Kentmere 24th June

The forecast was for heavy rain at 4am this morning followed by light showers until about 10am. Then overcast with some sunny spells. I therefore decided to wait until the kids had gone to school before heading to what is becoming my favourite destination – Kentmere – I set off at about 9am there had been no rain at all but the skies were overcast with the odd break letting the sun through. I got tackled up and started fishing with the Balloon Cadis pattern that I got from Hillend Dabbler. There was a flat calm with just the odd rise here and there. I got a bit of interest in this fly from the few rises that were there, but no fish landed. I moved round to the south edge of East Bay where it is a bit more sheltered and continued for another ½ hour with the Balloon Caddis with no success. I changed the fly to my Old Faithful hopper with Green tinsel Rib, just as a slight breeze put a gentle ripple on the water, and had success of sorts straight away. 1st cast with this fly and I had a very splashy take, which I unfortunately was a fraction late with on the strike. I put out another and again another take this time more subtle that the first, but again to late on the strike. I cast out for a third time and this time the take was as subtle as the 2nd one but I managed to lift into it and the fish was hooked and landed after about a 5-minute fight. I continued with the hopper with many more takes but no more fish were landed.