As the stinging nettles and overgrown parts of the countryside are are their height at the moment, Phil had chosen great with this beat in that most of it was running through pasture land with Cows and Sheep and there was very easy access to perhaps two thirds of the water.
It was another untouched area of Herefordshire. No mass production, plenty of hedges still in place, loads of over grown areas and the trees left to rot where they fell. However amongst this the gates were well maintained and there was a bridge over the river that opened up both banks.
We decided to walk to the lower end of the beat and work up but we were nearly there but got held up watching grayling rise. Fortunately as impatient as I am I had set up while walking and just had to tie a fly on and give it a try. After a few casts with a hares ear klink and nothing so I changed to a black one and almost immediately I was into a small grayling, a very nice start!
It then went a bit quiet and I thought perhaps I needed fresh fish so continued my walk to the bottom of the beat and back. The river had many bends and gave it great character but also some gravelly runs with easy wading but also some very deep pools that you didn't seem to be able to get past. I am a bit of a novice when it comes to getting in the water so with open grassy banks I stuck to crouching and sitting. It seems to be more relaxed sitting and on one occasion i could see a fish rising on the far bank causing heavy ripples so I inched a bit closer making a couple of casts to check the distance. I was about 10ft short of where he had rose last and I cast to the far bank letting the line and fly float back into the main current when suddenly the water exploded and I was into a good fish. It looked like a brownie of over a pound but on my 4 weight rod it was giving a great fight. After a couple of minutes it headed up stream and then into the slack water when my line also went slack and he was off. Dammit!
When I got back Phil was still there and had had 3 grayling from the same spot on small black wets.
In the afternoon we explored further upstream and I managed another small grayling and Phil a small brownie. I had a really good grayling on for about 30 secs, I saw the flash of silver come up from the dark water, grab my fly and head back down again. It swam into what may have been a sunken branch and that was it. In need of consolation I went back to the Grayling shoal we found and had another small one there. There were fish still rising but they had slowed down a little.
It was now that we started to appreciate the wildlife around, Buzzards screaming up high, a kingfisher darting up river and Spotted Flycatchers amongst the tangled willows catching flies for their fledglings I presumed. No otters today though although we did see what we thought were spraints so they may be around.
As the evening came the hatching fly intensity increased. Midges were hovering above the water all day but their numbers started to grow.
Mayflies (Ephemera danica) had been hatching all day but again the numbers increased now. In addition to this this there were more upwinged flies coming off as well as a good number of different types of sedges brown, black and mottled. The fish however didn't seem to be feeding on anything other than tiny midge so they didn't get any easier to tempt. As a late flurry though Phil again found some rising grayling and managed another couple but on a dry klink this time.
Around 8 we didn't see any signs of it getting better so a quick reminder of the superb setting and we headed off home. What a really relaxing enjoyable day, and fish too!
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