Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Better days are coming


It is warming up, albeit not as fast as I would like. It is not feeling like late April. For me one of the hazards of combining fishing with a busy family life is that fishing has to be shoehorned into where it fits, rather than where I would ideally place it. This is especially acute in the early season as a consequence of the most productive parts of the days being quite short and the fact that it has been so long since I have been able to fish for trout.  

So on Saturday I was sat in a town centre café having a sandwich when the conditions were ideal and was not able to get into the river before late Sunday afternoon when the conditions had deteriorated. Still I was in the river and that was all that was important at that time. The river levels had dropped a little, clarity was improving and there was some evidence of fish feeding on the surface. I had a session prospecting a streamy little stretch and had some attention to the CDC and Elk, a trout dropping off after a very brief tussle.

Better days are coming.

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

First of the year


Saturday was the first vaguely springlike day of the year, however the wind still had some teeth though. My first thoughts were that there was a lot of water in the river but the clarity was surprisingly good. Combine this with the bright skies and the omens were not too promising. 

The walk down to the start of the beat failed to show any signs of feeding fish despite the odd Large Dark Olive. Got to the bottom and started setting up the rod. Frankly this had all the hallmarks of a day for nymphing. A scenario not really accommodated in my abridged set of flies for 2013!

So having failed to find any visibly feeding fish it was a fruitless visit in terms of trouty action. However it was good to be out again and to prove that I could still present a fly and lay a line on the water. And it was especially heartening to spy lots of juvenile fish in the rejuvenated tributary stream.

The river still in its winter wardrobe.....


The near obligatory rod and reel shot.....