A cold start followed by warmth, but several stalling hatches of Brook Duns, Large Dark Olives, Chironomids and Alderflies (likely due to the cold north-easterly gusts) failed to elicit any significant surface activity throughout the day. Luckily, we did find one consistently surface-feeding trout, creating the type of rise which would make any respectable trout angler’s jaw hit the floor. Following an amalgamation of Alex’s ‘wading like a burglar’, a perfect across-body cast, and subsequent drift, a somewhat bemused 44cm trout lay happily in the net.
Screw the numbers; it was all about that trout. We smoked cigars and, over a beer, chewed the fat while watching dippers, wagtails, sand martins, kingfishers, and a treecreeper. To end a week’s annual leave, the day was rather perfect.
