There is little doubting the sort of fishing Peter Anderson enjoys, small intimate rivers where you have to employ everything in your fishing repetoire to maximise your chances. This month he looks at lowland rivers.
I suppose that in a way it is obvious what a lowland stream is, it’s a stream that flows through low lying land, but the differences between a lowland stream and an upland stream are very marked (and my favourite upland stream will be the subject of another article).
So, what are the differences? It seems that the favourite adjective to describe an upland stream is “tumbling”. These streams are full of life and gurgle their way down off the hills. They flow over gravel and bedrock and have lots of rocks and pools, but not great depth, a pool three feet deep is a big pool. The banks are not high (unless, of course, it flows through a gorge!) and getting in and out is reasonably easy. You can get in and stay in. There probably isn’t a lot of tree cover and the company will mainly be bovine.
A lowland stream, on the other hand, does not “tumble” anywhere. It is more sedate. It will probably flow over silt (or mud) and there are deep, deep pools, maybe over six feet even in a stream no more than ten feet wide. Now that’s fun – wading on silt in a pool that drops to over six feet deep! The banks are high and steep. On these streams it pays to have an exit route worked out before getting in, and remember that it is always easier to get in than it is to get out! There will be plenty of tree cover, in fact there will be plenty of everything that grows... and lies in wait to catch a stray cast, like nettles for example. And finally the company will be bovine, that’s fun too, a herd of charging bullocks! (don’t run, stand still, wave your arms and shout and they will veer away......at least they have done so far). This describes my favourite lowland stream but they all have the same characteristics.
The season here is short. There is a big head of grayling but our season closes on 14 October – the landowner doesn’t allow grayling fishing which is a shame but, hey, it’s his land. I like it early in the season. April is good and plenty of fish come to the nymph. May is better, we have a big mayfly hatch (which you won’t get on upland streams in general), June is OK. After that? Well a combination of low water and dense waterside vegetation make life difficult. By July even finding the river can be difficult and not a job for the unwary, a combination of heavy bankside vegetation and steep banks can lead to sudden heart stopping falls into the river....I speak from experience! It is worth a cast towards the end of the season though.
How to fish it? In a word – short! A 7’ rod, 5 feet of tippet tied direct to the end of the fly line if nymph fishing, maybe 7 feet of tapered leader for the dry flies. In the deep pools with good flow a heavy nymph can be very effective, otherwise the duo is a good standby technique. Don’t fish more than about 2 rod lengths away, actually the vegetation will ensure that you can’t fish more than two rod lengths away. And the quality of the fish, wow! All wild of course, with trout to a pound and grayling well over that. I once got smashed up by something very big and mentioned it to an old chap leaning on the bridge who’d fished the river since Adam was a lad, “Sea trout” he said through a cloud of smoke from his pipe. Hmmmm, not sure about that. A fellow member said there was a fish farm a few miles upstream and I think an escapee rainbow was more likely. Whatever it was, it certainly got the pulse racing.
The final attraction of this stream is the seclusion. That’s a surprise because it runs through a sizeable village and is only 4 miles from a big city and a public footpath popular with dog walkers runs along one bank. But a combination of steep banks and dense undergrowth gives a real sense of isolation.....with the comfort that if I really can’t get out then I can shout for help in the knowledge that somebody will hear me!
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