Tuesday 14 June 2011

Shall I Stay or Shall I Go

Well I decided to go down to the Sycamore Pool last evening as the rain over the weekend had not affected the river at all. I got there about 1945 and the downstream breeze was certainly strong and gusting with a definite chill in the air. So much so that I sat there watching the river deciding whether to cast a line or not bother as there was not a thing moving apart from the trees and the grass. Anyway at about 2000 a fish rose and as I had on a small black klink decided to have a go and after a cast or two he came up and had it, a nice brown of about a pound and a half, what a start. That seemed to be the cue for the wind to drop, the fish to start showing and the flies to start hatching. I covered a few more rises but the fish did not come up for my morsel. There were plenty of small caenis type flies, caddis galore and a few olives about. I changed to one of my caddis and had a half hearted rise which I managed to connect to and another brown came to hand. It was now caddis city with fish moving everywhere! Unfortunately I had left my net in the car so couldn't trap any to find out what exactly they were but they did look rather pale. After a few refusals I wondered which fly to put on and noticed a sedge which I had been given by Tom Richardson, the old riverkeeper from the Wye, the other season so on it went. I know its a cliche but first cast and up came another brown which was landed. I then flicked the fly in just to make sure it was still floating and blow me another brown got it. This was also landed, what an evening this was turning out to be. It wasn't long before the spinners started so I quickly changed to my trusty old rusty spinner and started picking up fish after fish, all browns except for a blue rainbow. By 2130 I had had about 8 fish and as the light was fading worked my way back downstream to where I got in after changing to a size 22 small yellow parachute.  I picked up an out of season grayling and 3 more browns, making 12 fish for the 2 hours, a really cracking evening considering the initial outlook. What was interesting was that I didnt see 1 mayfly spinner and as the evening progressed the flies came and went. Small stuff, olives followed by sedge, spinners and caenis. Just before I left there were loads of yellow may duns mating and what appearred to be laying eggs however not a fish rose to any of them. I learnt alot last evening too!

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