Author: Nigel Rainton

I arrived at the river at about 11:00am. The water was lower than last week and a little clearer. The sun was shining and the wind was warm, from the south west, perfect fishing conditions.

A few Olives were hatching and there was a lot of debris on the surface of the water from the bankside Willows and Alders. I walked downstream until I found a fish rising. I cast upstream with a dry Pheasant Tail and after a few misplaced casts, I put the fly just above the fish. It rose and took the fly but I missed ! I rested the fish for 15 minutes and tried again. The first cast landed perfectly, the fish rose confidently and this time I didn’t miss. He was about 8oz and went straight back.

By now I was hot and thirsty, the pub was calling me. I went to the Badgers at Coultershaw Bridge and had a homemade burger and a pint. It was superb and I felt like a sleep. When I got back to the river, I found a sunny spot with a good view of the river and made myself comfortable.

Almost immediately a fish rose, then another just next to me. The Mayfly had started to hatch and were fluttering about everywhere. This was too good to ignore so I tied on a recently made Mayfly imitation and covered a fish. After a few casts the fish took the fly with a big splash and was hooked. The fish was about 8oz and I returned it to grow bigger.

There were hundreds of Mayfly hatching so I put the rod down and took some photos.

Then I fell asleep !

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The club bar-b-q is a great time to meet the other members and to swap stories. I went along to chat, to sit in the sun and to ensure that none of the food went to waste. The burgers were excellent. Washed down with red wine, yummy.

As I had my fishing gear in the Land Rover I thought it would be rude not to have a few casts. I found a nice spot in the sun and sat down to have a couple of casts and a snooze. Sun and red wine has that effect. I was surprised to see a fish rise only a few yards from the bank, just the other side of the marginal weeds. I flicked a size 12 Gold Ribbed Hares Ear (GRHE) nymph at the rise. It was a half-hearted attempt and I was not too disappointed when my fly was ignored. Several random casts later I was losing interest. Sleep beckoned. However, I noticed the weeds moving and the shadow of a good fish. Immediate concentration and an unusually accurate cast resulted in a savage take and a screaming reel. The little Hardy reel was screeching, the line thrummed in the water and everyone looked in my direction. I smiled back at the members confidently but panic was building as I realized I had no backing on the reel. 30 yards of fly line seemed adequate when I loaded the reel. The fight was extreme. It took 20 minutes, the fish fought like a tiger and the landing net looked very small as I reached out at the end.

Catching a monster fish is great but to have so many witnesses is awesome. I was mentally exhausted and decided to stop fishing, another cast seemed pointless. The trout weighed exactly 6lb on the Salter scales. I nudged the scales but they would not register another ounce. Besides people were looking over my shoulder. The Keeper said that no browns had been stocked since 2014 and that the fish had over wintered, probably feeding on fry.

It was several days before I stopped thinking about that fish. It’s going to be hard to beat that at the next club bar-b-q.

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I was impatient to get back to the top beat of the river to check on the monster trout I had seen last week. I was amazed at how much the landscape had changed in such a short time. Potatoes had been planted everywhere !

The record book for the beat revealed that nobody had fished it since my last trip, the monster fish would still be there. I went straight to the pool and peeped over the edge, there was no sign of the fish.

I sat down on a sandy patch, surrounded by stinging nettle shoots and watched the pool for a few minutes. The water level was the same as last week and there were a few flies hatching. I kept peeping over the edge but although I could see shrimps buzzing around on the sand bank, there was no trout. Had it moved to another pool ? I thought that it would still be there as the pool was full of food, was deep and had plenty of cover. Why should the trout move ?

I checked the leader and tippet for any imperfections and knotted the fly on carefully, 5lb fluorocarbon is tricky to tighten without crushing it. I started covering the water under my bank with a shrimp imitation. I gradually covered all the water on my side only losing one fly on a tree root. After about an hour I was losing concentration so I had a rest and browsed through the fly box. I don’t know why I changed my fly, it was a daft thing to do as I knew any trout in the pool would be feeding on shrimps. After about ten minutes I changed back to a shrimp pattern and vowed to use it for the rest of the day.

After about an hour the monster trout appeared on the sandbank under my rod tip. I kept still and watched it pick up a few shrimps and glide back into the pool. It had stirred up quite a bit of sand.

I waited a few minutes and it came back. I twitched my shrimp past the fish and it swam away again. It didn’t come back for about 20 minutes. Eventually it appeared on my left, cruised along the sand, picked up a few shrimps and drifted away to my right, towards deeper water. I watched it patrol for several circuits and then decided to flick my shrimp at it. The fly landed just ahead of the fish and I drew the line to induce a take. To my delight there was a flash of white as it opened it’s mouth followed by a savage wrench on the rod. I only had about 2 yards of fly line outside the rod tip and I just let the fish run back down into the pool under the Oak tree.

It was a long, spectacular fight. I had brought a long handled landing net with me but it took ages to get the fish in the net. At one point it jumped out of the net just as I lifted it and I thought the fish was going to get off.

The fish was very long and quite plump. The hook came out easily and I rested it in my net for 15 minutes before it swam out of the mesh and back into the pool. The trout was much longer, broader and heavier than my last fish and I estimated its weight at 6lb which I think was conservative.

I was relieved to be able to return the fish. I was in a daze so I sat on the bank, had lunch and admired the scenery. I didn’t want to fish any more so I went to the pub for a celebration 🙂

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Last Autumn a syndicate member told me about the monster trout that could be found in the top beat at the start of the season. They were said to be over wintered fish or sea trout.

During the first week of the season I fished the lower beats a few times and caught nothing. I didn’t even get a take but it was good to be on the river again and see what changes the winter rains had made to the pools.

Having had little success I decided to explore the top of the river. Very few members bother with the top beat as it is a long way up a bumpy track, the banks are very high and are covered with mature trees. It’s jungle fishing. I arrived at the river at about 11:00am, there’s no point in getting there too early. Another angler arrived at the same time which I thought was unfortunate as I like the place to myself. We had a chat for a few minutes and then we both walked off. He chose to go upstream and I went downstream.

The sun was burning, the breeze was gentle and from the north, just enough to keep me from sweating. There were a few flies hatching and lots of butterflies about. The nettles were only about 6″ high and the trees were just breaking their buds. Everything in the world looked good.

My plan was simple. Get the nymph under as many trees as possible, right in the roots. I had a good supply of leaded nymphs with me as I would obviously lose a few. I thought about using a lighter tippet and a tiny nymph but decided to stick with a size 10 nymph and a 5lb tippet. There was no point in losing a big fish.

I spent about an hour moving from pool to pool, searching under the trees and bushes with a nymph but I had no takes. The advice from the syndicate members is to keep on the move. A few casts in a pool and move on, cover as much water as possible. Lots of people have told me to keep moving but I ignore their advice. In my limited experience it pays to cover every inch of a pool, starting under the near bank and working across the river and down. Most big pools take about an hour to explore thoroughly.

I started fishing a deep run which ended under an Oak tree. I sat in the sun for about thirty minutes trundling the nymph around the pool and into the tree roots, then I lost my first fly. No problem, I tied on another and gave it another fifteen minutes. A ripple was spreading out from my bank but I was sitting back from the edge and I couldn’t quite see what was causing it. I suspected a moorhen. I peered over the edge of the bank into the water and to my surprise saw a monster fish picking up shrimps from the sand bar. It was kicking up quite a bit of sand and through the cloudy water, it looked like a chub. I flicked my nymph past it and drew it carefully towards the fish. It swam off into the main current, not impressed with my efforts to deceive it. It didn’t spook, it just drifted away. I estimated it at about 6lb. I sat and watched. After about ten minutes it came back to the shelf and started feeding again. I cast my nymph, the fish swam away again. A cunning plan was required.

Before the fish returned I cast my nymph onto the shelf and left it there. After five minutes the fish returned. It looked different, somehow smaller and a different shape. It turned sideways on to me and I could see it was a good trout. It was only about a foot away from my nymph so I slowly lifted the rod to induce a take. The fish spooked and shot back into the main current. I moved away from the river and went for a short walk to rest the pool. I was puzzled. When I first saw the fish I was convinced it was a chub, I saw the tell-tale dark line along the trailing edge of it’s tail. The spooked fish was definitely a trout.

It’s gone, there’s nothing there !

I clipped off the nymph and re-tied it. I checked the tippet for grazes and nicks. Let battle commence. I was going to sit by that pool until I caught a fish, the day was young. I started methodically exploring the deep run under my bank, down past the weeds and under the Oak tree. Then I covered the main flow. At one point the leader stopped moving and I lifted the rod expecting the thud of a fish but there was nothing there, the fly must have touched bottom. I lengthened the line a bit and started to explore the shallower, faster water near the far bank. I was distracted by the re-appearance of the monster trout on the sand bar under my bank. I kept still and watched it take a few morsels before swimming away again. I drifted the fly over the sand bar a couple of times but nothing happened.

I cast across and down and allowed the line to swing in an arc towards the Oak tree roots, I thought the trout might be cruising up and down the near bank. It wasn’t. I flicked the nymph across to the far bank, mended the line and watched the leader. It stopped moving and I lifted the rod. Everything went solid and I thought I had hooked a tree root. For a few seconds nothing happened. Then the rod bucked and a very heavy fish moved upstream, it stayed deep and charged away taking about 10 yards of line. It felt like a carp. I was thinking Carp ? Chub ? Barbel ? then it shot into the air and was clearly the monster trout. It was not happy and I was out of control. The fly line had developed a bird’s nest on my reel, the net hanging from my waist had snared my left wellington and the fish was heading for the tree roots. Ignore the tangles, ignore the landing net, concentrate on the fish. The monster made a surge from right to left along the middle of the river and to my surprise, under my bank on the sand bar, was another enormous trout feeding on shrimps ! It was not spooked by the splashing of the hooked fish or my crazy antics, I estimated it’s weight at about 6lb.

After a considerable time, I managed to get the trout into the landing net, first having removed my foot. It was completely exhausted and bleeding badly so I decided not to return it. It was full of large, dark red shrimps. It weighed 5lb 4oz on the new club scales. It was the smaller of the two trout that I had seen !

I decided to stop fishing. Before I left the pool I had a quick look over the edge and saw a monster chub feeding on the shrimps. That pool holds at least two large fish, a chub and a trout. I will return.

What a fantastic start to the season 🙂

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The Sandy Pool above Keepers Bridge is a favourite of mine. There is always a trout in the tail of this pool. Unfortunately it’s also a favourite of the cormorants !

The pool is ‘S’ shaped, about 30 yards long and has a uniform sandy bottom with very little streamer weed. In the summer it’s about 4 feet deep along the centre line and shelves gradually onto a sand bar that runs along the south bank. The north bank is steep and lined with well trimmed Alder bushes.

During late May and early June there are heavy hatches of Mayfly and the pool can look like a stew pond as the trout compete for their lunch. Throughout the season the sandy margins of this pool are home to millions of shrimp.

I usually start on the bend at the head of this pool and cover the run under the near bank. There is plenty of cover to hide behind and fish often take a nymph close to the streamer weed that fringes this pool. Then I extend the line to explore the middle of the pool and eventually the faster water under the far bank. Moving down a few yards, I repeat the process. It can take an hour to explore every part of this pool. The best part is left until last. At the tail of the pool the water shallows and gathers speed before it runs under an Alder bush. On the far bank the current is deflected by a fallen tree branch and a sand bank. There is always a trout just upstream of the branch.

A Gold Ribbed Hares Ear nymph is a good imitation of an Olive or Mayfly nymph. Shrimp imitations are also effective; they can be dragged along the sandy bottom without snagging.

This is a great place to watch the wildlife. If I sit on the warm sand and keep still, Kingfishers dart along the pool, Buzzards mew and deer wander along the tree-line behind me. A fox approached me one evening while I was resting a particularly clever trout.

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