Rhenass River - Druidale
Inspired by images of the upland pictures of the syndicate waters I felt fired up to tackle one of our mountain streams. This one flows into Sulby reservoir through Druidale. I've had my eye on it for a while but never actually fished it. I'd no idea if there were any fish to be had and if there were I was expecting 5 inch specimens at best. How wrong could I be!
There was more peat stained water than I expected and some of the pools were several feet deep! So after a quick look and spotting a shadow dive for cover under the bank I though, "Okay, there are at least some fish to be had." I tackled up my 360cm 6:4 ESO and proceeded to cast up steam into quick a stiff headwind. That wasn't working. Trying to hit the water between the gorse bushes was a challenge when the line is coming back at you. Swapping to fish downstream and I had no problem with the casting but I felt too close to these ultra spooky fish.
No trees to worry about up here.
So I swapped to my longer 410cm 6:4 ESO. Huge difference. I still couldn't cast upstream but I could get far enough away not to spook the fish I was trying to catch. Set up with a 3.5# Yamatoyo leader slightly shorter than the rod with a 3 foot 7x JMC Helium tippet I proceeded to flick tiny black gnats and red butt gnats into the runs and pools. The reward was fish appearing from under the banks to fight for the fly!
Not just little fellas but some larger fish in the 8 inch bracket as well. They were all lean hard fighting upland fish. Certainly not fat but streamlined and from the looks of some of their fins used to a hard life. This chap took an elk hair caddis skittered with short pulls of the tip across a pool.
The water was surprisingly varied with tight corners, long runs and small pools.
Everywhere you'd expect to find a fish there was! Behind a rock, under a bit of gorse or on the edge of the flow going into a pool. Not big fish but very beautiful. What was surprising was the numbers and the abundance of the larger fish.
Here is a bit of water I will most certainly be returning to when I can fish upstream without the wind and be even more precise with the casting. A fantastic days fishing. So pleased I decided to give this section of river a chance.
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