Day three started a little overcast, but it turned out very mild and a great day for fishing. We went to one of the beats I fished last year but with the water considerably clearer and lower a lot more of this beat was fishable than last time.
John directed myself and a couple of other to a section where there was a chance of fewer but bigger fish- we hoped!
It wasn’t long before I had hooked my first Grayling, a very decent sized fish which put up a strong fight. I was near getting it netted when the bloody thing came off. “Remote release” I think we call it.
This was becoming a bad habit for me on the French leader. I tried again and soon had a second and was able to net this one OK.
A third and again just before the net it came off!. Not sure if its simply because Grayling are especially wiry and wriggle about a lot on barbless hooks or if its me but I had a lot of problems keeping bigger fish on this weekend. I fished most of the run out and never touched a fish, it was hard work going upstream with the old knees, so came back for a break and to take the fleece off as I was bit warm!
After a break I fished the run again and got one fairly respectable sized trout of about half a pound and nothing else. I had seen fish rise and suspected the fish were looking up. Hywel had the same idea I think and he got the dry fly rod out and fished up the section. When he got to where I was, in a spot I had seen a Grayling jump he hooked a fish. A few more casts and he had a second- I was right- they were looking up!
Hywel Morgan bags a Grayling on a dry fly
John Emerson shows how its done
I moved much further upstream and joined a few of the others, entering just below John Emerson. The wading was hard and the rocks very slippy under the trees and John picked up a few small Grayling. He passed me and I followed down and then as I came down (very gingerly) I found a nice gravel bar that crossed the river. I waded out the section accross stream and picked up one small Grayling. On the far side near a fallen tree I got a few knocks then hooked into a fish, as it surfaced I could see it was a substantial Brown Trout, maybe of a pound or so. I was trying to control it downstream of me, and seemed well in…. all was looking good…… and then the f@$3%&* thing came off! What do I have to do. A few more casts and I hooked a Grayling- you can tell by the head shaking, but this time I definitely bounce dit off I carried on fishing out the leg and picked up one final small Grayling and that as they say was that!
A great weekend- in total 21 (ish) fish, a little disappointed I never had anything massive, but still a lot more than last time and I felt my fishing has improved a lot in a year- just need to fathom out why I keep bouncing fish.
