The Tiny River Alne - Rattlin' Hornets and Retromorphosis

I love the little Alne, it's the closest bit of river to me and I could walk there is need be. I've been a member of this small syndicate for a few years now and only ever seen two other anglers who were there on the same day.

I've got the stretch to myself basically and I've got to know it pretty well now and unlike the BAA stretch where I know from the land owner trout have been taken from outsiders to the area, these fish go back.

It's amazing how things can change here though, the recent flood water bringing down a couple of big trees, the watercourse hindered forever you would think. The farmer though to give him credit is on top of it all so I bet before the next flood they would have gone, no doubt chopped up for firewood.

The fish too, one day you can catch chub after chub, the next it's a trout day, but then it can be combination of the two. 

I've fished for the smaller species and fish a link ledger or float, maggots can bring dace, gudgeon and small roach. The perch don't show themselves oddly but then it's not a river stuffed full of fish.

Imagine having your home taken away from under your feet after a bout of heavy rain because that's what generally happens here. The water can rise and fall at a ridiculous rate, one minute the village is cut off because the road is flooded, 24 hours later, you wouldn't know there was a flood at all.

That's always been the issue here, it's not always fishable, last season it was almost out of bounds. There was the odd window of opportunity and I tried to fish it when I could.

It offers unbeatable solitude for me as an angler and like most of my short sessions here I didn't see another soul. Traffic noise minimal, kingfishers active, deer in the field opposite leaping in plain sight, sheep with their eyes fixated to me the imposter, like train passengers with Margaret Ferrier onboard. 

Now I've been loving the lure fishing here of late. In-fact I've not used actual bait for a while here because it's a great method to use. The lures I use are not big, the floating 3.5cm Salmo Rattlin' Hornets the mainstay. There is so much debris on the bottom here that using a Ned rig for example you'd get snagged up on all manner of stuff and you'd lose lures on nearly every session.

The lure floats on the cast but then dives on the retrieve, so it's great to leave the lure float downstream to where it would be difficult to cast.

It was a tougher session than I thought to honest. There was some colour in the deeper swims and gin clear in the shallows but it took a good while to get the first fish which was a trout. The chub didn't show at all and yet the last trip here the trout didn't get a look in as the chevin were well up for a feed. Well to be fair, not many fish landed but numerous aborted hits on the lure.

I caught another 5 in the banker swim the nadger of extra water helping I'm sure because those couple of extra inches on made all the difference. 

A love these sessions, the fish are not big, but it does wonders for my wellbeing and that's all I can ask for.