Four scortchers and a wet one!

The heat has been so instance that daytime fishing has been largely abandoned until today. The odd foray to flick a tiny dry fly for brown trout in some of the shadier stretches curtailed after an hour or two by thirst and lethargy of both angler and fish. There seems to be so much fly life, I suppose due to the heat, that the trout are full to the gills....literally! Our usual daytime quarry, the salmon, has been seen in small numbers and by their silvery colour, considered fresh-run, so they’re obviously coming into the river; despite the dearth of water; but it’s unlikely they’re catchable; so instead we conserve our energy for the night – and what fishing we’ve had. A record sized, for us, sea trout is now featured in ‘Trout and Salmon’ magazine, as are the 4 caught in one night by yours truly. A good-sized fresh run 9lb.8oz salmon too at 12:30am, yes, that’s AM, also features. What’s been so incredibly encouraging is to witness the sheer numbers of migrating sea trout. Untold hundreds even thousands pouring into te river from the estuary each night despite the state of it, and then somehow managing to forge their way upstream. It’s magical to watch them in the moonlight fight their way through the rapids and shallows and into the next pool, resting and then pushing on - easy pickings for the otters that interrupt our fishing most nights in one or other of the numerous tranquil pools. Last night Tim and I had a hissing match with a mother and two quite mature cubs! Eel numbers have dropped savagely recently, their usual dietary mainstay, so Lamprey now feature – a fish I’m not sorry to see eaten – as ugly as sin!
  Mink too make their presence felt - one, unseen but heard, black devil savaged a rabbit in the margin at Cattle Drink Pool a few nights ago – a truly dreadful heart-wrenching sound at 2am in the morning when one’s hearing is more acute to make up for the eye’s deficiency – a very unsettling moment, to say the least.
  Catch sizes and weights, although religiously recorded, are not; and never have been the primary focus; instead our ‘boy’s week’ is measured by laughter, each other’s company and the excellent food enjoyed by us all each night as we take in turns to serve our ‘signature dish’ – in my case a fish pie. Then bursting at the seams, we head for the river around 10pm; all of us sweaty and some – no names here, venting like troopers – a self inflicted noxious penalty when done inside chest high wadders!
Yesterday evening it all changed, along with southerly winds came almost continuous rain for 6 hours - until sometime early morning. The river responded, rising an inch or two and dropping quite a few degrees – huge relief, no doubt, for the fish. Our tally rising with a stunningly beautiful 5.8lb sea-trout caught in Log Pool.
Tonight’s our last night. The river is in perfect condition but first we have Roast Lamb to content with. One of Richard Wood’s self-reared 2 horned Jacobs. I see yet another sweaty night’s work ahead!
Tomorrow a big shop and then back to Equinox and prepare for perhaps my toughest leg yet – Milford Haven.