Wild Brown Trout Fever Part Two.

 I can't believe just how bad the weather has been this year so far, really can not fathom it out, we are in May and nearly June, today though for once the weather gods were shining down on me and I felt happy to just be out with a fly rod on such a pleasant day, so all that was needed was willing fish to take a liking to my plethora of flies.

 It wasn't long either for things to start happening and by 8am I had my first Trout on the bank, a little female it looked like around the 6oz mark, good little bit of sport really is fun on my 7ft brook rod, never want the scraps to end but the way things were looking I'd have plenty more battles to overcome before it was home time for me, as I left the first one to recover in the net I flicked my blue flash damsel back down to roughly the same spot and a brownie a shade bigger smashed the fly at the same time leaping over a foot out of the water, would loved to have caught that on video, wow.

 Not 5 minutes after releasing that pair I had another two Trout with the biggest being about 10ozs, not large but four Trout in just a little over 10 minutes was a great start and just so entertaining, but now it was time to head downstream to find something that would fight back considerably, my next port of call was a cracking looking piece of river where it sped right up and had a deep recess on the far bank, in that recess I saw a good sized shape but couldn't work out what it was, a Chub or a Trout, it took a few flings with the fly to get the fish interested and when it did finally take it I became locked into a very intense fight, with the Trout stripping the entire of my fly line off the spool!, down to my fluorescent backing I seriously had to try and turn it back up stream, it wasn't for about 3 minutes that I saw the fish I was playing the battle 30 yards downstream, as the fish tired I gained all my line back and she swam straight into the awaiting net, nearly as knackered as I was after that one, thought I'd hooked a freight train.

A lovely high 3lber, cracking fish.

 

 I can't get over the sport these fish provide, they have been my saviour this spring. Chalk stream Trout are fantastic fun, anyone who hasn't tried I recommend it highly and go as light as you dare, the lighter the more exhilarating every fight is. Back to the fishing and after that latest fish to my collection I carried on down and managed another two lovely Trout to the 1lb8oz region, all of which so far had fallen to the same fly but one, which was a daddy long legs.

 

 When I got near the bottom of my normal beat I fished a stretch that I normally walk straight past because of the density of the foliage, but today I had a pair of Chino's on to protect my legs from the potent stinging nettles which some of which were reaching above my 6"1" !, like being on a trek through the Thai jungle, when I finally got to river, the next task was to find the fish and then a suitable angle to cast at without hooking all the shrubbery behind me, after trailblazing for 10 minutes I took a couple of minutes to rest up and eat some of my chocolate hobnobs when an enormous Trout leapt out of the water right in front of me, for no reason from what I could think of, but that spurred me into gear immediately, the Trout was in the region of 5lb if not bigger, a large fish for this system so needless to say I put my olive green/blue flash damsel back on as it had done so well today.

 

 

 

Not 5lb, more like 3lb 3oz.

 

 The large Trout that leapt out had vanished and I managed to cast blind and didn't see any other fish when the line got ripped from my hand as I was retrieving the fly, a savage take which caught me totally unaware but it was another good fight, exactly what I expect of these fish now.

 

 But the best looking fish was to come but not necessarily the best thing I've seen all day, I'll let the pictures of this beautiful 3lb14oz Brown Trout tell you why, as far as Trout go this was immaculate in every way. 

 

 

Need I say more??, oh the water was bloody freezing!.

 

 

 But towards the end of the day, a morning and afternoon's great sport and 10 Brown Trout landed and returned safely I was treated to something I've never seen before and managed to get quite a lot of photo's, now I am definitely no Bill Oddie or am certainly not a bird person, but for the Kingfisher I'll make an exception, truly pretty birds, the only shame was my lens couldn't get me closer to the action but these pictures will definitely do. A great spectacle, what a treat.

 

2 Kingfishers hovering outside the nest.
 



 

One of the kingfishers doing what they do best.

 



 I spent around an hour just watching them, diving on the shoals of 3spined sticklebacks that line the margins and hovering above the surface attending to what I believe is there nesting site, then flying down past me and then back up river constantly, for these photos I just put the DSLR onto burst mode and held the trigger, these are just two of around 40 taken in the hour or so spent there.

 

 I did also have just one last fish that was in the shape of a Chub just over 3lb but it looked like it had seen better days, it must have had a very rough spawning session this year, lumps missing out of it and still very red and sore on both flanks with a chunk taken out of it's head aswell, after putting that Chub back at around 6pm it had been a long day with more 10 hours spent out on the bank without taking a seat for more than five minutes at a time.

 

What a days fishing, 10 Trout to 3lb14oz and a Chub over 3lb, taking my Trout tally to 29 in 7 trips.