It's never quite as you plan is it?! This is the coldest season's start I can remember. Visiting the river on Monday (1st April) left me wondering how long it would be before I'd be casting to rising fish. Despite this, I had every intention to cast a dry fly! It just didn't happen though with a bitter wind, low air temperatures and even some snow falling. There was no fly life to speak of and I can hardly blame them!
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| Water temperature was just 4 deg. C. |
It's always going to be challenging when the weather is so cold and when I ventured back out today, despite the sun shining, I made sure the French leader was ready for action. A short walk down the river, dry fly at the ready, to look for rising fish proved short lived. I switched to the nymphing set up and started to search some of the deeper pockets.
A first for me on the fly, a bull head came tumbling to hand. I have rarely heard of these ever grabbing a fly. More important is there presence - a key indication of water quality and a great food source for hungry, big brown trout!
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| A Bullhead |
After carefully watching pools for signs of life, I eventually worked the nymphs through a narrow, deeper run, only to be met with a solid take and a real fight on my hands. After the winter's floods, I was aware of some Rainbow Trout finding their way into the river and I had firmly attached myself to one of them. After a lively battle, in and out of submerged roots, the net eventually secure a 2lb 11oz Rainbow. It certainly gets the heart racing when you're using a 10' 2 weight rod!
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| 2lb 11oz escaped Rainbow Trout |
Not quite the day I had expected. Now, if I could convert that into a Brown Trout next time...
~Dave
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