River Test
Leckford Estate
The River Test is special. It is so steeped in history, you expect to see pages of literature drifting down upon its placid surface, alongside the subadults of Ephemeroptera. Today the duns were almost as scarce as the paper. The weather was spring-like; that is, there was sun, wind, rain and sleet all in the space of 8 hours. On another river you might just pack up and plan to return on a better day.
However this is the Test. So we waited and watched; and we waited a little more. And then we walked the beat yet again to check that there wasn't a hatch happening behind our backs.
Our patience was rewarded. By mid-day the main river did have a sparse hatch of olives. By carefully marking the location of the few fish that were prepared to rise, we targeted and caught some lovely brown trout. Dry fly fishing has that something special. The search for a likely target. The decision of what imitation to try. The wait as the artificial drifts down towards the trout, then the moment the fish rises, ever so slowly, and engulfs your fly. The pause and then the tightening into the fish. It is hunting, no doubt about it.