The river was high and coloured, the rain was forecast to last into late afternoon. The Poppies and Daisies were in stark contrast to the grey sky and olive green of the crops. I had a leisurely lunch and two cups of tea while waiting for the sun to come out.

The Trout were moving everywhere. Some were jumping, others splashing and a few were obviously feeding. There were lots of Damsel flies around the lakes but I only saw a couple of Mayfly. Some fish were repeatedly jumping well clear of the water, that usually means they have lice and are trying to shake them off.

Jumping well clear of the water.

I had a walk around Great Springs looking for the bigger fish. I cast to two cruising fish but they ignored the fly. They were quite low in the water. I  walked down to Little Springs and watched the fish from behind the rushes. Two large fish were showing but they didn’t like my Iron Blue Dun. I swapped to a nameless fly with a brown silk body and ginger hackle.

I waited for the pale shadow of a Trout to appear, placed the fly gently infront of the fish and then lifted too early. To compound my error I clipped a bush behind me on the back cast and lost the fly. I was waiting for the fish to cruise past but the clouds gathered, the wind got up and I could no longer see the fish through the ripples. Time for tea.

I had a chat with Tony, the ‘Keeper of the Lakes’ and he said that he had introduced some large Brown Trout into the lakes at Little Bognor, mainly the upper lake. That’s where I will be heading tomorrow.

After tea I walked around Great Springs once more but I couldn’t convince the larger fish to take a fly. I left for home, after three hours of stalking, without catching anything but the upside was I hadn’t caught a small Trout.