[Colin Sunley]

Well done mate looks smaller on screen than real life, this thing was hugh about the size of a fox. Was great to see it up close

[Allan Liddle]

Looks like a cracking day Sandy green eyes here stuck in the office all day 

I know where you were btw  and I've met your wee furry friend before 

[Sandy Nelson]

I don't doubt that at all Alan, the wee furry fella was not bothered by us at all so is obviously quite used to seeing anglers.
He was rooting around the rocks for food and he kept coming up and crunching things, i didn't get a look at what it was, but i would have been very interested. His nose was quite raw from grubbing around.

The fishing was superb and my best day of the year so far, 2 TF's (in 3 casts!) and 3 other RB's amongst the notables. Some cracking fish moving all along the beat, plenty to share with friends

Mr B even got his first of the year too, unfortunatley his unorthodox method of finding his fly let the fish jump out of the net before i got a decent photo Twas a notable as well though

very much enjoying exploring a relatively new river

Sandy

[Mike Barrio]

Mr B even got his first of the year too, unfortunatley his unorthodox method of finding his fly let the fish jump out of the net before i got a decent photo Twas a notable as well though

    

[Allan Liddle]

I don't doubt that at all Alan, the wee furry fella was not bothered by us at all so is obviously quite used to seeing anglers.
He was rooting around the rocks for food and he kept coming up and crunching things, i didn't get a look at what it was, but i would have been very interested. His nose was quite raw from grubbing around.

The fishing was superb and my best day of the year so far, 2 TF's (in 3 casts!) and 3 other RB's amongst the notables. Some cracking fish moving all along the beat, plenty to share with friends

Mr B even got his first of the year too, unfortunatley his unorthodox method of finding his fly let the fish jump out of the net before i got a decent photo Twas a notable as well though

Excellent stuff Sandy, river's been a wee bit slow since middle of last week, needs a bit of fresh water t kick start things a wee bit


Great stuff and plenty more water to see
very much enjoying exploring a relatively new river

Sandy

[Allan Liddle]

Story so far

Eight outings on Deveron (seems like more) and been lucky enough to find some nice fish as well as some great fishing.

112 troots landed to date with all but five of them coming to the DHE (the others were on nymphs when trying out my nymph line one short spell waiting on the hatch to start)

River's very low and crystal clear at the momnet making getting on troots a wee bit more challenging, however if you can get yourself into a good position then the fish can still be tempted.

12 fish between 2lb and 3lb (2 of 'em an agonising 2lb 14oz) which is great fishing and very welcome, 2 between 3lb and 4lb (3lb 10z and 3lb 4 oz) and best so far 4lb 1.5oz.  Hoping to add to this soon,  however with the average size beyond the NF's and RB's a good 14oz and plenty over a pound the fishing's not exactly shabby.

LDO's on the move and BWO's should start to appear anytime 

[Sandy Nelson]

Been a really tough week

I had two visits to the Deveron and it is 2" below normal height according to the gauges and in many areas you can see every rock on the bottom. Couple this with relentless bright sunshine and variable wind directions and the odd conditions seem to have put the trout on edge.
If i could find them, which i did the first day, then they would rise but strikes had to be almost immediate to set a hook and those, as expected, ended up lightly hooked and tricky to land. If you gave it the correct couple of seconds to turn, then the fly got spit back out. I think the brightness and clear water had the fish right on edge so anything that didn't feel/look right got ignored or rejected almost immediately and often spooked the fish for a while.
Lovely day for a walk and an explore and lots of flies coming off from early morning to lunchtime, LDO's, OU's and MB's along with other midge, small caddis and terrestrials.




The next day much further downstream was different in that i saw almost no flies at all, barring a few LDO spinners and a handful of OU's in the afternoon. I didn't see any decent rising fish all day and ended up get a couple of 8"er's that were taking terrestrials under a tree, only steady risers i saw all day.



I think the conditions were really tough for everyone out on the river, but some beats did get a rise and some good fish were caught by those with lots of patience and sharp eyes. So it boiled to down to choice of beat, Exploring new water this week was perhaps not my best idea, but i did find lots of really nice water to explore again later in the year

Sandy

[Sandy Nelson]

Well what a difference from last friday.

Arrived at the river to find it running a two tone brown, one side like chocolate and the other like coffee, all down to run off from feeders. We had picked a beat up the river to try and get clearer water, but it was still pretty dismal beginnings.



Not the best of starts , in between rain, snow, hail it was a far cry from the low crystal clear stream i fished under warm skies last week.

However perseveering through to 1230 proved to be a good idea and the river had dropped about an inch from our starting point when the first of the Olive uprights started to trickle off.
Sitting watching a likely looking spot, showed up a couple of risers above where i was sitting, opposite end of the pools to i expected So began an afternoon of creeping about. No real monsters but a good handful of fish 9-12" long



every so often a better fish would move to a fly, a quick cover and they were taking confidently, another half dozen + in the 1-1.5lb range over the course of the time and the best of the afternoon a cracking 2lb+



This guy decided to run a set of rapids and took me round quite a few big rocks, but i manged to get him in for a change , Had to land him up a steep edge hence the photo on the bank and then he swam off strongly.

All fish took a size 12 DHE very confidently, many of them needed forceps to get the fly out, so the day couldn't have been further removed from the "perfect day" last week to the " Did i really decide to go fishing today" Day that today started out as. Very pleased i didn't head home early doors. The OU's hatched in big numbers all afternoon, probably the biggest hatch i've seen this year and although the fish were very localised it was great fun

Sandy

[Sandy Nelson]

Another week of dodgy weather and rising and falling water had me watching the webcams with anticipation this morning.
So with the river looking pretty good and a willingness that surpassed the wind i ventured off in search of gold.

Good hatches all day with a plenty fish in the decent category rising freely when you could beat the wind to cover them



One or two better ones seen and covered, all willing to come and pose for the camera



The best fish we saw all day was hanging in a back eddy and swallowing every fly that came his way, but it required a 5ft cast in the wind and then a quick drift so proved to be very hard to get right, soon enough he spooked and stopped playing, so we continued upstream to find more.
On the way back it was chucking it down but i stopped to see if he was back and it he was circling the eddy feeding like mad, so more combat stuff and trying to get 5ft of flyline to cast in a strong breeze, but i covered him and he came up, in fact he came up 5 times for the fly over 10mins before he eventually took it and i got him in.

A Cracker, almost a trophy but not quite, well chuffed.



So a tough but good day, not as many fish rising as i would have expected with the water looking perfect, but those that were, were worth being there for. Quite a few Tourists moving as well.

Sandy

[Mike Barrio]

Great stuff Sandy

[Colin Sunley]

Nice fish

[Allan Liddle]

Great stuff Sandy. 

[Jeff Donovan]

Smashing report  great pics & thanks for sharing 

[Sandy Nelson]

Cracking day to be on the water today, conditions were about perfect and the nice Deveron fish obliged

Most of the day was made up of hunting down the fish that were steadily feeding on the Olive Uprights hatching off, but they were hatching in numbers along with small dark olives, Yellow mays, black gnats, Hawthorns. The size 12 CDC spider seemed to do the trick on the ones who were hungry though and much fun was had with a steady stream like this



Great company today too  and exploring another, new to me, beat meant lots of walking and talking and spotting and marking and then working our way back taking in turns to target the fish.

Funny how things turn out and when i got left on my own for a while i managed to spot this fella taking flies  only 5 ft from the near bank (seems to be a common theme this season), a tricky wee cast but well worth it



Well pleased, but top things off another fish started moving in the same spot but about 15ft further out, didn't think it was as big but a quick cover soon proved they were almost a matching pair, about 1/2lb  difference in weight and 2" in length



We stayed on due to the conditions, to see if there was an evening rise, but things died off about 7 ish, still a little early yet, although there were huge numbers of spinners in the air and stacks of fly on the water.

All in all a great day in great company on a great river, superb

Sandy

[Mike Barrio]

Great stuff Sandy

Cheers
Mike