Little buggers

Having started to explore more of my club water I came across a tantalising weirpool. Hidden away, far from any access points, this pool is an obvious and massive feature in this particular beat. Entering the water is relatively easy, the water is shallow at the tail. The margins are steep and made up of rocky debris, the wading is precarious and in all fairness you can only gain half a yard, but the fishing is more manageable whilst in the water. A large willow covers half of the pool surface restricting options of techniques that could be used; the open part of the pool is deep but featureless, I feel most of the fish are holeded up under the willow, out of sight.

When I first fished the weir I used a french leader and almost Czech nymphed at a slightly longer range. Using a heavy-weight peeping caddis with a JP pupa on a dropper I managed to catch two grayling and two trout.

As I left the pool I couldn't help but feel that there must be better fish in there. A good number of minnows were shoaled in the margins along with the bullheads and loaches that will be tucked away on the riverbed. Thinking about the baitfish that are present in the weirpool, I imagined a big brown lurking in the shadows of the over-hanging willow, only venturing out at dawn and dusk to maraud any small fish unfortunate enough to be around.

With this in mind I planned to go back armed with something meaty. My fly-tying materials limited me to tie some woolly bugger style flies. I had some size 8 Grip jig hooks and 4.5mm slotted tungsten beads. A new dark dun grizzle hen saddle provided some lovely grizzly chicka-bou as well a long saddle hackle for the palmer hackle.

Dun grizzle woolly buggers; wet and dry.

A few hours one morning saw me back at the weir. There I caught two trout, nothing special, one around a pound, the other just over. I moved to other beats of the river and added another three trout to the tally along with a bonus perch and chub. I used olive and grizzle dun woolly buggers. The olive version had a longer marabou tail and proved to be more successful, catching five of the seven fish. I don't know whether this was due to the size or colour but at least both caught fish.

I still feel that that weir has more to give. Maybe a larger, heavier fly and more appropriate fishing times will help. I'm thinking a waggy-tail sculpin; that means more things to buy.