Walking away when the neverfail spot fails

AT the time of writing most rivers are fishable, some dropping from a recent rise and those that were low, are getting lower.

There is some rain forecast for the weekend, but hopefully just enough to freshen them up, rather than a fullblown flood.

The recent low temperatures will do nothing for cicada fishing, but the willow grubs will still fall on the water and into trouts’ mouths.

Regardless of the temperature, fishing early in the morning or late in the evening will be the best approach as trout will more likely be out in the open at these times, retreating to the depths and shade during the day.

I have seen trout meandering about in shoals over the last week, not feeding and not spooky, just swimming nonstop, which is a sign of stress.

Brown trout are relatively solitary creatures and do not usually shoal.

The best chance of catching fish in a river is when they are rising to spinners, which will be in the morning or late evening, but in the late evening they will also rise to sedges. On still waters a midge hatch early or late in the day gives an opportunity to catch fish; sedges will be present in the evening too.

Rises to sedges are obvious, very splashy and fast, rises to midge pupae are best described as sippy.

In low water, fish can be very spooky, especially in flat water when the sun is shining. In such conditions, it pays to wait until the water is ruffled by the wind.

So, if you know where there is a good fish that is hard to catch, go there when it is windy, but not too windy.

Speaking of wind, I went fishing the other day expecting a warm fine day with just the right breeze to aid, rather than hinder fishing.

Well, it was like that when I was tackling up, but before I got started the temperature dropped and the wind rose and brought a fine rain with it.

To make matters worse, I broke on a fish on the second cast of the day. I saw only two fish rise in an hour and ahalf, with no response from the first and missing the take on the second. Shortly after, I hooked a fish which was small and it was foulhooked.

I changed location and the sun came out and I saw a fish rise and hooked it first cast, then it buried itself in the weed and came off.

I did see a very good fish in the bank side, but it saw me first and disappeared. I moved to a dam and started fishing in my neverfail spot — it failed.

I did see three trout rise, all out of range, of course. I developed a sore foot walking back to the car and felt a bit down.

But nowhere near as depressed as when I read the government’s plans for ‘‘protecting’’ the environment this morning.