Adventures with a Salmon rod: A fresh run of fish -The Curse of the Hut Pool

Preparation for yesterdays trip was well planned with a number of new flies tied and tackle checked and packed. I find the routines leading up to a days fishing rather satisfying. As I was away last weekend I hadn't fished to 2 weeks so hopes were very high. I planned on getting to the river before 5am in order to fish for the Sea Trout.

Looking down the Armchair Pool

It was just getting light as I tackled up and it all looked perfect. The dog was very excited at the prospect of an all day walk with maybe a fish or two thrown in for good measure. I decided to fish at the top of the beat to start with as it holds good numbers of Sea Trout. As the river was lower than it has been this summer at .93 on the gauge I decided on an intermediate tip with a Snaelda variant at the business end. I saw a few fish moving but surprisingly they were unwilling to come to the fly.

Sunrise on Good Friday Pool

Once Tony arrived we compared flies, tony was fishing a smallish black cone head with an arctic fox temple dog style wing. We continued to fish down the beat covering all of the runs and pools. We saw very little in the way of fish despite covering a lot of water. By 10am we had fished through the whole beat and decided it was time to retire to the hut for a coffee. As the morning had yielded a grand total of nothing we decided to put up the spinning rods and cover the deeper pools where the fish may by lying avoiding the now bright sun. I had a few cast in the Hut Pool and was amazed as a fish shot out from its lie and intercepted my spinner as I was about to lift it to re-cast. After a lot of head shaking the fish took off across the pool. It was a lovely looking bright fish of 6-7lb and very strong. After a good fight I was bringing the fish to the net and the spinner fell out. I was not too disappointed as I had the fun part of the experience and the fish returned to the depths of the pool apparently none the worse for our meeting. Poppy on the other hand looked confused and was clearly unimpressed!

Poppy looks on as the fish comes to the surface

I was a bit disappointed as for some reason, I have never landed a fish from this pool despite hooking several. The curse of the Hut Pool had struck again! Encouraged by the presence of fresh fish we made our way up river. Once at the Armchair Pool I covered a spot where I'd seen a fish move in the morning. After a gentle take the fish woke up and put up a good fight, keeping deep. Weighing about 7lb the lively fish returned very strongly. Despite covering all of this water well with the fly I had hooked 2 fish in about 30 minutes.

Poppy having a good look- probably wondering if she could eat it!

We fished through the rest of the beat without seeing a fish and Tony left at about 1pm. I decided to fish through the pools near the hut again just in case. Once at the Hut Pool I covered the inside of the bend where the water runs deep, after a few cast I thought I'd have a couple more then call it a day. The spinner was brought back very slowly enabling it to get right down into the deep hole in the belly of the pool. I felt a good take and the fish immediately darted down stream. After turning it at the tail it made its way back into the main pool where after a spirited battle it came to the net and was quickly returned.