I arrived to fish the Upper Water at about 19:30 and there were a few small fish rising as I tackled up. Then I noticed a large nose sipping in a fly and my first cast with my size 16 flymph, I had my first fish of the evening.
The river looked great and there was plenty of evidence of where River Keeper John’s new strimmer has been! There were also still a few mayfly coming off and plenty of spinners laying their eggs.
Waded up the shallows admiring the ranunculus, but I should have been concentrating because I spooked a good fish – dam.
Up to the Withy Bed and the usual suspects were rising on the bend, a nasty down stream wind made casting difficult and I didn’t give myself much of a chance of hooking a fish. But one came up and sucked in the fly, it was a lively 1lb grayling.
The next bend and a good fish was making some very splashy rises, I guess he was after hatching caddis, so I switched to a larger fly and cast – he came up and took the fly so slowly and confidently I was sure I had him, I struck and a slight tug and he was away – dam
The sun had set and it started to get chilly, it was now 21:30 so I tested my knots and got ready for the evening rise. There’s a fish and another and another, for the next 20 mins I had great fun, during one fish a deer waded the river just 20 yards up stream – amazing.. A great end to Father’s Day
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