We finally managed to get away by 15:00, parked in the forest and tackled up. With limited time we headed for the closest water.
I elected to fish dry, a RAB and Max stuck to the nymph, a beaded GRHE.
A chute of water tumbled below a felled tree trunk hugging the right bank. My fly landed in the broken water and was immediately taken by a small rainbow, about 6” but in very good condition. We took turns and more small fish came to hand. Max eventually got his fly exactly where he wanted it, the head of the broken water where it enters the run allowing the stream to take the nymph right to the best fish of the pool. This proved to be a beautiful 13” fish, a male just starting to develop a kype. This was to be the fish of the day.
We split up and I concentrated on the shallow nicely scoured out channel running below the poplars. I brought many small 6-10” fish to hand. Upstream,Max took many similar sized fish from pools. I moved upstream and concentrated on the shallower pocket water catching a few as well.
By 17:00 we were fishing bigger pools with muddier bottoms where we took the odd fish but not catching at the same rate as when fishing the shallower areas with more scoured streambeds.
The shallower water with a more scoured out bottom offered the most success, there are a lot of fish here. I hope that the level of the rifle does not drop too much over the coming weeks.