Month: September 2016

With a West wind and over 70 Fahrenheit it would be a waste of time fishing in the afternoon.  I’d tied a few flies while I was waiting for the sun to drop below the top of the hedge. I used size 18 barbless fine wire hooks which are suitable for both dry flies and nymphs. The fish had been taking small flies just under the surface so I tied some emergers. The flies are semi-buoyant,  they will float if presented gently on a nylon tippet but sink slowly with fluorocarbon. Everybody raves about CDC emergers but I can’t see the point of a fly that is useless when wet. I tied mine with Partridge hackles or a blob of white foam.

When the tippet sinks it is less obvious, the surface film is not disrupted.  No shadows are produced.  Fluorocarbon is slightly thicker than pre-stretched nylon but it’s refractive index is close to that of water. That makes it almost invisible under water.

I arrived about 4:00pm to find a hint of Autumn along the river. Some of the Alder leaves were yellowing and falling into the water, drifting slowly downstream.  The Balsam was starting to topple over and seed pods were popping as they knocked together in the wind. I’d planned to walk down to the site of the new riffle as I had seen several fish there during my last visit. As I was setting up my rod, a fish rose just upstream of Keeper’s Bridge.  I tied a black spider on a 2.7lb tippet and cast gently. About thirty minutes later another fish rose close to me. At least I hadn’t scared them away. A dry fly skated around and twisted badly. A weighted black spider fished down and across, alongside the streamer weed, was followed but the fish veered away as I lifted off.

I peered into the water where the fish had swirled, it was still there. It was in about two feet of water just under the rod tip, holding it’s position near a small clump of weed. I flicked the fly under the bridge so that it would have time to sink before I twitched it back past the Trout. As soon as the fly landed it was grabbed by another fish. I lifted gently and after a long tussle the Trout was in the landing net. As I lifted it out of the water I saw a group of about five fish near the net. They had remained in a shoal since being stocked. I released the fish below the bridge and had a toffee to celebrate.

Keeper’s Bridge

I thought I would rest the fish and walk up to the riffle above the Sandy Pool. The grass had been cut and there were hundreds of young Pheasants  poking about in the stubble.  Many more than last season. The improved riffle looked good. At the tail end of the riffle a small tree had been pushed over to cover the gravel. That would provide shelter for young fish. A croy had been built on the North bank and a deep channel dug to increase the flow. The bank had been graded and fenced.  The biggest improvement was immediately above the ripple.  A tree had been removed and the entire pool opened up. As I was watching a fish rose in the middle of the pool. I searched the pool with a nymph but the Trout was indifferent.

As I strolled back to the bridge I saw a deer jumping about in the field occasionally browsing the grass.  Very odd behaviour.  I crept towards it, when it lifted it’s head I stood still. I got quite close but it saw me and bounded away into the tree line.

When I got back to the bridge I put a weighted Amber Nymph on and cast under the rushes on the far bank. The take came immediately but the fish made a long run down under the bridge and broke the tippet on the streamer weed. I fished below the bridge to a rising Trout,  it swirled angrily at the nymph but I couldn’t entice it.

The wind was getting stronger and I needed a pint. The Badgers was very busy with people from the Goodwood Revival.

The weather looked good for an evening session.  The light rain had cleared and left behind a muggy, overcast afternoon with a warm southerly breeze. It was over 70 degrees when I left home and the humidity was 100%. As I drove over the bridge at Billingshurst I was pleased to see that the North River was neither high nor coloured.  The Rother would be fine.  I parked the Land Rover under the Hazel tree at Keeper’s Bridge and checked the Beat record book. Not much had been caught over the weekend.  I wandered down to the river and checked the water temperature with my newly acquired thermometer.  It was 62 degrees Fahrenheit. I don’t like the Centigrade scale, it’s too clumsy.  The water was up a few inches and had a green tint but I could still see the ribbons of weed in mid-river.  A fish rose gently and sipped in something so small I couldn’t see it, probably a buzzer.

I chose a leaded black spider and crushed the barb with artery forceps, it makes unhooking a fish so much easier. I had a new leader and a tippet of 4.4lb breaking strain Frog Fluorocarbon. I’d been to Albury Game Angling over the weekend and bought some goodies but I handed back the Hardy Duchess 3″ reel that Peter had tried to sell me.  Next season perhaps.

I crept along the bank to a rising fish and carefully worked the cast downstream.  After about thirty minutes of delicate casting a fish took the fly just under the far bank. It was on for a few seconds and then the line fell slack. It looked like quite a nice fish. I thought the fly had pulled free but on checking the hook I saw the point had snapped off.  Another lesson learnt; don’t crush barbs – buy barbless hooks.

I was confident that I would get a fish or two and I decided to go further downstream to my favourite Alder tree just below the bridge. The pool looked good and a fish rose as I tied on a new fly. I used a lightly weighted black spider with a bushy hackle. The fish rose again, it had taken up station in mid-stream intercepting flies as the current delivered them. After a few casts the fish took the spider just under the surface. It fought hard, I nearly messed things up when the fly line caught on the reel handle. The new tippet material was a success. It is not as brittle as the Orvis fluorocarbon and a third of the price. I returned the fish and it shot off after I poked it with the landing net. A small pan shaped net made it a lot easier to release the fish but I need a longer net handle.

I made my way down to the bend but just as I was preparing to cast,  Andrew the Keeper arrived in his Land Rover. He said the riffle above the Sandy Pool had been improved and a new riffle would be built near the water pump above Rotherbridge.  The digger was in place and after modifying the banks, 500 tons of gravel would be spread across the river bed.  That is a lot of gravel.

I walked downstream to the site of the new riffle and started working the pool down and across.   Three fish rose repeatedly in the same stretch of water. One Trout followed my fly but sheered away at the last moment.  There were a couple of nips at the fly but I couldn’t connect with the Trout. I walked slowly back upstream casting to several rising fish but they went down as soon as I presented the fly. I need to approach the fish more carefully and measure the first cast accurately. I often overdo it and ‘line’ the fish.

I was hot and tired, the tropical weather had taken its toll on me. A cool pint awaited me at The Badgers. September had started well.