Approaching some more...

So you have carefully positioned yourself somewhere downstream where you can watch and wait awhile.  You have enjoyed some of the wildlife in and around the river.  Maybe watched a little fry like the one pictured earlier?  Sometimes this can be heartbreaking.  I was once watching a little tiny troutlet minding his own business, intercepting the occasional food item.  When, from under a fist-sized stone, without any warning and so suddenly it made me jump, a Bullhead darted foward to engulf my little friend in one gulp! The bullhead quickly disappeared, back under the stone from whence it had launched its deadly, Monkfish-like, attack. 

If the bigger fish showed themselves no doubt you were able to enjoy some Sport with them, but now you decide it is time to start working your way upstream.  Go slowly.  Stop a lot and keep soaking it all in.  Look around for those fish that will turn you into stone if they see you.  Keep low when near the water.  As you approach a new run, or pool, or riffle, or eddy remember to watch out for those fish in the edge.  It does no harm to stop and sit down cross legged on a rock in the water's edge or loll on the grass and do a mini-watch and wait as if starting all over again.  Take your time to enjoy the pageant as it unfolds before you.



Here is a picture (click it twice to get it as big as possible) taken whilst on a mini-watch.  If anything the view point is too high as I held the camera up to get a better sight of what was going on..  It is hard to see but there are at least two rises happening as the picture was taken.  They are on the right of the faster water in  mid-stream.  The thing is, I had already seen two very decent fish rising in the fast water but was faced with another of those sentry-on-guard adventures that we looked at together last summer.  If the writing is too small under the picture by the way, just do Ctrl and + until it is big enough for you to read it easily.

So staying sat down we catch the nearer fish then the next one and this allows us chance to fish for the fish in the fast water.  All this is done on your waterproofed backside.  Do get into the habit of fishing whilst sitting down.  It sends some folk into a shocked state when they see you doing this but they start doing it too when they see your success rate.  I was once asked to fish a spot for a photograph for a magazine.  We were on the Derbyshire Wye together.  I crept into position and fished.  After a few moments my writer friend came over and said "You will have to stand up for the photograph!"  "Why?"  "You look as if you are Coarse Fishing!"  This got me laughing so much he saw the funny side of things, abandoned that photographic opportunity and later found a composition that was much better and yes, I was sitting, huddled up in the hemp agrimony and the figwort and hidden from the fish.  If you are a Coarse angler please do not forget your hard learned habits of concealment just because you are now dry fly fishing.

Those nice fish in the fast water?  Well I managed one of them.  It was not particularly big but it is probably the most beautiful brown trout in the world, well my little world anyway.  Here it is.  Who says, "Only rainbow trout have spots on their tails?" 

Do you recognise this trout's exquisite markings on its sides?  They form the front cover of the 'EXPERT' information booklet that comes with each 'EXPERT' Dry Fly Line...

We'll experiment with flies next time.  Oh, in the meantime, if you have any observations or questions to put, don't hesitate to use the comment facility.  You will get my undivided attention!

Regular Rod