After a warm week the weekend started chilly and windy.
Conditions were not ideal to go tossing mayflies around in the morning but I tried.
I spotted one rising fish early morning and it responded directly as the mayfly landed
on the water.

Unfortunately the fish missed and as I struck the fly went up high in the trees, lost …
With no insects around I tried the squirmy and that yield a roach.
I also fished with the perdigon nymph which yielded some of the small dace and
gudgeons.

At one of the spots I fished the nymph yielded not a single hit, an indicator for me
that a predator was around as there had to be other fish in the pool.
Fishing a streamer can make the difference of night and day and so a black woolly
bugger entered the top of the pool.

I was right … a trout intercepted the bugger but came off after a short fight.
Maybe later in the day I would return to this spot for a second try.
I continued upstream using the perdigon that yielded small roach and dace.
It was tight fishing amongst submerged tree roots and debris when I suddenly
hooked in to something larger … behold trout nr.1

With trout nr.1 under the belt it was time for nr. 2 and that would be at a spot
where I had seen rising fishing every week I went fishing there.
First though I fished a small fast flowing pool in the hope to catch a larger roach.
I spotted the roach but a small trout was faster to grab the nymph.

Now it was time for trout nr.3 but the spot that showed so much activity last
couple of times was totally dead.
Next it was into the forest … no signs of insects on this windy day so the bugger
was tied on again.
One spot looked like it could hold trout and boy it did.
A massive trout grabbed the streamer but although I thought the hookset was
solid the trout came off … spot remembered for next time.

I had one other hit in the forest but no solid hookup.
There was a rising fish under a tree and I tried to get it but my approach was
too clumsy so I scared the fish off, time for an early break in the pub.
Ever since the old pub was taken over by the Africans it was quiet, on
a cold day like this it was nearly deserted.
 
I was early so I could only opt for the small menu and I chose the simplest dish,
curry sausage with fries.
After my quick lunch I tried a long shallow stretch as it was now afternoon and
mayflies where on the water.
The water was shallow though and with no rising fish I tried a small nymph.
Every time the indicator landed on the water the fish scattered.

A brown trout raced past me so my efforts where in vain.
I switched to a big mayfly pattern and moved upstream hoping to see a stationary
brown somewhere.
With low light conditions due to cloud cover it was difficult though to spot fish.
A big bow wave in front of me was a sign that my approach did not work.

In the end I opted to try for the trout that I had missed early morning.
The woolly bugger was once again put into action.
I immediately felt a tug on the streamer and on the second cast the trout
nailed the streamer, a good day.