Part 2 Sunday Afternoon

Sunday afternoon was even warmer than yesterday so not wanting to waste it I again went down to the works where Derek had already arrived. Today I was determined to try and crack the head and tailing fish. I had forgotten to take my box with all my micro flies in yesterday so made a point of taking it today. I started off with a small black spider in the willow pool and covered a few fish to no avail. The river was extremely low and clear and I could spot several trout under the first tree.they were at it again head and tail rises to something minute. Yesterday there were small black flies and greenfly about so I put on size 26 greenfly and on the first pass a fish took but the hook failed to secure. This happened again on the next rise so a tip given to me is to slightly offset the bend which I did. This had the desired effect and the next rise resulted in a hookup and a brown around 2lb was landed, a real beauty. Even with the disturbance the fish caused fish continued to rise. After covering several others the cast eventually dropped spot on and drifted drag free over another brown which took and was subsequently landed. I decided to switch to the same size black smut. This also eventually managed to hookup a couple more stunning browns when I noticed a good sedge riding the current above me, this was snaffled by a fish so on went a brown sedge and was floated over where the fish showed and first time up he came and had it. This was my best brown of the season as he was pushing 2.5 lbs a gem. Several other fish rose to the sedge but either missed it or I was too eager as I could see the fish coming for the sedge. Another two fish came to the sedge before one of the cows in the field got through the fencing and joined me in the pool, game over! I wandered up to the sycamore to meet up with Derek who had taken a few fish. Fish had slowed and only the odd fish was showing. I persevered with the sedge and took another brown as Derek was landing a cracking rainbow which only just fitted in his net. We called it a day around 5.30 as the temperature started to drop and the fish with it, a good afternoon all round and not many left as the season finishes a week on Tuesday.

A good afternoon but very autumnal

I arranged to meet Derek at the works around 1.45, it was certainly autumnal today. It had started of quite misty but the sun had burnt it off earlier on how ever now it had cloud over. Derek went up to the sycamore and I went down to the willow pool. Fish were head and tailing as there were numerous tiny insects about, nothing definite. I had put a small black beetle on on Derek's recommendation. The first couple of fish covered appeared to take the fly but whether they had taken some thing close or I struck to soon but there was no hookup. It had been quite a few weeks since my last trip so I was probably a bit too keen. Eventually I hooked up with a lovely brown in tip top condition. I decided to swap  to a black gnat as I spotted a few small black flies, this still did not produce the result so again changed to a griffiths gnat which immediately took another brown. I think this was a flook  as nothing else showed any interest. Fish stopped rising and John had come down to make a cuppa so it was time for a quick break.  At the restart fish had started to head and tail again so I decided on a small black buzzer below an indicator, I covered a fish and it was immediately taken and another brown was landed. A second and third soon followed so I stuck with this setup. The temperature was dropping but it had not Put the fish down yet. A couple more browns came to the same setup and soon the activity stopped so I called it a day for 7 browns as I had started to shiver and couldn't stop. When I got back to the car I had  to sit there with the heater going full blast for 10 minutes! Derek had faired slightly better getting 8 fish from the sycamore up so all in all a good afternoon.