It was a lovely summer evening, warm with a slight breeze, so I decided to pop down to the Torridge for a couple of hours just before dusk. We are so lucky to live here because we have a couple of miles of trout river (I would be tempted to say salmon and sea trout too, but the numbers have been too low in the last couple of years) in picturesque surroundings.
After getting drenched last week, I donned my chest waders and gradually worked up a couple of pools with a dry fly, my preferred method of fly fishing. I was also using my Hardy split cane Phantom rod and Princess reel.
Starting just above a riffle, I caught a sweet little fat fish early on, but the had trouble with the dace which are too fast for me, not helped by their small size. I had several takes from these which I missed and then startled a large trout under a tree. Working further up, I had another fish about the same size, but as I walked towards a riffle at the head of the pool I saw a small take at the tail of the pool above. Nothing different there, except that the water bullged as the fish moved.
I crept up and cast my dry fly to perfection which brought a swirl on the first cast. On the second cast, the fish took and as I struck the water erupted and the hook pulled out; this just had to be a good sea trout. The light was falling rapidly, and after the commotion the level of activity dropped, so I called it a day.
Whilst fly fishing isn't my favourite form of fishing, nor am I particularly good at it, it really is just so much fun to wade up river seeking fish surfacing in wonderful scenery and experiencing wildlife in its natural habitat. They say variety is the spice of life, and fly fishing is something I will continue to do, as it makes an absorbing change, so different from other methods of fishing.