Mark King and his fishing buddy Zim take us into Cornwall for some small stream fishing for trout.
It was early May and a Bank Holiday and I had arranged a day's fishing with my pal Duncan 22288(Zim) as we have not fished together for quite a while now.
I met Zim and he drove us up to deepest, darkest Kernow to a small stream neither of us had fished for a couple of years.
The journey up, was full of excited 'fishing chat' and what the day had in store.
We parked and tackled up whereby the usual 'bling' admiration took place of the closed-season purchases that had been made.
A short walk to the bottom of the beat, we got down to the river, but both of us agreed we had spooked the first pool with our approach. Not a good start.
At the next pool I noticed a small piece of water at the head that looked promising. I prompted Zim to hit it, he did and after just a couple of casts, fish on!
It made us both smile and Zim was pleased with his dry fly, a Parachute Adams of his own creation.
I also had a dry fly setup and my 5 foot cane rod with a nymphing setup. We continued upstream, taking it in turns to fish likely looking water. We came to a slower paced section of a pool, with a downstream wind, low overhanging trees and a few trout rising to emerging olives. This was tricky to say the least and it was my turn. I took my time and cast inbetween the gusts of wind. Nothing happened and so I decided to rest the water for a few moments and the trout rose again.
This time the cast was a better one, avoiding the tree and presenting the dry Para Adams exactly where I wanted it and better still, so did the trout. "He's on!"
Not a big fish (a big fish on this stream is 9" plus) but satisfying given the challenge.
Where the water was deeper, Zim suggested to me to try the nymphs. I was using two nymphs, rigged New Zealand style as I find this works really well in tight little streams. I was also using a light olive line, with a tiny red band in the loop that I find really helps spot the takes. It was working excatly as it should today as I caught plenty of fish this way. I was fishing a fast 5ft cane rod for a #5 line something that is not common but I absolutely love it!
Next we came to some interesting looking water. Olives were hatching well now. Zim was up next. I spotted a rise for him and a couple of casts later Zim was in. There were some really good trout in this little area, plump and with beautiful colouring.
Zim returned the favour and spotted a rise for me. I cast and up he came. This was a good fish of 10" plus. It fought really well.
Zim continued to catch a few more on the dries, but I didn't get many more but the nymphs did produce a few fish for me.
All in all it was a very enjoyable afternoon, good company and a few fish!
There is a pub very close by so a Brown Ale shandy topped off the day perfectly.