I looked at the ‘GaugeMap‘ app on my tablet and saw that at Halfway Bridge, the level was 0.54m. Not as low as I had expected. The weather forecast for Petworth was good, a South Easterly breeze of 10mph and bright, hazy sunshine.

I got to the river at 12:30 and went straight to Keeper’s Bridge. The river was coloured, it’s difficult to know if this is caused by run off from the potato fields or algae. A similar thing happened last season just after the potatoes were planted.

I sat next to the parapet of Keeper’s Bridge and watched the water upstream for about thirty minutes. Carefully. I hadn’t set my rod up. Nothing moved, no flies hatched. There were a few terrestrials about but the river looked dead. I have seen this before, one minute the river is dead and then suddenly, trout start rising everywhere. I fished the pool below the Alder trees from the North bank for about an hour. Then I wandered upstream along the South bank to the Sandy Pool and fished the tail of the pool. The shallow water was clearer but I had no takes. A fish rose higher up the pool, it looked like a Dace or a small wild Trout.

The sun was hot, the pub was calling. I had a pint of Cornish Orchards Gold Cider which was nothing like the cider we were given at Fullers Griffin Brewery. I’ll stick to beer.

I’m looking forward to the club barbeque on Sunday. Last year I caught a 6lb brownie at the barbeque, that will be difficult to beat.

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