First trout of the season
Well the season has been underway for the best part of a month and I have only managed to get out twice. The first time resulted in a bountiful net full of grayling and a solitary heart stopping with a nice trout that was some sort of acrobat. Leap after leap the fish tried to escape until he managed to spit the hook at my feet in disgust at my feeble skills.
The second trip was in the midst of a strangely hot spell last weekend. I have decided to spread out from the areas I know and tried a beat further downstream from my normal haunts. It is not the quietest beat being quite close to a busy road but it is a beautiful piece of water.
Ignore the rubbish on the banks from last winter’s floods, this will soon be hidden by the leaves. It is a lovely swim with a long slow glide at the bottom full of riding fish and a nice fast run at the head.
The slower water at the bottom of the run was covered in rising fish but after catching a few of them on a size 22 f-fly it appeared they were all grayling, a few rises appeared trouty but these were apparently just aggressive little silver ladies.
The riffle at the top was a different story. I have made a resolution this season that I am going to slow down everything I do, take more time to sit watch and think before tackling a run. This has already made my fishing more relaxed and enjoyable and will hopefully see my ability to read water improve over this summer. This particular run had a couple of current flows, one of which flowed under some trees on the far bank, with the bright sunshine I figured the shade may well be a good place to start. As there were some LDOs hatching the small f-fly was changed for a size 16 klink and a beaded pheasant tail of the same size. The duo is a brilliant method for working shallow riffles, I am not getting in to the “etiquette” of indicators but personally think the use of a dryfly is a delicate and skilful technique. I was feeling confident, I had matched the hatch, chosen a current to work up and was using a method I have faith in.
For once this all seemed to come together and the first trout of the season was soon in the net, I just hope the rest of the season is as good to me. It very nearly got better soon after but I will spare you the one that got away story, at least I know where he lives now.
A lovely start to the trout season, he was followed on the next cast by an identical twin from the same lie.
My entomology knowledge is, to be frank, appalling, but I am intent on changing that. I am going to be writing a series of posts on here about the hatches that occur throughout the year. With my pitiful knowledge they may not be great but I promise to try and research them a bit. The first is on the hatch I witnessed last trip, the large dark olive, it also mentions the March brown, a sadly rare upwing now.
A pair of stonclingers, possibly March brown nymphs but I am more than likely wrong.
