Willow Pool Yesterday

After lunch at the Bull in Ashford-in-the-Water (recommended) and completing a few chores got down to the willow pool at about 1530. It was rather dull and quite breezy so wasn't expecting too much. Tackled up with a small olive  nymph (D-Rib) which had a bit of lead underneath to get it down a bit. I started at the bottom of the pool and on about the second cast connected with a good brown which was soon landed, it was perfect with large red and black spots, about 1.5 lb. There were some mayflies about so I changed tack and put on a mayfly nymph and immediately took another brown followed closely by a rainbow, both in the 1.5 to 2lb class. I worked my way up the pool and took 3 more browns, that was 6 fish in 60 minutes. There was only the odd fish rising and I noticed that some appeared to be rising in the same position,hmmmm. So on went a grey-olive paradun as there were some small olives about, couldn't identify them at the time but on investigation later I think they may have been medium olives or small dark olives. I covered a few of the rising fish but nothing. Then a few mayflies got hammered by the risers so I had to switch to a 1 up 1 down mayfly (Phil Whites - my most successful mayfly) I covered a couple of the risers and took a couple more good browns before heading to the hut for a warming coffee. The water is still quite cold and I had my neoprenes on too. Anyway after a coffee I decided to have a last couple of casts with a mayfly nymph. There were some sedge about and loads of LDOs and the small olive mentioned previously.  As I was moving up the pool I spotted a very large fish right on the bottom only 8-9 feet away, I dropped my nymph to try and elicit a response but nothing, I tried a couple of times then I had a follow from a monster so much so that my first thought and I may have said it out loud was, "Oh god please DON'T take!".  I couldn't believe what I had seen and said but it gave me such a shock to see it that it was my first reaction, I had a little chuckle to myself! It was obviously one of Matthews pets from the children's farm up at Chatsworth that had outgrown the ponds up there. Anyway called it a day at 1800 after that as had a really good session.

Didn't take any photos as camera is in dock at Nikon, I seem to be having a few problems with gear at the moment! Nikon though won't be as forthcoming with the customer service as Orvis or Sage, quoted £161 to fix it!