Up to the Seven at Spaunton Moor with a spring in my step and a feeling in my bones that today was going to be a good ‘un. A bit chilly, with rain forecast but the river was looking fab:

I put three spiders on the Burns 7.5 footer and started gently lashing the water. No fish were showing and nothing came to the flies. I flogged away for a good hour and a half before conceding defeat with the spiders and switching to a pair of weighted nymphs on a short tippet:

Within ten or fifteen minutes I had my first take of the day in a deepish little run. A nicely spotted little wild moorland trout:

The river continued to look beautiful:

But the fish were proving elusive. Cut a long story short I managed another four, all tiny like these two:

And that was the sum total for three-and-a-half hours’ effort – five tiddlers. Nature was producing some nice little features though:

And it looked like Henry Moore had been here:

So, as is too often the case, my initial optimism had been somewhat misplaced. But it would be churlish to complain.