Contributed by Richard (23/03/19)
An opening day for me, 8 days into the season. The river was a good height at .36m and falling slowly, and it was up 50mm from yesterday after overnight rain. Wind was low but the promised cloud cover soon dispersed. I drove to Musgrave Bridge but there was someone below the weir and 3 anglers above the bridge, so I elected to fish farther downstream.
The water temperature was 10'C and it felt cold in the river despite my thermals. Keen to get rid of ring rust I set up my rod and had a 20 minute casting session on a field, practicing accuracy.
Rod was set up properly and I walked to the river. The odd large dark olive started emerging as early as 12:05pm and keen to catch on dry fly I fully expected the fish to respond but nary a fin stirred the surface, meaning a long hike downstream in search of a feeding fish. When I eventually found them it was 2:30pm and there were 2 trout ‘on the go’….by this time there was the odd dun coming down and the trout were rising every 10-15 minutes I guess when one happened to go over them. The first trout went about 1.25lb but I could tell that the second one was larger by the water it displaced when rising, and when hooked and fighting the rod, I could see it twisting and turning and could tell it was a notable fish. When landed, it was a rather slim trout of 19.5”, which later in the season would go close to, or over, 3lb but was several ounces short in its spring condition. Both trout took a shuttlecock pearly butt olive.
I did not see any March browns, but in the week, my friend witnessed a good hatch of these and trout taking them.
All in all an okay day, but good old legwork and keeping my eyes peeled saved the day.
On the negative side, I saw 3 goosanders, but on the positive side I also saw 2 pairs of grey partridge!
19.5" 23/03/19
