Beat M

With the good weather on Sunday I decided to drive up and give Beat M a go. I had not got round to it yet despite meaning to several times last year.

I arrived late afternoon and had as met by Charlie in the car park. He had spent several hours walking the beat as he also hadn’t got round to fishing it yet. We had a quick chat about the season ahead and our thoughts on it. Matter quickly turned to what he had seen on the river. In this case it was more what he hadn’t seen. The river was high and had a fair amount of colour in it.

I rigged up as he was leaving, I set up the nymph rod given what he had said. I then set up the dry fly rod with a small olive pattern, more in hope than anything else. When I got the river I was amazed at how fast it was pushing through. This was going to

test my skills.

The sun was shining and the Canadian Geese were nesting in the field with their goslings. A slight breeze was blowing downstream. There wasn’t much to complain about.

The fishing was tough and I managed to eek out two fish around 7-10 inches in the first 90 minutes. With Hawthorns in the air and a trickle of olives coming off I hoped maybe the evening would bring a few risers. Unfortunately this never happened, I saw two small fish slash at what must have been some caddis.

As I moved up the beat I focused on the deeper slower sections, my patience was reward d with a lovely wild trout of around 15-16 inches. I managed to get one more around 8 inches and dropped two around the same size.

When I headed back to the car, I bumped into another member Ian, who joined late last year. We had a good chat and I left him to finish up. Ian, I hope you got into a few.

It was great few hours spent by the river. As I drove past Stonehenge with the sun setting and the fields ablaze in the yellow flowers I realize how lucky we are to have this stretch of water.