Get it while you can

Less than 2 weeks before the end of the Trout season on the river, so make the most of the benign conditions (subject to the rain arriving tomorrow and thereafter). After 31st October the trout are off-limits, except at the Reservoir of course. If you've signed up for Winter Fishing, you can carry on fly fishing for Grayling, but try to avoid the trout, and return them very carefully if you do find any that haven't read the rules.

Other things you can do after 31st October include the increasingly popular Fly-Tying evenings led by Keith Tiley (make sure you contact him if you want to attend). These take place monthly throughout the Winter at the Brown Trout in Lamberhurst which is a very welcoming pub that serves great food. It's as much a social occasion as a technical challenge, so do come along even if (like me) you can't really tie a decent fly.

The other thing you can continue to do is to join Nigel's work-parties every few weeks to help restore and improve the river and everyone's fishing experience. Apart from a bit of exercise, this is another great social occasion, and a brilliant way to find out more about the river and exchange tips and tales with other members. Contact Nigel about this one.

To give you an idea of what we do, we had one just today on Beat 2B (Share Farm).

This is the pool half way along 2B that was very overhung and blocked by willows - much fishier now. I think this is Keith, Alex and David playing hide and seek, or they may have been building up the Berm upstream with all the stuff they'd cut down.

Meanwhile, further downstream, below the very big deep inaccessible pool, Nigel and the rest of us (Ian, Chris and myself) were working on the major project to clear the willows below the big pool and drag them along the bank to a new 'habitat pile' near the bottom of the beat.

Some good progress was made, opening up a nice spot, but there's still more to do to restore that area - as ever.

Meanwhile back on the water, the clarity was still good, though the overcast sky didn't enhance it, and small shoals of Rainbows were still to be found in various places including several spots in Field 2 at Trottenden, and a few spots on 3C. It seems that small nymphs (16, 18) have been most successful recently, though a day with dry daddies worked at Harpers for one member. Successful patterns have included black PTN, Infected shrimp, Perdigons, Pink Tag, GRHE.

The Reservoir has had a number of successful visits recently, and one member was lucky enough to find that the wind had lured the trout away from the centre to the bottom corner, where he managed to tempt them on an olive nymph below a Klink, but others have used black muddlers or blue flash damsels. There is still some weed around the perimeter, though it's weak and dying fast, so it's definitely worthwhile using a heavier rod and line than you'd use on the river, as you will need to lift any fish just over or through the weed to land them; it'll probably help with the casting too.

Hopefully we'll see some of you on the non-fishing occasions, or the AGM in November, but if you're not a Winter Fisher, have a good break and see you at the Reservoir or back on the river from 3rd April (but not before!),

Cheers

PeterB