When it all comes down to it , as a fly fisherman who loves small streams I guess it does not get any better than a summers evening on a pretty stream with rising fish . When you analyse it all there are really only a couple of months maybe three at best when the evening rise has a chance to develop properly . This year apart from Covid lockdown we have had a strange year , months of unbroken sunshine which followed a very wet winter , then after the recent hot spell the last few days has seen heavy downpours with rivers rising several metres almost overnight . Anyway last Friday after viewing the weekend weather report which was for thunderstorms starting that evening and getting worse over the weekend I decided to risk the weather. The rivers were fairly settled and it was very warm and sticky. I decided on stretch of river based on how near I could park my Jimny if I had to exit quickly in case of downpours.
Not big but from a tricky lie and on a dry , it will do nicely
I love this stream pretty wild and challenging but a lovely place to be . It has a good head of fish to
It was nice to see rising fish almost immediately , not huge numbers but enough to promise an interesting evening , there were BWO coming of and so choice of fly was easy . A size 18 fly fly with a dubbed seals fur body. Well seals fur and artificial dubbing , I find just seals fur a pain to dub on small flies. but mixed with some artificial dubbing it works much better.
My only company were these sheep. They were very curious .
This is the F Fly pattern I use this is a size 18 . Love the spikiness of seals fur. Body dubbing colour varies orange , olive and black are all good depending on whats hatching , also plain black thread body and stripped quills , It is a hell of a pattern
After a dodgy first 10 minutes when I caught a tree and two clumps of Grass I got into my stride. the fish were rising well but were very spooky , generally you only got one cast and in the very tight surroundings you have to get pretty close often roll casts between bushes were the answer , but you tend to do a lot of improvised casts , also you seem to spend more time checking behind your arm than aiming at the fish , which is why roll and spey casts are so useful as least you can keep the line in front of you.
Lots around this size were caught , The bigger ones were hiding .
My car was well populated with resting fish food when I got back to it .
The highlight of the evening was the fact that the Grayling were rising to dries to . Sadly the best one of the evening was the best one I nearly had after shaking the hook and saying goodbye. When I got back to the car it was covered in Flies, Mainly BWO but also a few Sedges and I think Olive Uprights . I drove home after best part of four hours fishing , saw a few rain drops and heard the odd rumble of thunder but very little wet stuff. Only three or four miles into my Journey and roads were awash so not just a good night it had been a lucky one .
2 comments:
I hate trying to fish when I'm having to dodge rain---a beautiful stream you were fishing there. Really impressed with the fly pattern you were fishing---do you fish it sometimes letting it drift just below the surface film? thanks for sharing
That was a pleasure to read and view. Delightful views of the stream or beck. All the best, John
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