Although my motivation for fishing the reservoirs seems to have currently gone AWOL my enjoyment of river fishing certainly hasn't. What a fantastic location this is. The beat is situated just outside Wherewell - which quite interesting means bubbling streams - it has 11 beats on the carrier streams and 1 beat on the main river. It also has a small well stocked lake for those that can't catch and a cabin to use as a base, breakfast and tea and coffee on tap. I always think it is quite quaint with carefully tended path's, refuge huts, foot bridges, seats and a gently flowing green and white river - magic!
Enough of the pre-amble but the first morning session Phil and i decided to fish the shallow carriers before they got too much disturbance. As I walked up the river slowly I kept to the far edge of the patch to avoid too much disturbance. There were quite a number of fish all holding in the current usually in the bare patch depressions behind a patch of weed waiting to ambush any fly that decided to hatch or drift past their window of vision. I had a couple of casts at a few fish but was amazed how skittish they were. Well it may have been me being a bit clumsy! However after only 10 mins I saw a fish rise under a tree on the far bank and then some others holding in the current behind that. So a bit more stealth required this time and i dropped to my knees and crawled up to the edge of the reeds, stripped the right length of line off and a lovely cast above tree to let it swing round underneath. I tightened up with a figure of eight retrieve and BANG it took and headed further under the tree. The fight was great and a few minutes later had slipped the net under a Grayling of just over a pound. What a great start - the rest of the weekend could be enjoyed.
After another small Grayling and lunch it was my turn on the main river. I started down from the bridge and thought i would go down river on the nymph and come back up on the dry. There were loads of fish in the first pool but i couldn't tempt them. They seemed a little dis-interested but i guess it was that i didn't quite have the right fly. The second pool had a deep hole on the far side and i gave a great cast into the far bank with a gold bead little chap. I mended the line to let it sink for a second and suddenly wham this fish took it and came out of the water. It was a big brownie all yellow and buttery and in the sun looked fantastic. I played it out and just as I was about to net it, it came off. Ah well the photo opportunity was missed but as Mick said "proper catch and release. I went most of the way down the beat and headed back up but with no interest. As i got to the bridge Mick and Phil had settled in to try and tempt them on dry's but no luck yet.
I kept moving up river and when I came to the pool above the weir with some others further up i thought i would settle in the deeper area and see what I could tempt. As i looked out across the water there were occasionally big fish rising but also i could see shapes moving across a bare chalk depression and knew there were fish out there. I struggled for a take until I put the little chap back on again and then i was off. In the next hour I took 4 brownies to 4lb and a lovely Grayling around a pound and a quarter.
What a superb session! As i was just packing up, Phil came up the other side and nicked my water for a cast and he was into a sizeable rainbow on the last cast of the day.
The second day Phil and I had decided to go and fish beats 4 and 5 by the side of the road where we hadn't fished before. I also had decided that i was going to try and get the duo working and master another technique. I set up a black klinkerhammer with a red collared size 16 hares ear 9 inches further down tied on New Zeeland style. I tried a few pools but the fish were again a bit wary. I paused on the bridge between beat 4 and 5 and I could see some fish holding on the far bank so crawling around behind them I set myself for a cast back to the bridge. It was quite tricky with the wind having picked up and changing direction but fortunately fo me the fish stayed around and after five or six casts I got the right one close to the reeds and as it floated down the dry popped under and I lifted into a lovely Grayling.
As I moved down the pool there was one deeper run that seemed to hold a few more fish and i thought i would persevere here. I went over them for a good half hour but even if i disturbed one there was another that came to replace it in the lie. I kept changing flies and depth to no avail but at 18 inches deep I put a double beaded hares ear on to get to the depth quicker and as it floated towards the tail of the pool it went under and i was into a better Grayling. The pool seemed disturbed so i left it for 10 minutes and the fish were back again. I then managed to catch two cracking brownies but this time I pulled them quickly out of the pool and netted round the corner. What a cracking session and I felt great confidence in the method too.
I gradually started to rain a bit more as early afternoon went on and by two it was chucking it down quite hard. however with a dozen fish already that was enough and without marring a cracking weekend we headed for home early.
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