Another nice early Monday morning and I've got the whole day to myself. The night before I'd tied up a number of tippets. Following my normal pattern these were something like 18" of 6lb followed by, in thtis instance, a couple of feet of 3lb copolymer. My leaders from Loopy Leaders are tied with small tippet rings. In the past I've tied a loop in the 6lb and used this in conjunction with the ring to attach the composite tippet. Thinking about this though, it occured to me That I've nearly always used up the fine tippet material by the end of the day and retire it completely so this loop-to-ring connection seems a bit overkill. I'd also just read about the Davy Knot which is an amasingly compact, strong and easy to tie knot. I'm now a fan and it seemed ideal to connect the tippet to leader - as well as tippet to hook - so no loops for me now!

A couple of objectives for my trip this time:

1. To find other parking spots along the stretch of river
2. To use dry flies. If the fish are rising then great, otherwise I'll prospect the likely fishy spots.

There are a number of spots to park laid out along the river - you can see them on the bit of annotated map at the start of this entry.

So far I'd only used the spot marked as '1' but being at the bottom end of the beat I'd consequently not yet had the stamina to wade the whole length. So, it was time to look elsewhere and in particular '3' at the entrance to the Sewage Works. This would allow me to start at the 'Kingfisher' bends and work my way upstream. Easy in theory but a bit dodgy in practice. No trouble in finding the location - farm track to the right just after turning into the sewage works entrance and crossing the road bridge. But the actual spot turns out to be pretty short with a fence at one edge, a silver birch at the other and a rather steep drop on the third. The heavy tractor tracks at the road verge didn't really encourage leaving the car too close to the road. Still, managed to get in OK.

7' Fladen with 4# floating line and a 4' furled leader today with a 6lb knotted to 3lb copolymer tippet reaching a further 4'. So down to the Kingfisher bend and tie on a size 16 Iron Blue and thrash the water for a bit. It really is amazing how you either catch the grass/weeds/deadwood/bush etc. on the back-cast or the vegetation on the far bank on the forward. Still practice makes perfect(ish) and I was soon actually getting a fly into roughly the place I wanted. Then, joy of joys, there was a rising fish just up-stream under a willow on the far bank. A couple of OK casts and nothing - but the fish was still rising. Try a black gnat - still nothing. OK then, time to try something else. I'd recently tied something called a 'Pearly Griffiths Gnat' on a 12 hook. This is a buzzy sort of thing with a crystal flash tail and might look like something falling out of a tree. So, here we go and second cast, bingo, the fish was on. Quite a nice fish actually jumping quite spectacularly before spotting me and boring deep upstream. A couple more runs and he's ready for the net. Once again, a finely spotted creature and probably getting on for 3/4lb. Another first - maiden trout caught on my own tied fly - "proud".

Next up wiggle out of the parking spot - with a couple of heart-in-the-mouth moments as the wheels beginning to drop into the slope - and away to '4' at Gresford Lodge/Strawberry Cottage. Slightly easier to park although there is a bit of a nasty tree stump, camouflaged in a rather natty coat of ivy, which could easily spoil your day.

Down to the river and this section has a number of fast broken water runs. Nothing rising so This time I thought I'd search the pockets in the fast sections with a 'White Wulff' tied on a 14. Good fun and it resulted in another beautiful brook brownie of about 10".

Later I tried the now old and trusty flash-backed nymph pattern and didn't connect with any of the takes (at least I think that's what they were) in some of the deeper runs. Still a highly satisfactory day all-in-all with both of my objectives met and a couple of nice trout.