It would be a beautiful sunny day this Saturday the 13^th, luckily the cat I passed on the
way was not black…
During the week it had rained on and off continuously, still I had not expected that it
would cause the stream to rise as much as it did.
Fly off choice was the squirmy as the water had less visibility than usual.

Insects where on the water but nothing was rising.
The probing of deep pool surprisingly did not yield any fish with the exception of a small roach.
I had one following trout as I tossed the squirmy under a bridge but could not coax a take.

Things where not going the way I wanted at my usual honey holes so I had to search for fish
elsewhere.
The way to go was downstream at a spot where a ditch entered the stream.
A few big rocks provided some structure and it usually held some dace.
I tossed in the squirmy and had an instant hit, not from a dace but from a trout.

I then decided to cross to the adjacent bank and climb the steep shore to get on the fields
to walk a good distance downstream.
I entered the stream again at a spot where an old dam had been removed.
The fast flowing water and stones could be a hiding spot for trout but it turned up empty.

I waded upstream from the old dam into a wide section with mainly sand bottom.
In general a featureless section but still holding dace over the sand.
The banks where of special interest as they where undercut with a little deeper water.
I got dace on the dry fly but switched soon to the squirmy again as I wanted to get another trout.

There where a few small deadfalls in this sandpit that caused some deeper pools
where I caught numerous dace.
At one of those deadfalls I ran into another trout who took me for a ride as it was larger than
the one I had caught before.

With the light tippet I had to take care fighting the fish, if it would go for the deadfall I would loose.
Luckily I managed to get the fish over the bright sand after a few hairy moments.
I was happy to land he fish in the end, almost 40cm / 16 inch.

While moving further upstream I noticed a few of the big mayflies  moving about.
Still not enough to raise the interest of the fish as my imitation was ignored.
This could change in a couple of weeks providing numbers are great enough.
Could be the ticket to get some trout in locations not fishable with nymph or streamer.

A look at the clock made me realize that it was later than I had expected so off to the pub.
With the main wave of day trippers gone home on this sunny day waiting time for chow was minimal.
Soup of the day was either Mushroom cream soup or Asparagus cream soup, I choose the latter.
Went for the Paprika Schnitzel again.