Sussex Trout Fishing … and Devon

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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It was 4:00pm and the sun was low over the South Downs behind me. It had been a warm afternoon but as the sun was sinking there was a chill in the air. Not chilly enough for a coat. The pool immediately above Rotherbridge is long and wide with thick streamer weed along the South bank. The North side of the pool is a private garden but there are a couple of overhanging trees that are just within casting range.

The bottom of this pool is uneven, there are several holes where the trout hang out. There are also a few clumps of streamer weed dotted around the pool. At the tail of the pool, where it runs under the span of the big iron bridge, the pool shallows up and both banks are heavily wooded with Alder and Blackthorn. It’s difficult to get a fly under the bridge but not impossible.

The deeper holes and clumps of streamer weed usually hold fish and I started by running a Gold Ribbed Hears Ear (GRHE) nymph over the holes and along the side of the weed beds. Half way down the pool, under a tree on the North bank, I had a thumping take and a good fish immediately jumped and then dashed off downstream. The little Hardy reel screamed in protest. The fish jumped a few times and it was a problem netting it, I need a landing net with a longer handle.

The fish weighed about 2lbs and looked different to the usual colourful browns. Very silver, big eyes. I wondered if it might be a sea trout. It could have been in the river for a few weeks and lost that fresh run look. I was undecided.

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It’s late in the season and the big summer hatches of Mayfly and Olives are over. Midges hatch in the evening and the occasional Crane Fly drops into the river but it’s time to put the dry flies away and return to the nymphs.

The Gold Ribbed Hares Ear (GRHE) nymph is my first choice for both river and lake nymphing. It’s not made from a Hares’ ear fur and it is not ribbed with gold wire !

I use the guard hair from a rabbit, mixed with a little of the fluffy blue under fur and lead wire. The scruffier the better.

This dressing is on a size 12 fairly thick wire hook. The weight of the hook and the lead wire quickly gets the fly to the correct depth. I usually squeeze the barb with artery forceps after tying the fly to my tippet.

If I can see a fish, I cast the fly a few yards upstream of the trout to give it time to get down before the current sweeps it past the fish. It takes about 5 seconds to sink to the bottom in 4 feet of water. In my experience a trout will come up for a nymph but will rarely drop down in the water column unless it is feeding on shrimps. I cut the length of the fluorocarbon tippet to the depth of the water, usually about 4-5 feet. I watch the knot joining the leader and tippet as the leader swings down and across. I lift the rod at the slightest movement, sometimes the takes are very gentle. A small blob of floating fluorescent putty on the knot helps keep the nymph at the right depth and shows the takes. Some purists say this is unsporting but my eyesight is not getting any better.

I caught this fighting fit brownie on a GRHE nymph at midday, it was cruising along the bottom in mid-stream.

The fish had marks on it’s flanks left by the Cormorants, two parallel cuts made by the sides of the bird’s beak. Fortunately this fish was too large and strong for the bird to keep hold of.

I returned this trout. I sometimes recognize the Cormorant markings on trout and I am fairly certain that I have caught a fish twice on the same day.

When I fish a nymph down and across, I always allow the line to sweep in close to the near bank. The bushes and streamer weed along the near bank hold just as many trout as the far bank. A quiet approach and methodical coverage of the entire pool eventually produces a take.

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