Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Fun On The Clun

I took my first ever trip to the River Clun in Shropshire on Tuesday afternoon as a guest, this particular stretch is very secluded and seemingly miles from anywhere.



We approached the river quietly where we were immediately greeted by many trout breaking the surface to feed. I started on the dry fly and put on quite a large sized klinkhamer (#14 Partridge 15BNX extreme hook) as many of the flies coming off were Mayflies & Large Olives. This brought instant results taking and losing both Trout and Grayling from the off.



To say it was 'challenging' fishing would be somewhat an understatement, the River Clun is like an assault course in places with fallen trees, deep pools, steep banks and casting is mostly in the form of a roll cast (many times crawling on your knees) but in some ways that all adds to the fun and trying to catch a wary Trout in these conditions is a real thrill.



We ended the day well past 10.00pm with a tally of 50+ fish between us both, mostly Trout but with a good percentage of Grayling, caught on both dry and nymphs.



The food supply on this river is plentiful and the fish are very plump and fit as a result and eager to put up a good scrap.
My next visit to this river cannot come soon enough.