Been a bit slow in getting round to updates on the old Blog of late.
The end of my week in Bristol was crowned off by two outings- another to the Barrows and one to little stream in Wiltshire, the By Brook, with a good friend, Dave.
The Barrows
The evening on the Barrows was very hard going- the wind had dropped and #2 was totally flat calm. This in itself would not have been a huge problem but for the fact that the water was both very warm- the fish were well off from the bank beyond casting range, and there was a fluorescent green emulsion of algae appearing around the fringes that got worse as the night progressed.
Add to that the ever-present thick weed that’s around the edges of the shallower areas and it made for frustrating fishing.
I started at the roadside deep end but there was little happening, then moved over to where I had success earlier in the week, but never felt it was going to be easy- but I did get a couple of tentative jabs before a bulge like a submarine headed off to the deeper water. I think I found a pod of fish under the weed and got a little attention before they spooked.
I moved back round by the roadside and tried a few dries with the occasional rising fish and on a very small black fly managed to get a swirl at the fly but missed the fish- or thought I had, but when I recovered my fly from the bushes behind me I discovered the tiniest fry impaled on the size 18 hook. I think the Rainbows are hitting the fry and this one was in the mouth of the fish I missed but hooked the uneaten baitfish.- so not a blank then. By this time the algae was intolerable and was coating everything with thick green fluorescent goo so I called it a day.
By Brook, Wiltshire
The faster moving section of the By Brook- very overhung with trees.
I was invited by a long time work friend, Dave to come and fish the By Brook in Wiltshire. He is a member of a club that runs a stretch of this small stream I would guess about a mile or so long. It has some of the characteristics of a chalk stream in places and is quite hemmed in by trees so casting is not the easiest, and on the night we went down it was very, very still. There was negligible flow and the water was an odd milky colour. Dave said it was quite low, it was hard for me to judge never having been there before but certainly there had to be less water than normal as I would think such a low flow would not be particularly conducive to trout habitat. We tried a bit of dry fly and nymphing in one of the easier to access pools but apart from a sole fish jumping- not a big one, nothing moved. We saw a few fish move under some trees further up, but our attempts to get to them were defeated by the low water and high trees!
Dave suggested we move upstream as there was a section with a bit more movement further up though it was something of a commando course to reach over fences and trees. Once in this corner casting was again hard, Dave stuck with the nymphs and I tried a few parachute style flies.
In my corner, there were fish moving, but it was rapidly getting dark now and I was struggling to see. I lost a few flies to the undergrowth and put on a olive Klinkhammer with a pink fluorescent post. Second or third cast ( and getting near to calling it a day) I never saw a rise but noticed my line tip pulling away and I lifted to be met by the resistance of a fairly powerful fish! Alas it lasted seconds and I think I gave it too long to head deeper and wrap me round some submerged vegetation, and I was snapped off. A challenging water and one I would like to visit again maybe earlier in the season when water is more plentiful, but big thanks to Dave for taking me down there.
