Good Start To The New Season :)

Well the new 2013 trout season is here at last.  The long cold morning, frosty mornings Chasing winter Grayling are gone and rising golden trout are on every ones minds.  After spending many hours in my little claustrophobic cubourd tying many flies for the new season I ended up spending my first day of the 2013 trout season on my usual haunt on the upper river.  My Pal Mostyn was accompanying me on the river and we were both fishing klink & dink.  It was all a little slow,  no fly life on the wing and no trout rising.  We both fished a couple of pools and fast runs but not a sausage.  By this time it was later on in the day and i had to go to work soon so i just sat back and told Mostyn that i would just watch him for a little and let him have the last couple of pools.  He was fishing at the bottom of a pool which was dead calm but had enough pace on it to make his flies go down river at a nice pace without any drag.  His second cast and his klinkhammer slowly slid under the surface.  Thinking he was just snagged on the bottom he didn't strike as if he was into a fish he just lifted his rod slightly.  Next thing he knew his rod was bending and a massive fish leaped into the air and trying its best to head off down river.  At first i thought that he had hooked into a small salmon kelt but after watching him fight the fish and it coming to the surface a few times you could see that it was a huge trout.  After a few minutes battle the trout was safely in the landing net unhooked and a quick picture taken.  I wouldn't like to give an accurate weight of the fish as it was very very long and slim.  However my biggest fish in the 2012 trout season was 23 inches and this fish was much bigger so id give it 3 1/2lb and possible 4lb+ when it reforms condition.  After seeing that massive trout i had to leave the river for the day to go to work but i managed to see a beauty of the river aswel as catching a small trout myself :)  (Much smaller)
Mostyns MASSIVE trout


Later that day i had a phone call off a mate Sion Lewis/Lewy which had just recently joined the club water which i fish asking me to show him around.  Obviously I couldn't say no as i had booked the day off work.  We started off a bit later in the around 9:30am.  We were again fishing klink & Dink as the water levels are painfully low and clear so we wouldn't be able to fish nymphs very well in them conditions.  I took him to the same runs which i fished the day before as i knew that there was more fish there just we didn't catch them the day before.  There was still frost on the ground when we hit the river so i knew that it wasn't going to be easy fishing even thought there was quite a few LDO's on the wing so we were a bit confident we were going to hit into something.  We fished every single pool, pocket and crease and the trout were just not interested.  All them LDO'S floated down river were getting a free pass as the trout were just not switched on.  I was getting a little worried thinking that Sion was thinking that there was no fish in the river as this went on for a couple of hours until it warmed up at around 11:30.  There was a clear sign that there was a a lot more LDO'S coming onto the wing and the trout were taking notice as you could make out the odd sip and splashy rise.  Where we were fishing it was wide enough for both of us to fish with a big island in the middle of the river so i took one side and Sion took the other.  A couple of casts in on the klink & dink and i was into a nice looking trout which took my dry fly :)

And a couple of casts late a little further up river in the oxygenated water behind boulders i was straight into another and on the dry too :)

With Sion seeing me catch these two fantastic fish he asked me kindly (haha) if he could fish the rest of the run which i was fishing so i let him carry on.  He spotted a nice fish rise a little further up river.  He placed his flies a little further than where the fish had rose first.  The fish rose to his fly but when he struck there was nothing on the end.  Luckily the fish didn't feel the hook as the next cast he nailed it on the dry too

Sion had his first fish on his new water and he soon got into the swing of things as he caught another fish afterwards on his LDO quill pattern Which i will be copying by the way ;) and as soon as you knew it was time to go home.  However a great day fishing in great surrounding, company and fish.  Not a lot more you can need.