Missed out on the mayfly, but I still had a ball (part three)

By the time Friday had arrived - the third and final day of fishing in a row - I was completely knackered. As a result I wasn't especially eager to get out fishing early, although I was certainly still going. A leisurely drive saw me returning to my club river. I had already decided I wanted to fish the last pool of Wednesday evening that Tom finished the day on. Tom lost a sizeable trout and I felt the pool had more to give; largely due to the unexpected depth I saw Tom wade to.

With the success French nymphing had given me this week, I wanted to try the method in this first pool. The pool is open and wide relative to most of the river, I would rather have some space whilst still trying the method out.

Seems I still haven't cracked this pool, a lost grayling and a single trout were all that I caught, I will have to try again.

Rising fish up ahead distracted me from my original plans. I opted to stay with the 10ft rod despite a succession of over hanging trees. Changing over to a fly line I crept into position and removed the last section of the rod - it is a three piece so gave me a working length just over 6ft. A small pod of grayling and large dace were ahead of me and although I could see a couple of fish move to the small nymph I was using I couldn't get one to take.

A well chewed DHE

I moved on. This brought me to the bottom of a pool that held a fair depth, but lacked much flow except for at the head of it. Working up the pool with a DHE, it wasn't until I reached the faster water that I caught a small sized grayling.

Upstream, ahead of the pool, was a fantastic smooth glide; half a dozen or so rising fish finally gave me some targets. Scanning the river surface as it flowed past I couldn't see anything trapped in the surface that could be tempting the fish up. With this in mind I kept the DHE on for it's generic food impression. I caught two more grayling - one of which took a size 18 adams paraloop emerger - a trout and lost a fish too.

Adams paraloop emerger

Another smooth but slower glide produced another trout after a rise revealed its location.

I made my further upstream, this was all new water for me, I was exploring as much as fishing. I found a cracking pool that had been created using some log jams and probably a little excavation. I could see from the high bank the pool had a good number of fish in it. Creeping in down stream, I set up as I had previously broken down my tackle. This pool proved tricky to fish, the tail quickly shallowed and using the duo method it took several attempts to get a decent drift. A couple of missed chances, including a rise at the klinkhamer frustrated me. As I begun casting at the top of the pool I hooked a substantial fish, a fantastic wild fish of around 13".

I explored a little more and found a dismantled weir. I landed a dace and a trout and lost another fantastic fish which shot downstream after I had played it for a minute or two; holding on too hard hoping to turn the fish resulted in a snapped tippet, I finished there feeling pretty cross with myself for allowing that to happen.

As I walked back to the car I was more than happy with the day. I was pleased I had explored more of the river and I'll certainly be having another look at this section.