As ever, the start of the season is greeted with new plans and renewed optimism. This year, however, I may be taking a lease on another beat with a view to running it as a small syndicate with some limited day tickets.
There are couple of stretches I'm looking at so I'm optimistic a deal may be done with one of them. They are two quite different stretches. I have fished one of them over the past seasons but from the opposite bank. The other is further up stream by a few miles and is likely to be better as a brown trout fishery than the lower beats but I'd imagine isn't quite so good for the Salmon until later in the year.
As well as looking at these opportunities I'm also planning to spend more time persevering with the fly even once the weed growth progresses as last years results from fishing the fly were more than encouraging. Maybe I'll invest in a switch rod as this river would be perfect for an 11ft 7 weight. So, lots to think about and i cant wait until the fish start running, normally this would by early May so once we have the late April springs I'll be spending alot more time by the river rod in hand. I'm sure the dog will be relieved - many happy hours charging up and down the banks scaring off all the fish before I get to within casting range!
Hi Paul, I am Mark, the guy you met last season on the bridge who was tripping over his bottom lip after loosing a huge salmon as my net was to small. You obviously have an intimate knowledge of the river, what is the earliest you have caught Salmon and Seatrout over the years??
ReplyDeleteHi Mark, I have not caught any fish Before May, i have caught them in the first week of May. I suspect that this is more of a result of hours spent fishing rather than presence of fish. I have had a couple of Decent Salmon on the fly before spinning starts so i would imagine fish will run after the next spring tide so any day from the 26th of April onwards should see a few fish in the river. I do think there will be the odd big fish about now and if the river was fished properly in the mean time there may be the odd biggie caught! I'll head out this weekend with hopes of finding one - tight lines!
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