1st Evening Session

I decided to have a couple of hours in the park as it had been a glorious day but the heat had gone out of the evening. I went down to the cricket pitch and wandered down to the stump, another of my favourite places. There was the odd fish showing here and there and on my second or third cast with my good old rusty spinner it was taken by a lovely wild brown.

This was followed by a decent out of season grayling and another small brownie. A few spinners were about, possibly LDO spinners. I then wandered down to Mary's Bower where there were numerous fish showing. I covered a few and touched them with the same fly and then managed another couple of brownies and the twin of the previous grayling. I wasn't convinced that this is what the majority of fish were taking although there were spinners about it was not immediately obvious to what. I suspected it was something small however just as I was perusing through my flybox a couple of mayfly duns floated past I also spotted a couple of shucks so hey they are on the move! Anyway I digress, so I put on my "Nana's" fly tied klink style on a size 18 206BL, love it, I have blogged about this fly before. A small rise showed in the run in to the pool and after several passes up he came and took, wow! don't you love it when a plan comes together. It had me all over the place and eventually on the second attempt I man handled a cracking 6lb rainbow half into my net half out and ran up the bank to safety. After that anything else would be an anti climax so I packed up and went home early!

Sunday 13th May - Finally!!!!

At long last I managed to get out for a couple of hours even though it was not exactly spring-like! Since the season started every time I had the opportunity to go, the river was in flood or coloured. Anyway I decided to go down to the works where I knew there would be some respite from  the wind. There were some fish rising below the works and so I started with a large dark olive and covered a few but nothing so a quick change to a black gnat and a take from a rainbow but I soon realised it was foul hooked. I covered several more but again nothing. A small willow type fly I spotted on the surface so another change to a greyolive para ensued but still no-go. I decided to move above the works to the sycamore pool but the wind was really cruel here and the river was dead. I looked closely and below the tree the odd fish showed. I had changed again to a small black gnat and covered a rise on the far side, a good cast, but up came the fish and took. A decent brown legally hooked this time was landed and it looked like a wild one or mayube from the previous season but in exceptional condition. Soon a second fish showed and again covered and hooked, another brown similar to the last but completely different in its markings. I soon called it a day, a very chilly day at that but a decent start, as they say we're off!