Grampound-with-Creed, England

The perfect type of day for the dry fly today, weather overcast and just about no wind but the river a little on the low side, but plenty of flies about on and off the water.

The river was so low last week running at 0.27 on the gauge. But this week we had some rain just enough to bring the river up nicely to 0.38 on the gauge this morning. With both nymph and dry rods in hand off we went looking for a rising fish or two, but all that seemed to be interested in the dries was the out of season grayling and a salmon parr. So it was the nymph's that saved the day, all the trout came from the deep fast runs, that the grayling had come from on the dry, although there was a good hatch of flies the trout didn't seem to be interested, possibly they didn't like the cold wind along with the odd rain shower that was keeping them down in the water. The weather is on the change next week so things should warm up.

Brown trout & Grayling…. The day was overcast with occasional drizzle and a moderate breeze on the river. From the bridge, I saw no rising fish, so it was a day for nymphs — a 3mm brown tungsten pheasant tail on the point and a 2mm green pheasant tail on the dropper. Starting mid-pool, I occasionally felt the nymph dragging on the bottom and soon landed a nice grayling. Moving upstream, trout in the faster water were more willing to take the nymph. Reaching a long, slow pool, I noticed grayling rising, so I switched to Klink and Dink. Casting above the rising fish, I let the nymph and dry drift over them, occasionally lifting the rod or skating the dry across the surface — grayling couldn’t resist this method.

Rainbow Trout. Very good day with the heavy cloud cover and strong breeze meaning fish were in the top 2 feet feeding comfortably. Had 4 on dries and the rest on a full floater with 4 flies. Buoyant point and top dropper with two wets in the middle. Most around 2lbs and 2 at 3-3.5lbs, new fish but fought so well and some looking rather chubby as feeding well Cast out, 3 steady pulls and leave then slow twiddle, stop a long pull and repeat. Fish came on the drop, in the middle and on the hang. Good times