I had to take a business trip south of Stamford today, lunch meeting actually. Whilst packing in my briefcase and work accessories into the car, I thought that it might be provident for me to include my 7 foot flyrod, reel and some flies; after all, "LB" is on the way back, and should still be teeming with those large trout! My waders were still in the car from last Monday’s effort on the Laver.

Having finished the meeting, I set off to LB and parked up on the other side of the bridge. Equipped with rod, reel, flybox and a Rabbit Nymph attached to the leader, I peered over the bridge to see if there were any fish in sight. Yes indeed, and a nice looking fish. In fact several; they stuck out like sore thumbs, and I decided that if they maintained such a high profile beside this bridge, they’d soon all be wormed out. Mmm, I thought, I’d better try to thin them out a little.

I made my way carefully into the water just downstream of the tail of the bridge pool, and surveyed the crystal clear water for suitable trout to try to cast to. I saw several moving around, and one rose , clearly indicating that they were on the fin, and therefore feeding.

I cast my fly to the nearest fish, and prompted him to follow my fly. The fish retracted at the last moment, and I made for a few more casts. Quite a few more actually, the trout were not amused with my Rabbit Nymph, and fairly soon they would all be huddled besides rocks and seeking other shelter. I had put them down, and there was no hope of me catching one here for a while at least.

I decided to look at the next pool / hole downstream, and here I spied about 4 fish in the one to one and a half pound range. Alas, they also spied me, and all made for cover wherever they could. I was forced to trek it down to the pool below the railway bridge, after wandering down the tunnel. Upon reaching this pool, I could only really cast downstream for fear of scaring the fish by moving downstream of them to cast. I decided to fish out the headwater of the pool first, and then carefully move closer along the left bank (looking downstream) in order to cast at the fish I had just gleefully noticed rising in the stiller water.

I placed a size 16 PT nymph on the leader, and greased the back three quarters. Since I would be crouching very low to the water, I would not be able to see anything under the water’s surface. I had to use the floating leader to know when to strike. The fish of my attention rose very gently to the right handside of the pool, as I was looking at it. Presently, I cast the nymph to within a foot of where I expected the fish to be. The nymph was a small one and did not splash at all. Two seconds later, my cast was whisked under and I diligently lifted my rod. A fine fish of about 3/4ers of a pound (11 inches) was carefully brought to bay in the shallow side water.

I decided to move back up to the waters beneath the bridge. I ignored the small hole, yet there were 4 large fish there. Next time I will endeavour to catch one of these beauties, however this time, I was preoccupied with getting a trout from the bridge pool itself. I was sure that the Pheasant Tail would be the answer to these fish in the bridge pool.

As I neared the pool, I spied the fish back into their positions, and tails wagging. I sensed that there would be some fine action coming soon, and sent my nymph out to do its work. As the nymph settled down through the waters amongst the two or three fish at the back half of the pool, a trout casually beat its tail twice to secure his snack. After the mouth closed, I lifted my rod and steered the fish away down into the tail of the pool, and beached the 11 inch trout before the priest. I had done a good job with this fish, as the other trout had seemingly not noticed a thing.

The next cast sought to place the nymph a foot or so upstream of the larger trout lying underneath the overhanging branches. With the nymph sinking down, coming close to the trout, I saw the fish move slightly to its left and open and close his mouth. This was signaled by my lifting arm, and bowed over rod. I had a good hook hold alright, and the fish fought and leapt extremely well. The fish made off very fast towards the weir, and took 20 feet of line off my reel. However, the gallant trout was no match for my 7 footer, and before long, he too would be beached in the shingle. This trout was 14 inches long, and weighed 1 lb 5oz; my biggest wild trout of the season so far.

After landing this nice fish, I decided to leave the fish in peace, as this Pheasant Tail nymph was annihilating them. I think that I could have emptied that pool of fish with just one nymph, and in a couple of hours. They really were totally convinced that the little nymph was real indeed, certainly much better than the Rabbit Nymph. I’ll not be fishing the PT in this pool much more, although maybe releasing the fish, or taking the odd one, otherwise it doesn’t seem sporting, and I may as well net the poor things out. However, the 3 that I took out today will be replaced very quickly, and I doubt if I would take any more this season, except for those in that tricky hole below the bridge pool. Those would be top of my agenda next time I care to fish this stretch.