Having acquired the river and completed the hard bit: that being trimming, strimming and tidying

It was now time for the even harder bit… to fish it, in anticipation I feel this part of the Wylye has barely seen a fly rod, nor the fish an imitation of a fly probably, hopefully – what a challenge!

It’s critical that one’s in the right frame of mind, nowt sorts it out better than a cup ‘o’ tea. Having donned wellies and with rod ready to go it’s now a game of patience… and mines slowly running out

there’s a rise and so to it I go… what remains in my cup tells me there’s a hatch of midge

A few casts of the above ‘F’ fly beneath the upstream canopy and I’m into a fish, surprisingly it’s a grayling… pleased as punch I am… it means some possible winter fishing on here then me thinks.

A pretty we Lady she is

Moving on and being stimulated by more frequent rises, all be it seemingly from the same fish I make some basic numpty errors on otherwise spooky fish by positioning myself too close to the bank to get a clearer view & cast – consequently putting them down.

I decide to go long on the leader, with my new system I’ve changed in mere minutes to 14 feet without affecting the front taper, using my ever faithful 10ft #2 (a length of which I’ve used exclusively now for the last 3 seasons) I stay well back from the edge whilst still very much in touch with the line, leader and more importantly the fish.

The fish rises on a further 3 occasions before I make a covering cast… that’ll do for me as I nail it on the fourth. The #2 weight buckles as the trout sets off downstream, this fish feels far bigger on the rod than off it, I’m tickled pink as it lunges skyward only to fall with a mighty splash… you can’t buy fun like this – it’s like a hard 5lb fish on a #6 weight.

Just gorgeous – a wild trout, bloody livid if you ask me… impressed to be caught it was not

That beautiful blue hue on the gill plate

Alarm bells had obviously sounded across the pond so to speak… following it’s release everything went still, very still. Impatience got the better of me so I thought I’d give a nymph a wetting – I couldn’t resist offering a Red Neck PTN to the current. Changing the leader to a shorter 7 foot length yet again with ease I dropped the fly into the murky depth and drifted the fly some 8ft towards a grassy outcrop on the right bank… a twitch in the line was followed by yet another grayling, a wee bit smaller than the first – like a really care.

She parts company none the worse for wear

Through the interruption and need of another cuppa there is but a brief hatch of Mayfly, does counting half a dozen actually count as a hatch?

None the less I tie on a nice silhouetting Mohican and cast at some casual rises… rises of which are not at the Mayfly I see – what the heck, in for a penny.

In quick time a number of pretty wild’uns come to the fore, pictures of which don’t do them justice.

Today was a great success in many ways… the water has got fish in it and nice ones at that, my new leader system worked a treat, and the #3 hi-vis Barrio line I recently dyed at the tip didn’t mess with my head, nor did it seem to have an impact on the fish… now onto reading currents with it.

The 10 foot dyed tip is inconspicuous… a result

I’ve yet to hear of any significant Mayfly hatches as yet from friends and colleagues, the water temperatures are still cold… for me I think June will be the killer month, May is pretty much written off already, I hope however it’s not so for you ~ enjoy your fishing regardless.