I didn’t spend the bank holiday on the bank. I avoided the river at the weekend because a lot of members would be fishing and I like the river to myself. Early in the morning I visited all of the lakes and every beat on the river to collect the catch returns. I also took photos of the lakes to update the club website. I delivered the returns to the office and was free to fish at 2:30pm.

The weather over the weekend had been cold and windy. Some nice fish had been caught including a 3lb 8oz over wintered brown and a 5lb sea trout.  I should have been on the river bank.

Although I’ve made several visits to the river since the season started, there are stretches that I had not fished. The Fish Pass, Keeper’s Bridge and Perryfields all warranted my attention. I was undecided where to fish. The new riffle kept calling me back. The fast water is well oxygenated and there are millions of shrimps there for the trout.

The river level was steady at 0.032m, slightly down since last week despite the overnight rain. The promise of fish in the new riffle drew me to Keeper’s Bridge. I tackled up and walked very slowly downstream looking for fish. I didn’t see any. My first cast into the shallow water at the top of the riffle produced a take but I missed it. I concentrated and fished hard all the way back to Keeper’s Bridge but I didn’t get another take. I saw a sea trout jump, it was not interested in my nymph.

I left a remote camera in the woods while I was collecting the beat returns. It had been there for six hours but when I returned it had not been activated. A blank day but I enjoyed it.