At last a rising fish

 It has been by all accounts and also by some considerable margin. A depressingly long , wet and miserable winter.  There has been no proper winter weather ie hard frosts and some proper snow.  We had a couple of bits of the white stuff .   But nothing to speak of ,  Truth is it started to rain around last October and it has hardly let up since . The springs that feed my new chalk stream came up quickly and have stayed up and indeed put the river over the banks and across the fields .  I went for a walk along the river a week or so ago , Not to fish but to see what the level looks like .   To me it looks like I will be fishing sometime mid may...

My other spate streams have been up and down like the proverbial all winter ,  The farmer on one stretch , whose family have been there for generations has commented that although he had a couple of times seen the river higher . He did say that he had never seen the river so high for so long .  The high water has caused some damage and our work parties have removed three fallen trees and there is considerable bank damage in places .  But the river is still there it is still full of fish and god willing if it stops raining and the water fines down then fishing can recommence . 

So far since the kick of on the 25th march , I have had three trips The first resulted in no Trout but a couple of willing Grayling so no score there then a week later saw a return to the same venue and had my first couple of trout both on nymphs. 

Then on Saturday I had my first trip to a brand new stretch of river,  After having an introductory chat to the guy who runs the little syndicate I wanted to give it a whirl.  The stretch is a couple of miles of very wild unstocked interesting upland stream.  Challenging wading but delightful at the same time . There will be no big fish but first impressions were that there will be plenty of fish.  A small light rod in my case on the day was a 6ft 9 inch light bamboo job.  So with that and a wading staff clutched tightly I set of ..

A small bead head on a long leader would have been an obvious choice but the reel I had with me had a silk line and a furled leader. So not ideal.  So the usual 4ft of tippet of the furlie was replaced with 8ft and I started prospecting in likely looking seams and pockets with a 3mm size 16  beadhead nymph.  plucks resulted with a finger sized sprat that dropped of then I had one slightly bigger .

The water looks very promising with nice variation glides and pocket water in abundance and I worked my way upstream and had a few more then after noticing a few olives I saw a sight to gladden the heart , I spied a splashy rise in the tail of a fast run .  A CDC F fly drew a response but no hook up . Two casts later a little plump brownie came to hand after throwing a couple of cartwheels to brighten the day ( the fish that is, not me.) .  It was at that point I did what all sensible folks do. I got out and sat on a tree stump and took stock of my surroundings .  I am always amazed that more folks don`t fly fish , It is hard to imagine a more cathartic experience than to sit watching a river , listening to the world .  After a carton of ice cold latte and a chocolate bar it was time to resume the season.

Tackle for the day was American Jim Becker bamboo rod.  An English Hardy reel and an Italian Terenzio silk line ,  As near as I get to embracing foreign influence.  I am going to enjoy spending time here. But as a I type this the heavens have opened again and the rivers are back on the way up.  A good few years ago on this blog I prayed for rain.  Within a week we started a wet summer of biblically wet proportions , So I hesitate to pray for dry weather with my luck we will get a biblical drought and a plague of locusts . 

A little stream and Blue winged olives .

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 .