A quick return to my local Avon having been on the thick end of an a##e kicking on Open day the past weekend. Grey clouds, rain and winds of 20mph… oh joy!
Steering clear of previously visited areas that were seemingly baron of fish, I move from open glides and riffles to narrow tighter tree lined stretches looking for root & branch washed out pockets
With hanging debris and exposed margin tree roots, there should be plenty of deeper pocket water for cover and safety. That’s the theory anyhow… just need some fish to be there and play ball
With a treeline to help buffet the wind I’m delighted to see otherwise illusive olives on the wing
I see a decent fish rise tight to the margin (rod tip pointing), the first sign of any activity this afternoon… it’s more than I saw on opening day so no time to waste… or hurry!
I move to within 30ft and sit low on the rock in the previous picture, the olive tells me all I need to know… I apply this imitation – an absolute gem of a tie from uber talented Tony Riley.
So good I took it twice…
For 35 minutes I sat and watched what I thought was the same fish rising to duns… I position myself as best as I could for the cast given my location… no ruddy flow and I send a ripple across the pool
b#@&#$ks! – what a total numpty… I stay totally motionless in the hope the fish is otherwise occupied, 10 minutes go by and not a rise to some visible duns, how long do you wait?
Then a rise… it slurps a dun… I nail a second cast just upstream of the fish, the first having loosely clipped a branch, slurp again… this time to my fly, it all seemed to take an eternal age but I nailed it.
Admittedly somewhat of a lean fish but hell what a power house – chuffed as nuts
I mentioned earlier what I thought was only one fish rising, I was aghast to see another fish rise in the same place whilst extricating the fly from this one… stuff me, I release my catch and sling a prospecting cast to almost the same spot, munch… the fly’s been had again, I lift in and nail this ‘brother from another mother’ to go with ‘his the sister from another mister’ – ha!
Not a great picture but it just wouldn’t sit still – how miserable can one fish look?
So ‘back atcha’ river Avon… all square, I won’t be kicked twice. what little rain there was this afternoon was seriously welcome, here’s hoping for more in the coming weeks – I hope for you too.
