A change of fly was in order - this new fly, being a lot smaller & lot lighter, was a comparitive dream to cast but, that was by the by, the main reason in the switch was to use a less fussy lure where there'd be more chance of the Pike taking the hook than it's teeth setting into the fur n feather... 
Started punching this big Perchy looking fly out into the tail of the pool, which feels a bit like casting a bath sponge on string when you're more used to chucking out small dries. A few casts later as I was watching the lures action as it neared the bank a decent Pike shot out of the murk and hit the fly, the rod bent double & I was into a fight but, just as I had it beat & was reaching for the net the fish just seemed to open its mouth & let go of the lure. The same thing happened on two more occasions, I think this may be due to the fish grabbing the streamer material and the hook not setting properly - before my next trip I need to look at modifying these flies.
This has spurred me on to get out again in the next few days & tackle them with my heavy fly set up...
We spent the day searching the likely looking riffles & pools with heavy nymphs to no avail, I tried to convince myself that our lack of success was due to another angler who had been wading the same stretch prior to us. It was encouraging to see a small hatch of olives mid afternoon but, they failed to bring any of the Grayling to the surface & reveal their whereabouts to us.
The lack of Trout action over the closed season has sent me out in search of Pike. 
Be warned though - when you say to your wife/friends/family that your popping out for a spot of Piking, it does have a different dodgy connotation: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=piking
Mongolia, a country three times the size of France - the only map Stamfords had was half the size of an O.S!
The majestic Chuluut Gol snaking through the steppe
Bending one in
Lenok Lewis!
What a lovely pelt!
...and even better to see her swim off again
The strange thing about this monster was that I took it out of a foot deep riffle and upon it sensing that the fly it had ate put up some resistance it swam upstream and towards a hole in the bank and attempted to just sit there and hide... & only when it knew it was 'hooked' did it take off.
Check out the vein in Toms forehead!!!! this beaut only shows itself when he's well excited!
but I managed a few on a little flying ant.
As dusk approached I tied on a Elk Hair Caddis & got this beaut out of a riffle barely deep enough to cover it's back.
Followed Wainwright's Central Fells guide book to walk from Grasmere up Silver How & then along the ridge dividing Langdale & Easedale to Stickle Tarn where I encountered the resident Stickleback sized brownies, from there I tracked back to decend between Blea Rigg & Great Castle How to fish Easdale Tarn. Easedale Tarn wasn't as Bleak as Stickle, partly because the sun had come out, but it does also have more features. I started by fishing the alluvial fan at the south eastern side where there's a nice drop off a few yards out. Standing well back & casting over the rocks so that just the leader hit the water I was rewarded with a nice fish first cast. From Easedale the walk back is about 40mins down Sourmilk Gill & Easdale Beck back into grasmere.
Had a great session before dinner using a little Elk Hair Caddis to tempt the rising trout, I also had the bonus of seeing a pair of Kingfishers & some huge Dragonflies.
The break in the weather lasted the rest of the day & we managed to fish till gone 9pm before setting off back down.
Angle Tarn with St Sunday Crags shrouded in clouds.
Caddis were the order of the day
Got to the river early the other evening & as it was still bright and warm there wasn't much happening on the surface, so I decided to put a huge weighted streamer through some of the deeper glides until the flies started hatching. Casting this thing on a #5 line was tricky enough without having to negotiate the overhanging trees on the far bank, but I managed to plop it down amonst them and had a solid take after searching the pool for a few minutes. This fish felt different to the trout I was expecting and certainly didn't feel like the huge fish P.A. could see from his position on the bank above me, only when I managed to get its head up and saw the gaping mouth did I realise that I had a chub on! A first for the river & a first for the fly, I didn't realise they were this far upstream.
Tom rang shortly after so I bobbed down to the pub to meet up, after showing him the picture of this fish we bolted our pints and headed off for what would hopefully be a top evening of sport. Decided on wading a fairly new stretch(approx 1/4 mile) slowly making our way upstream with dries putting them on all the spots we could see trout holding. We had some great action, hooking into fish all the way along the length - the brownie pictured below being the best of the bunch.
After grabbing some dinner (raided the folks kitchen as no one was home) we headed further upstream to see if we could spot any big trout lurking. Wandering up through the fields I came across my old friend PA who I first started fly fishing with on the river some 15 years ago, after a good chat about all the trout holding places we know, it seems we've been catching the same fish this season! - what a great argument for catch & release.
There was one spot a good walk upriver where PA told me he'd been snapped by a good fish a few nights back, by this time it had started to get dark so on reaching the pool I tied on a comparadun which I could just about see with its white hackle in the dusk. I located a fish a few inches from the far bank undergrowth where it was just sipping off the surface & after sticking the fly in the foliage a couple times I got a nice drift past its nose & hooked into a steamtrain of a fish (pic below).
Walking back through the fields I came across a frantic Tom hooked into another good fish, as he was about 6ft above the water & stuck between two bushes it was a good job we turned up to help get a net on it. 
Wandering upstream we came across a good fish just sat in the current sipping flies off the surface, I approached this one & creeping up the bank managed to put my fly a couple of foot in front of it's nose... sure enough the fish took the fly and I was connected to a big brownie. The trout jumped a couple of times revealing huge buttery coloured flanks before tearing off down stream & snapping my tippet.
Went up to the river after work yesterday & thankfully remembered the gink this time so I didn't have to keep changing the bloody fly every fish. There were huge swarms of midges about so I stuck on a black gnat with big CDC wings that were really visible through the riffles. It didn't take long for the fish to have a go.
The two trout pictured were taken from the same stretch, are roughly the same size but, are a totally different colour - not sure why?I had a couple more nice fish walking upstream to a point where the river is culverted between high stone walls making it difficult to cast down without spooking them but, I could see fish rising... well, temptation got the better of me, so waderless I ploughed in upsteam in my jeans to get a cast at the leviathan (pictured below).
With the cracking weather were having for April, decided to have a bash at one of the Lake District Tarns on Saturday, so after agreeing pre-beers on Friday that we'd set off 1st thing, we finally left Manchester at lunch. The journey up was jam free & we were in the pub a couple of hours later having a swift one prior to the stomp up the fells.
Upon reaching the Tarn we were encouraged by a few fish rising & closer inspection revealed a hatch of Olives taking place, so we ginked up a couple of Humpy's & cast to the rising trout, the buoyant flies were sitting up perfectly in the ripple.
These tarn brownies have adapted to the dark peaty water to become a beautiful olive colour. As we were Ferrel camping that night we decided to keep a couple of the better fish for the pan, the plan was to stay until dark for the evening rise then walk down to the lake to camp but, as we'd left our torches in Manchester and a strong wind had started blowing, we changed plan & headed down before dark set in.
