A few hours this morning on what was a very very shrunken River Ithon. I hadn’t been for a while here , certainly this season , and normally she is easy wading and a joy to slowly mooch upstream, casting a delicate dry fly as you approach trouty water . Today , she was a bit lifeless , and it was hard work finding possible trouty water , and so to that end did a fair amount of leg work ……
Its always interesting seeing a shrunken river , its bed formations , and where it has dumped tonnes of its gravels , from erosion and attrition …. this is a classic example of what i call a lively river . After the winter floods , she will be different again i should imagine . Must admit , at the moment it seems more dried sun bleached gravel , than river …….
On to the serious bit , the fishing , well tricky she was , but not impossible , as usual i did thermometer dip , see what the temperture was , and a cool fifteen degrees , so was more than happy to fish . A cdc and elk , and a dry Parachute iron blue did the business this morning , savage takes to where i envisaged a wiley brownie may be lying . Only the one rising fish seen , i had him on the first cast , dry fly drifted in his zone of feeding , and bang , a satisfying splashy rise to my fly , quickly brought in , ten inches of wild Ithon perfection slipped back in to his watery home …..
Five brownies and one super fit grayling made it to the net this morning , which i was more than happy with , given the conditions . Really Wales , and much of the U.K. could do with three or four solid days of good persistent rain , that would be a blessing . Not only for the rivers and reservoirs , but for us anglers , gardeners , in fact a whole host of people and facilities that rely on this most precious commodity . Its quite true what they say isn’t it , water really is the staff of life ………
