To the lower stretch of the Seven on a day of broken cloud and a briskish breeze. The water looked pretty good, with the recent drop of rain adding a couple of inches in depth and a tinge of colour. I was optimistic as I started fishing at around 11.20 am with the 3wt and standard emerger:

The air was a little fresher than it has been and for the first ten minutes or so I didn’t see a single rise. In fact it was spookily quiet. I flogged away, putting the fly pretty much everywhere but concentrating on the overhangs and likely looking lies like these roots:

Out of the blue I got a take and was happily surprised to bring in a really nice brown of around 12″ – that is a belter for this water:

Fish started to show after that, albeit not in great numbers. Ten or fifteen minutes later I had another take – not so big this time:

Thereafter things went a bit quiet again, and the fish that were rising were also being unusually fussy, refusing to take my offering. I chopped and changed, albeit sticking to the faithful emerger but trying different colours, orange, purple, claret. Got snagged a couple of times on the copious growth of balsam along one bank on the wilder stretch of the beat:

I tried a tiny Griffiths gnat but gave up because I couldn’t see it. Had a go with a small goldhead, but wasn’t confident so back with the emerger and picked up four more, typically like this one:

After a bit over two hours it started to spot with rain so I called it a day. Half a dozen isn’t to be sniffed at, but secretly I was hoping for a few more.