It’s early May and it’s been a strange season so far. And Covid is the least of that. It’s been the coldest and driest start to a season I can remember. It’s been a mixed blessing. The river has been beautiful. It’s never been so clear even at summer lows. And so early in the season the algae has never really caught up, so the gravel has been clean and bright even after 5 weeks of low water. There have been decent hatches of flies and decent catches on dry fly. However the cold weather has delayed a lot of hatches so its been quiet at times. Likewise, the cold weather has limited the appetite of fish. Towards the end of the dry spell fishing got hard with the current so low and fish sitting in nearly still water. However a bigger worry was what the river would be like with so little water to start the year. As a result the recent rains were very welcome.
After the first flood of water conditions looked perfect as the water fined down. Although I was busy with work I thought it was worth a quick session on the river and headed out with a short line nymphing outfit. I fished 3 flies to get coverage of the water. All were small deadheads as I didn’t;t want to be too low. In dark water its useful to have flies that are silhouetted against the sky. I started out at the tail of a small pool and starting at the tail of the pool where the water was slowing and shallowing I was into a fish on the second cast. After a strong fight it proved to be a good fish of 36cm. A few cast later I had another that went 39cm from the main body of the pool. I worked the pool carefully and had another from the streamy water at the head. I was surprised I didn’t get more as this can be a productive pool. I had nothing from a nice pocket between the 2 main currents. I waded out into the main current to fish the slack water on the far side and was again surprised to get nothing. Extending the cast I let the fly float well down and swing across when I felt some wight and lifted into another fish.
The pocket water above this pool can be productive, but that is in the summer when the water is warmer and the fish are searching for more oxygenated water. I wasn’t expecting there to me much there in the present cold. But it’s always worth checking, so I had a couple of casts into some of the deeper and more productive pools. In the second poo as the line reached the deepest part just by a large outcrop of bedrock the leader stopped and I lifted into another decent fish. This one headed off downstream at speed through the chute of water and into the pool below. I couldn’t follow as it is too deep and fast over slick slab-rock. So I had to play the fish from the rocks above with the fish in the fast water below. I thought it’s get off for sure in these circumstances, but after a while it tired and I was able to persuade into the slacker water between currents and up to the rocks were I could land it. A beautiful fish against the dark rocks and the amber water.
Half an hour after staring I’d got 3 more and decided to call it a day. Not a bad result for my lunch-break.
Fish had certainly responded well to the extra colour. Though if anything fish still seem thin on the ground. Hopefully more fish will appear as it warms up.
The fly – not much to look at maybe, but in my experience way it mirrors the colours of the environment, then adds a bit of sparkle and colour is the key to a good pattern.
Recent Comments