Conditions: Warm, Sunny, 17 - 19 degrees
Top Flies/Tactics: All fish to size 14 San Juan Worm, French Nymphing Duo tactics.
With 2012 giving us the wettest June since records began and July continuing the theme it was good to finally get a nice day to fish the Don the first time in a good few weeks. Water levels were still high in places but are coming back down after the recent floods and it was fascinating to see how high the river has been from the marked banks, and also the way a high river opens up new options.
I started further upstream than normal at the Leppings Lane Bridge rather than behind Owlerton Stadium, picking up an early fish in the excellent pool just downstream of the bridge but then lost a lovely fish in the middle of the pool which was disappointing as it seemed to spook the whole area. I did see what looked like a huge mirror carp cruise through, would not of fancied hooking that on a 3 wt / 2lb leader!
Had 4 more fish upstream of Leppings Lane and it was interesting to be catching while casting direct from the footpath without wading due to the high water levels.
The pool below Niagara weir was again productive with 3 more fish and numerous lost fish, was thankful to have a 9.5ft rod as the nymphs needed to be cast to the slack water on the far side and then everything held off the current to get to the fish - Tenkara would of worked well! Lost 3 more fish at the base of the weir itself. I fished through the stretch at the back of Middlewood Park for the first time but couldn't manage any fish down there, before moving on to the dry fly (Griffiths Gnat) upstream of Beeley Wood Lane but didn't catch on the dry...with hindsight sticking with the duo nymphs would have probably been better.
All in all a good days fishing (would have been a very good one if I hadn't lost so many!) with a few new areas and flies tried - first time I'd tried the San Juan Worm and it proved excellent, but didn't catch on any of the droppers that I tried, either ones that I've caught on before or new ones, first time I've not caught any Grayling too! A couple of pics and a shot of the most productive fly:
Tight Lines - Jon Warner, SPRITE Member.
