged i'd strike. Due to the healthy water here and the heavy nymph i was catching weed off the bottom, not the slimy stuff but the one with leaves and roots. My hands were full of olives each time i removed the weed and i continued on, ensuring i got as much water covered as possible as safely as possible.

It didn't take long until i got a clear take, a slab of a trout, they were even fatter here. It gave a good fight, i pulled it out the main current into the deep motionless pools behind me and let it calm down, the 4 weight hammering down with each pull it did. After this trout my reel jammed. It is an old reel that i'm using to nymph with as the reel isn't important other than reeling in the fish.  I couldn't take line in or off say 75% of the time, no matter how hard i pulled. I took the spool off to see if that was a problem but it persisted, so i knew that i couldn't rely on the reel, also if i had a fish i knew it would probably fail to allow any drag so if i got a big trout i'd have to chase it to avoid break offs.

I didn't hit any big trout but i had another 2 well earned trout bringing the tally to 9, bringing this years total to 219, one off last years. With the reel trouble and the tangles (it did it again), when i got to Boulder Bend i decided enough was enough. No point in allowing any frustration to ruin a good day. Rain is rain, if it isn't effecting the river in a negative way then it's fine. The river does need water but i know another foot and that bend i'd just fished is unfishable, it's a funny old game.

 

 

Fly Fishing - The early Fisherman catches the fish

1st September

I had been on a 'recon' trip to check on a small urban river that had a large fire with possible hazardous materials next to it. This small river was especially important as it contained Grayling, a fish that is so easily killed once the water is affected by something or another. The river was on it's arse and with 2 other fly fisherman in front of me (bank holiday Monday) i didn't expect much but i had half a dozen Grayling and a dozen trout, but most importantly, the Grayling were alive, even this years hatch.



Today was a much a fishing trip, in fact i had planned to go the day prior but at 5am i sensed rain and not long after it did, i'd already tucked back in bed before i saw it. Thankfully it wasn't as heavy as expected so today was still on the cards. After a long walk with mist on the ground and my breath in the air i heard the unmistakable sound of the river tinkling along. It was really low, the first trout i spotted was in no deeper than 4 inches of water that was usually a nice holding spot.

It was all about the tactics now, i had been fishing french leader alot lately with much success but the stillness combined with the shallowness meant even that method was to heavy so i opted back to a klink and dink, still using the french leader and bow casting each time. This allowed accurate casts in the confined space and minimal disturbance on the water. The klinkhammer would latch on to any surface current and drag the nymph along with it allowing it to keep moving across the bottom.

All well and good but finding 'deep' water was tough, the bottom pools were silty and motionless, even with the flies jigged through nothing was taking but further upstream in the streams of ranunculus the water was much clearer and moving, quite slowly i might add. However it was a whole lot shallower here so i had to scout out deeper sections, these would be a foot at most, but i had to, the problem with fishing a narrow stream in clear shallow conditions is visibility. With the river being so slow the fish did not just sit facing upstream either, they'd swim back and forth hunting their own pools. So i was easily spooking fish 20 feet away.

I managed to find some high nettles concealing a pool and first cast i hit into a fish. A roach! a nice one too and my first of 2016 believe it or not. I hadn't fly fished the canal this year so my tallies were low in the course fish department. I had forgotten how bloody slimy they were, climbing back up behind the bush i waited for the pool to calm and continued fishing. I could see them now swimming back and forth, perch roach and the occasional chub, they all looked pretty fat. After a few more casts i was in to another roach this was a big old fat roach, equally slimy to and that was soon followed by another. A large chub swam through but it had seen me before i had seen it and it continued through at pace. The fish went quiet then, still there but not touching anything, they stopped following the fly as it landed and i opted to continue on to the next pool.



About 2 miles upstream i came to a deeper section, still strewn with weed and narrow, walking slowly i saw a tail just above a piece of plyboard. It didn't look anything special but it was a fish. The bow cast landed a little short and the tail disappeared, then whack, something had smashed the nymph, the fish must of turned after it and it was a good fish. Back and forth it went, with no real current to fight it had energy to burn, near bank and far bank, under trees, brambles and a plank of wood. The line held strong and the hook stayed in even with the manoeuvres i had to pull to untangle from trees and brambles. It began to tire so i entered the water and with it's last fighting breath it swam into a bunch of nettles. What a bastard. The stings and itchiness i can still feel now were easily worth it.

I have been looking at measure nets and this one would of made a great fish to christen it but i'm still waiting for end of season sales. But by rule of thumb, my inner elbow? to my middle finger tip is 18inches and well, it was longer than that. The size 18 (small flies in clear water) firmly in his top lip (like all my catches funnily enough) King of the stream.



I had pretty much come to the top of fishable water, it barely becomes a trickle a couple more hundred metres up but i continued on, casting as far as i possibly could with trees above and vegetation on both sides. Then a loud slap of a tail hitting the water as another trout hammered my fly. It wasn't as big but it was still a good fish and equally fat. It had the same complications as the other trout only it didn't fight for as long and it came to the net wrapped up in river grass.



I hoped for another trout and felt a slight knock on the fly only to find a small roach had fancied a go, this was followed by a 5th and final roach, the smallest of them all.

It had been a productive day and in tough conditions, low water, high visibility and a hot sun. Strangely i saw very little fly life in the air, i had expected some rises but the only fish to break the surface were roach, but with the season coming to a close i had opted for trout, last years tally was 220 and todays total brought me to 210. 4 weeks left!

Fly Fishing - Waiting for rises.

14th August 2016

With the sight of 'Big Barry' in the previous trips fishing with my Daughter Emily i opted to try and hunt for him on my own. It was an early afternoon but with rain clouds looming i decided to venture out rather than wait till late noon where he has been showing.

Upon reaching the river it wasn't too promising, with nothing rising i stood and waited. A solitary rise after 5 or so minutes and i set up the dry rod just incase. More waiting, nothing.  So i cast a few exploratory casts to try to initiate a rise but nothing, so out came the nymphing rod and i walked downstream as far as the bottom of my run. If i fished slow i knew by the time late noon came i will be back up there.

The deep pools showed nothing but i hit into 4 trout in the faster water, dropping the french leader into the small pockets of calm, throughout the run in the more rugged white water i lost 5, none of notable size but trout none the less.

The head of the pool above the riffles yielded a decent trout, they seem to be fattening up for winter already as, though not the biggest, it was carrying some weight. In fact in all but the smallest of trout did they seem paunchy. Further upstream i hit into a few more trout and again landed another 4, a few of these were i missed the take, fed it back through the run and got it second time.

The first of the good fish then followed, a foam line against the bank feeding into a deeper pool provided a good fat trout with a strong fight for good measure. It's a shame i lost my camera as the fight and aerobatics these trout were giving was all great fun.

That was funnily followed by a tiny minnow, surprisingly only my 4th of the season compared to last years 31. Moving into the long run that has been hit and miss this season, were i got 2 great trout early in the season, a half dozen or so on one particular trip yet nothing else here other than the odd one at a push. However today proved lucky and after a small trout i hit into my second good trout and to top it off it was a beautifully marked trout.

The run above this you may know from my blogs was a hive for dry fly fishing last season but this season rises have been few and far between. Despite this i was willing to explore the foam line and was shocked that on my false cast to strip line out a trout rose up for the fly, my slow reactions with the surprise of what happened missed it however. 1, 2, 3 casts before it came back up for it, a cast to the right of where it rose brought it back up and it was a small trout.

As i unhooked it i saw a single rise above 'the rock', a huge boulder midstream that is perfect for presentation. Any cast over the top of it allows your line not to cause drift when the line lays on top. The first cast was a little to much to the left but as i plucked my fly back, bare in mine i'm 30-40feet away at least, i spotted the head of a trout move towards the fly. I was already mid 'pluck' when i spotted it but my brain registered it instantly and i spoke allowed 'it blood turned for it'. Second cast again a bit to the left but this time i saw the trout swim towards it and sip it off the top.  I struck and it was up in the air, a fish of 2-3lbs, in no less than a second of it hitting the water it started storming off upstream stripping line when the loud twang of the line snapping rattled the air.  I inspected the damage, it was a mid line snap, probably a weak spot caused from a snag or something, but either way the fish was gone, which reiterates why we should always use barbless hooks. There's a chance i'll hit that trout again this season.

I re-rigged and surprisingly seen a small rise in the same spot, then again! Did it want me to get the hook out for it? I cast and the fly was taken, a small trout. Regardless it was on the dry again. I spent the next 1 or 2 hours, standing around waiting, watching. A small trout leapt out of the water, a couple of single rises but nothing else.

Fly Fishing - Taking my 2 year old daughter fishing

8th August

So i had taken my daughter fishing the week prior and had helped her land her first fish, the problem with fly fishing is presentation so the rule was i'd 'hook' the fish then i would hand the rod over to Emily and assist her. Compared to her canal fishing which was simply lifting the rod out to land the fish she impressed me with her reeling skills, but still lacks in supporting the whole length of a 10 foot rod with a fish on. Regardless at 27 months she had caught a fish 2 years earlier than i had and thus i opted to take her out again today, she had a bit of a cold so she could do with the fresh air, but pardon any pics if her nose is a little runny. Below was he first trout last week.



The 40 minute walk carrying your gear and your daughter who often prefers me to carry her, the lazy sod, was a long one and upon reaching the river we was rewarded by fish rising. The PB trout (big barry) i had caught earlier in the season looked like it was rising, the telltale rise of a small mouth followed by a tip of dorsal or tail fin as it descended. Another was rising 30 feet downstream so i opted for that first. After setting up with Emily on fish watch duty, i was quickly set up and hit into the trout first cast. It was a nice average trout but Emily refused to reel it in for some unbeknown reason, bloody women! She did bring my net and we landed it, she refused to touch it and off it went.



Now Emily had fallen asleep on me as we walked down to the river, carrying dead weight is horrible, but her grumpiness was kicking in which usually happens after a nap and she insisted on having a mood, so i sat down next to her and told her to sit and wait for the fish. Then there he was, well it looked like him any way with his golden brown underbelly. Big Barry had torpedoed clean out of the water, only around half a foot in the air but probably 4 foot in length. I suspected he had turned to chasing the minnows that were in the shallows but after reassuring Emily we would try to catch it while we waited for a rise, it began to rise again.

Now when you have a 2 year old in tow you have 2 options. Hold her and fish one handed or fish from the bank, now i could of fished one handed with a short line on the dry but with the quality of the fish i was dealing with i didn't want to miss the strike so i opted to fish from the bank which caused drifting issues.  After 5 minutes of rising around my fly and 2 different dries it went quiet so i packed up the dry rod and set up the nymphing rod.

I opted to fish one handed to get good presentation and then retreat to a dry spot for Emily to fight the fish from. A small run of water got us a hit but it was a misstrike but it took it on the next run through. Emily struggled getting her reeling in sync and it pulled us down onto the bottom and the dropped snagged on something, it came up twice before it shook the hook and i retrieved the flies after a quick wade in. We fished another pool and only got a hit near the head of the pool and it began stripping line, i allowed it thus not to ping it off as i walked upstream of it to a dry rock for Emily to fight it from.  It was a tough old fight for Emily but with her reeling now in rhythm and me holding the rod it eventually tired after it's long run. Emilys confidence with the fish had grown and she gave it a stroke on it's back, and cried as i had to let it go. I remember when i first let my first fish go, a small jack pike, i cried too but because i thought it was going to turn round and bite me, i told her we would get another and we soon did. A minnow.




Not long after that we caught another decent trout (mummy fish), very similar in size to the trout prior and again it was a tough fight, so much so Emilys welly fell off. This time Emily was all up for holding it, pointing out it's tail and popping both hands on it excitedly. She wasn't too happy again to see it go but she didn't cry this time, only a slight whinge, they will be there for her to catch next time.


There was enough time to lose another fish on a snag but Emily rounded off the day with another small trout, because of it's size i let her hold the rod fully and helped her reel, the rod spent most of it's time flat on the water but she managed to bring it in and i went and netted it for her.  I asked if she wanted to release it and she told me to pop it on the rock next to her, i told her i couldn't as it needed water and i passed it her, one small flick of it's tailed and she threw it into the water, not the most graceful of releases but away safely none the less.

High 5's all round and i decided to call it a day, 10 minutes into our walk home and the heavens opened. Typical, still i enjoyed the time with my daughter and i'm sure she did too, with 7 weeks left of the season time is running out, one more photo with the Big Barry and a few good trout as we close in to autumn, the year soon runs out when your a fly fisherman.

Fly Fishing - A weekend of chasing trout

23rd & 24th July

It seems the days go by so quick during the open season and i already can feel time running out as we edge closer and closer to the close season, be it a few months away still the winter closed season lasts forever. The weekend of the 23rd came at the end of a very hot week turning into clouds and rain but still mild temperatures. The Saturday was 32' in the early part of the day, when i was at work, but with an early finish i had taken my gear with me too work and headed straight to the river. I knew it would be busy with the school holidays combined with the weather but with clouds heading in there wasn't that many people actually riverside.

I hadn't been fishing long in the oxygenated white waters where i had pulled 2 trout out in quick succession did i meet someone else. I noticed a head watching and the pleasantries were said and again that question 'Is there anything in there?' 'I hope so 'cos i've just had two' i joked. I beckoned the couple down who were in there 50's or so and gave them the basics of what and why i do what i do, it's not just fly fishing, its not just an escape from reality, it's so much more. I said give me 5 minutes and i'll have you a fish, in fact it didn't take that long but with the fish welfare priority it wasn't too happy with the ordeal and was quickly back in the river and away. 'There will be one just there' i explained, 'how do you know what to aim for?' and so the explanation on feeding lanes and adjusting your bodies of water based on weather, depth and oxygen etc and i was in again. This trout was happy to hold still and be the star of the show and he was himself back in the river once more.

We bid farewell and i continued upstream, with a couple more trout i noticed an unusual rise in a large back eddy. With all the foam in the eddy it was hard to figure out if it was a big trout or a small one but either way i set up the dry fly rod. It had stopped by now and despite covering it with several casts, nothing. I headed on up to a run that should hold more trout than i have been getting her lately, it's just below waist depth, plenty of cover, plenty of oxygen running through a long pool yet nothing. But just above it, a small rise. I covered it but it was moving around but eventually it took the dry, a small trout but another on the dry. They are very slowly building up.

At the end of my run a South African sounding man and his daughter were playing in the river but i knew they hadn't affected the short run i wanted to fish and first cast i was into a small trout. This prompted a very slow walk over by an inquisitive father but not fast enough as i couldnt hold about too long so i released the trout, knowing that i would probably catch another should he want to show his daughter. I didn't fail to live upto expectation and i hooked into another trout. They didn't engage with me much, more interested in seeing the fish but i offered the girl a better view of me releasing the trout back into it's home.

I don't mind fishing with an audience, well if people are gaining positives from it anyway. I hope people start to realise the life that is in these rivers and help protect them more, i hope people see that me releasing them encourages them to do so if they decided to take up fishing. In all i had 14 trout averaging around 1 every 8 or 9 minutes and a lone minnow, not had many of them this year!

The Sunday i was fishing with my good friend Mike France. We had a job prior to do which was water sampling to test it's levels of ammonia etc. We continued afterwards to fish and i was soon into a trout, a good start, the water here was visibiliy clearer than the previous section and was deceivably deep. The second trout had the fight of a big trout but was only a 1lb 1lb 1/2, it took the nymph after i let it drift under a tree and ran 20 foot of line of my reel as it stormed up the far bank. It turned and i got it into the deeper water infront of me, it started shaking it's head violently and it was off. It hadn't slipped the hook it was an error of my own. I had been experimenting with tippet rings to help the line sink a little quicker but the dropped hadn't been tied on perfectly, despite a check i hadn't double checked it and the fish was gone.

We continued upstream hitting into the odd trout, the river was really on it's arse and we had to do alot of water searching, i even got one through a punt at running a nymph through a very deep but still pool, with how they have been lately (staying in fast oxygenated water) i really thought i had hit a snag. As we proceeded upstream Mike got a nice trout but the weather continued to worsen. The rain was on and off and as we hit a nice pool which again should of held more fish it became torrential. We continued for half an hour but as we were entering narrower valleys we were running the risk of getting caught in rising water so we called it despite some very fishy water around us.

The weather this year has been very unpredictable and has made fishing trips hard, but i do enjoy fishing with Mike, it's nice to enjoy the moments together and have a laugh. Hopefully i will see him again soon and we might even go after Grayling again, it has been 6 months since i last held a lady of the stream, just don't tell my Mrs.

 

Fly Fishing - The 'dead' river

14th July

With a break in the bad weather i gambled with the river conditions and decided it was worth the hassle. Rain is still very much predicted and today was a bit of a fluke. A hot sunny day was sure to bring people out and there were out in their droves, alot of them hunting around the rivers and through the bushes for pokemon, though it is good to see people outside enjoying themselves.

The river was up a foot or two but wasn't a raging torrent, visibility however was very poor.  I set up the nymph rod as nothing was rising and opted for a orange tagged version of my nymph and a heavier black one on the point due to the raised water level. It wasn't long until i was in to a fish and despite it's size it was a start and within 20 minutes i'd bagged 5 more trout. Nothing spectacular but all pretty fish. The fish were showing in what you call 'summer water' despite all the rain we had, i fished the deep pools still but to no avail.



Heading up i ran into a man and two women who questioned my intentions, "Are you fishing? Is there anything even in there?" "Oh yeah" i replied enthusiastically "Trout and the odd chub." "Really? In that? I'm surprised if anything can live in there." "Well you know, there's just enough about it to keep them going, it's up to us to make it better" This exchange must of been intriguing or hilarious to them as one of the women pulls out her phone and starts videoing. Determined not to star in a video labeled, 'Idiot fly fishing in a dead river of sewerage' i positioned myself well and cast my nymphs so they landed near the back end of a low hanging tree. An almost instant take and almost breaking news for the audience, 'Man catches trout in River Irwell'.



Another one soon followed and a 3rd made an acrobatic leap through the air before popping off the hook. The fish had done the business for the audience, a positive show, high fins all round, a pat on the dorsal.

I continued upstream and again were only finding trout, bar one, in the 'summer runs'. A heron startled from the river were i caught the trout in deeper water which may explain why it was there. Funnily it screeched when it noticed i had a trout as it sat high above me in the trees. I tried to get it in the background shot but i think my finger covered it.



In all none of the trout were spectacular in size, taking a mixture of both flies, didn't even lose a fly in the end funnily enough and they accounted for 16 trout in total. 3 more had slipped the hook throughout the course of the trip. After packing up and squeezing my sock out, i had forgotten to fix the leak. I sat back in the sun and enjoyed it for a bit plus it helped dry my pants off!

Fly Fishing - A break in the rain

4th July

It was a spare of the moment thing, with over the next 2 week predicted for rain a dry murky day while i was on a 11 hour shift didn't come into my mind too much. It had been torrential of late so the river wouldn't recover in a day but the day after, today, was something that wasn't expected. It was warm and sunny, like summer should be and it was then i decided to get some fishing in, hopefully it had recovered just enough! 

It was just after 11 i reached the river, all my gear in a rod tube and a backpack, i'd managed to condense it down enough so i don't need anything in my hands, waders on and the nymphing rod set up (i brought one for dry fly) i was all set, with the loss of my action-cam there's no need to wear my fishing pack which held it as well as my gear so i stuffed my tippet and fly box in my wader pocket and left it all in the backpack.



5 casts or so and i was in to a small trout, a great start and hopefully a sign of things to come, the water clarity seemed good at first with the sun beaming down on it but in the shallows it always does, anything over a foot was still a murky brown but it was enough. Not much later and i was in again, bigger trout this time, with it's beautiful blue hue on it's cheeks. I was using my polish nymph i tie which has become pretty much my main nymph, i tie it in a couple of different sizes and weights and maybe a change of color or thread for water conditions but it's the same fly and it has been very good for me this year.



I started selling it on eBay after a lot of messages off Instagram and they've gone off to Italy and Argentina! But the most rewarding message came last night where a guy starting out fly fishing messaged me saying he had his first trout on the fly with one he bought off me! One day he may progress to tie his own and fulfill that milestone too!

I continued upstream and only missed 2 takes while landing 6 small trout, the color variations differing so much, trout have more chromosomes than humans (almost double) allowing them to have more variations due to their genetic diversity. They are a sight to see, no matter what size, some of them have truly amazing patterns, like little works of art, religious men will say god painted them, but i myself believe that nature is a beautiful thing which makes catching these trout, regardless of size a great thing to do.



I saw a rise around 20 feet above me, so i set up the dry fly rod and waited, it never showed again, so i continued nymphing upstream and hit into another bigger trout, another beautifully made trout which is always a shame as you never see them long in reality, hence i take a picture of most of them, my harddrive is pretty much a compilation of trout patterns. Taking a picture is effortless and quickly done. Net the trout, keep the net submerged while grabbing phone out of pocket, hold phone in mouth while wetting left hand, grabbing phone ready in right hand and reach in to grab the trout. Quick lift, pause, picture, release. I even think dripping water adds to the image, some pictures don't go to plan as without having a firm grip on the fish it is free to jump free if it wishes hence why it's always taken over the water.

 

 I fished a long stretch which disappointed me really with only 2 small trout, i've had plenty of big trout from it and the conditions seemed ideal but i didn't catch until i was fishing the pocket water in the riffles above. I then spotted a solitary rise upstream, just in front of a large boulder. It wasn't a big rise so it had possibilities of being a big trout. I watched and watch this rise, there was no clear indicator of what it was taking but i had put a quilled f-fly on which i had tied, olive color. Then it gave itself away, a small trout lept clean out of the water and then continued to rise. i decided to go for it regardless, a bit of dry fly action i had been missing for a while and it was in a tricky position. I allowed the fly line to land on the boulder rather than drift round in the current flowing around it, which minimised drag and allowed for a good presentation. It took it with a little plop off the top. It will hopefully learn to not break it's cover when it's bigger.



There would be no more rises unfortunately, but 7 more fish came on the nymph bringing the total for the day to 21. I stayed while the rain came in the hope it would attract a rise but it didn't. So i packed up and headed home, it was a warm rain so the fact i had no jacket didn't bother me, but i have discovered a small leak in my left leg of my waders which i need to locate, half an inch of water from 4 hours fishing means it might be a tricky leak to find.