It was tough on the River Ribble

Fly fishing for brown trout on our rivers in September can be an exciting; it can also be tough, depending on the weather and water conditions. My friend David and I arrived at around 10-0am to find the river in perfect conditions but with a mass of black clouds some light drizzle and a cold upstream wind conditions didn’t look good. After a mug pf tea we both put together 9 foot Thomas and Thomas rods what delightful casting tools these are. We matched our rods with 5 weight floating lines with a 9 foot leader with a 3lb breaking strain tippet. An occasional fish could be seen taking an emerger, with so little action on the surface, I reckon the best sport would be fishing the upstream nymph. We decided to fish on the top and take our chances. From experience early in the week I suggested using a size 14 suspended black midge pupae which we both tied on our Gamma Frog hair leaders.

We sat for an hour looking for some action, just the occasional fish showed, Time for a brew, as we sat chatting David decided to make up his Spey rod and see if there were any salmon in the various pools. The evening before I had been told that 2 bullocks were on the riverside of the fence. I decided to check out the situation. The cattle had gone but some fencing was damaged. Now I had to put in a claim to the farmer, how I hate cattle at times like this.
Two hours I joined David for lunch, the weather seemed to get brighter and the temperature had raised a couple of degrees, now we might have a chance of a trout. Lunch over we both made our way across the fields to the river.

At Last a Nice Fish


At the waters edge I spotted a rise under the over hanging branches on the far side of the river, some 3 inches from the far bank. It would be a long difficult cast, sitting on the bank I waited to see if there would be another rise; 10 minutes later an emerger was taken. Five minutes later another rise. Time to fish. I pulled off enough line for what I though would be needed to drop the fly close to the far bank. I made two false casts before shooting the line, giving the rod a wiggle to put some wiggle in the line. The fly landed perfectly 4 feet upstream close to the bank. I watched the fly drift perfectly. Nothing happened, I made another cast same spot still no interest. On my third cast the fly got caught up on a branch, a gentle pull had the fly dropping in the water like thistledown. Retrieving the fly I made another cast, it was spot on. The fly drifted six feet, there was a slight dimple, and the fly was gone. I tightened into a fish that shot off downstream towards the rapids, I had full control after a few minutes I had a nice brown trout about 16 inches to hand. Nicely hooked in the scissors. Running my fingers down the leader I slipped out the barbless hook then watched my trout move off at a fast rate of knots. Moving down river to where David was watching the water, he told me he had just one trout. We sat for about half an hour during which a cormorant and goosander appeared. Thankfully my cormorant licence arrived yesterday. With no sign of rising fish and a cold upstream wind we called it a day. I went off home for an early dinner as I would be joining three of my bailiffs about 6 o’clock for a very late evening; we would work in pairs keeping watch on two of the pools, while the other two bailiffs would patrol the full length of the fishery. With Lancashire’s river levels on the low side, the fish thieves will be out and about. Remember they want to steal your fish. See anything suspicious at the waterside please call the police and the EA on 0800 80 70 60 Remember it’s your future they are destroying both game and coarse fish.