I'm going fishing anyway!

Saturday 8th October


This Rugby World Cup's playing havoc with my R & R, getting up at 5.45am to catch the quarter finals!  Its too much especially when England can't pull it together.  Well enough's enough, I had to get out and fish.


It was grey, overcast and raining, but not too cold, .. good for fish I suppose.  Cos it was raining it seemed like a good idea to go up river to our upper reaches, which has lots of tree cover, and see if it is was fishable.  One of our keepers told me he'd been doing some clearance work so I thought it worth a try. 

Looking out at the stream, there were no rises to be seen,  .. that I could differentiate from the rain splashes anyway.  So on with a klink & ptn nymph set up to do some prospecting.

The water is still so low despite the rain, that the nymph was continually snagging bottom, and the bankside vegetation so profuse it was difficult to drop a line. Perseverance, and concentration, were the watch words,  things that I lacked in my state of sleep deprived torpor.  So I missed the first take, opposite the confluence of a feeder brook, as my dry fly swung out of sight under the bank! Hmph I needed to try harder.


Further up there is a nice pool on a bend alongside a tree with submerged roots, a very fishy spot.  It required me to lean out and roll the flies upstream at a 90 degree, what fun! The dry fly (black klink with orange post) drifted back towards me and slipped out of sight, and joy of joys I lifted into my first fish for a fortnight, albeit a tiddler!  After shaking him off another cast and almost in the same spot the dry disappeared, and a slightly more respectable fish came to the net.

Well I pressed on and managed a couple more, but the 'cleared' stream was more often clogged as not!

 Please note that my rod is pointing along the main course of the river and I am thigh deep!

Quite a challenge to get one's fly down to the fish!!

 Is this because of the very low flows and warm weather we've experienced all summer I wonder.  Desperately in need of a good flush through, or we'll need a lot of work-party effort come late winter. 

I eventually found some clear stretches mainly under the trees, where the light struggled to illuminate sufficiently for photosynthesis.  In one particular very shallow stretch I noticed a distinct v-shaped wake moving upstream slowly. A cast ahead and to one side resulted in a violent pull and then my leader did an about turn and headed towards me at a rate of knots, trouble was I was standing downstream of a fallen branch!  My rod bent and then the leader flies and all were in the branches above me, sh.......!  And to cap it all the tree wasn't for letting go, and so remains festooned as if for the festive season.


Tying on a new tippet, and pair of flies, required more effort than I cared for, and that my poor eyesight could cope with in the grey gloom!  Did I mention that the light was beginning to go and it was only 6.00 o'clock. Once done I was free to amble further upstream, but to no avail as there was very little fishable water remaining, and what there was wasn't playing ball.  Well, I hadn't bargained for fighting through all the in-river vegetation so I was more than a little knackered as I walked the mile & half back to the car.


Sunday 9th October


Up at 5.45am again, I must be mad as well as shattered, good rugby though.


Went to Burton upon Trent with the missus, to the fly fair organised by Wendy Gibson of Flies by Wendy
 It was a super event in the lovely old town hall, with great catering, lots of trade stands and great fly tying demos.  It was in aid of 2 very worthwhile charities Casting for Recovery and Fishing for Heroes, my wife having benefited from the former.  I hope it was successful enough to take place again next year. 


We had to leave earlier than I hoped to join my brother & sister-in-law for a birthday lunch, but that was probably just as well, and saved me money that I can ill afford to spend! But there are always some tying materials you can't do without.

Bit late with this

Saturday, 3rd Sept

Went down to an upper beat of the Witham at Ponton in the afternoon, my gosh, first time on the river in about a month, what with holiday, kids hither and thither and what not. Any way weather seemed kind, sun & cloud and fairly gusty wind (could have done without that), but it wouldn't have mattered either way.  Set up with a home tied orange post klink with a ptn under and walked down stream.

 

 Well you could tell I lacked practice, spent the first hour scaring fish away, that's when I could see them.
Wasn't until much later, on the wider slower stretch above the weir, that I saw any rises, but trying to interest them in my offerings took a long while.

Eventually an obviously less educated brownie of about 10" took the klink and came blinking to hand.  Before I could take its picture it spat the fly, jumped out of the net and was away.  That was that.

 However the wildlife kept me company!

Sunday 4th Sept

For a change after lunch I drove down to Stamford, near Uffington actually, to fish a stretch of the Lower Welland belonging to the Guash Fly Club.  Its a pretty bit of river that looks and can be very fishy, (it is stocked in the early season) before you get to the canal like section towards Tallington.  Another chap arrived more or less at the same time, so I went well down stream, only after pausing to cast to the numerous fish who feed on God knows what below the raging treatment works outfall. That's the second time I seen that but I can't figure what they want.

It seemed a very hard day, in fact apart from at the outfall section I didn't see a fish move at all.  Eventually all I had to show for my efforts was a small 6" chub!  It was a lovely evening though and I wasn't alone in my failings, the other chap blanked, and only reported one little pull.

Failed C&R

Friday evening, an early tea and down at Barkston by 6.45pm.  Lovely evening but very little rising?

The water was very very clear!

Yep that is through the water, without a polarising filter!
To fishing, my usual klink put down a couple of fish that I could see, mainly due to my poor casting as well as the frequency of casts. Noticed a lot of small caddis above the water and realised they were hatching, ....dur!  Changed to an F fly, too much weed for a nymph, and anyway I wanted to use a dry.  That drew more interest but my strike rate was appalling.  Until I spotted the sporadic rise of a brown trout under an overhanging branch at the other end of a deepish, weed-filled pool from me.  This required a very flat side cast into the 12" gap below the branch.  Well bug&*r me if it didn't take it, head, tail and all - a right splasher, which charged all over the pool collecting about a 1lb of weed with it.  I eventually slipped the net under it all, and pulled out the weed.  That's tricky while holding rod & net!

A right little corker, but where was the fly?  On further investigation it had deep hooked itself way down and I really struggled with forceps to remove the barbless hook (which I hadn't crimped down as well as it should have been).

The poor thing was pretty much done in so unfortunately I felt that it would be better to tap it on the head and take it for the pot, something I very rarely do with the river caught fish.

Missed a few more takes after that but my heart wasn't in it any more.  Anyway I was only wearing a teeshirt and I was getting pretty cold so jacked it in and watched the sunset on the way home.

POSTSCRIPT:
The said fishy, seasoned with salt & pepper and fried in lots of butter was absolutely delicious.