River Kent

I have not been fishing the Kent for a few weeks now so I decided that I needed a day on the river as I have been working long hours recently. I set off at 9am this morning in glorious sunshine and arrived at my chosen area about 15 minutes later (I was walking). The river is only a 5 minute walk to the section that is free to fish, but I decided that I would fish further upstream, where I was reliably informed that the fish were rising freely, and that the Salmon & Sea Trout were running to the spawning beds.

I got tackled up and was fishing by 9.30am. The sun was shining and the trout were rising freely to the fly life. I could not make out what they were feeding on, so I tried my hopper to begin with. There was a little interest but no takes. After about 15 minutes I changed to a small caddis that I had tied up over the winter. I immediately got a take. As I was about to net the fish it got off. I put this down to using barbless hooks and not ensuring I had lifted into the fish enough for the hook to hold.

I continued fishing the caddis pattern and had many more takes but nothing landed. There were a few Sea Trout moving through on the way upstream and giving the occasional jump to let me know that I was not going to get them.

This was still a great day just to be on the river again.