Young Blood

I was on the river for 5.30 this morning and sat and watched the mist gently rolling off the water with my first coffee of the day – magic. The river is lower than I've ever seen it and it meant I was able to wade in areas with too much flow usually. It was really interesting to see parts of the river bed I often fish blind over and have logged a few deeper spots that the fish will probably hold in when the river is higher.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'd had a few fish between 1lb and 2lb when I had a really strong hit and I thought this might be my first 4lb chub on the fly but it fell shy at 3lb 12oz, another long lean fish.

I stumbled taking this one to the bank and ended up on my knees in 2' of water - with only thigh waders on!

A few more smaller ones took the beetle before another wrenching take turned out to be the fish I was after - just over 4lb.

 

I haven't been seeing the smaller fish like this on lures and its nice to see a good head of these mint fish ready to take the place of the old warriors. I took a picture of this just because it was so nice - golden, scale perfect flanks and lovely orange fins.

 

 

If I'd hooked every fish that swirled at the beetle I could have had 40 fish. They seem to love the hot bright weather.