Litton Beat, River Lugg

Again, catching up with a brief report of some fishing I did last year on 13 July 2013, this time on the Litton beat of the River Lugg. In what was a busy period with a bit of transition in my life I had completely forgotten about this trip until I stumbled across the photos recently. My notes show I had started to write about it in July last year and got as far as the paragraph below.  

"The British summer normally disappoints, but not this year! We are currently in the midst of a "heatwave" with temperatures in the high 20s/low 30s centigrade. Rain hasn't been seen for weeks, but after last year's washout of a summer, I'm not complaining. Laszlo and I decided to head out last Saturday to fish the Litton beat of the River Lugg with reports that it would be the hottest day of the year to date. The Litton beat is just over the English border with Wales, where the street signs and road markings change to dual language to signify the crossing of the boundary. It was for us a happy return to the Lugg, the venue of our first fishing sojourn together a couple of miles upstream at Pilleth. That had also been our first visit to the Wye and Usk Foundation's streams, just over 2 years ago."

That's as far as I got. It did transpire to be a very hot and bright day in the 30s but the water was shaded and refreshingly cool. The river level was obviously very low, the trout extremely skittish and the vegetation very green and dense. In some places the low water was evident by tree roots left high and dry and sun bleached river stones. I recall swathes of stinging nettles much taller than me lining the banks in places which made for interesting access to the river. The trout were had in the deepest of the pools, all on nymphs. It wasn't the easiest of fishing or the most exciting but it called for an abundance of stealth and some effort given the bank side growth and barb wire fencing. I recall catching about 6 or 7 little trout including my first trout on a self-tied fly, a bit of a milestone in itself. Laszlo provided the lunch, simple fare customary in his homeland of Hungary – pork meat, bread and tomatoes - duly washed down with a river chilled beer. Here are a few photos from the day.

It was a glorious summer last year, followed by one of the wettest winters on record in the UK. Going by the measure of fishing seasons, seasonal weather extremities do seem to be becoming the norm.  That's the last of my catch up reports from last year.