River Wensum, Norfolk
I went to Norfolk this month to fish a chalkstream. It was my first foray to the chalkstreams of East Anglia. 18 June In the theme of this season the river was bursting at the seams with water which was of the aged brandy persuasion, rather than gin or somewhere approaching a single malt whisky. I fished flat out from 10 am to 6 pm. I saw only two trout and both were in places where casting was heavily restricted. One darted away when a roll cast fell short. I lost half a dozen flies trying for the other. There was a smattering of hatching mayfly which were ignored by the trout but mobbed by dragonflies. It was a slow flowing, reedy, dragonfly inhabiting sort of river. There was notably little other hatching insect life. No olives or sedges and nothing of the terrestrial sort in the air either. I saw a single rise beneath low hanging, leafy willow fronds. Another impossible to reach trout. The river was under a slumber spell. When I did use a dry fly it was attacked by fingerling siz