Warwickshire Trout - River Alne Pt.10

The weather is warming up nicely now, heck I was even in shorts and  a t-shirt last Sunday. The wellbeing boosting glowing embers wakened this weeks drudgery as well, things are looking up blog readers.

Now Thai grilled pork, or mu ping is a simple dish where the thin pieces of pork are marinated in the typical sweet and salty Thai traditional flavours. Soy sauce, fish sauce, oyster sauce, mashed coriander stalks, palm sugar, white pepper, garlic and then when cooking on the grill lathered in coconut cream. Sticky rice, and a spicy, sweet, garlicky dipping sauce to accompany it, happy days !!!

Such a tasty dish and so easy to make, give it a go if you like Thai food and BBQ'ing. Decent lumpwood is the key, none of this rubbish the supermarket has the cheek to market it as. The ever faithful Webber kettle still going strong after 10 years+, despite falling apart now like Trigger's broom. 

The main control vent underneath eventually rusted out now always open, but to be honest I've not needed to replace it yet because I rarely had it other than fully open anyway, even when slow cooking pork shoulders. The main grille has been replaced recently but they main carcass, good as when it was bought to be honest.

Anyway with no rain for a good while it was out with the shallow diving Salmo Butcher to the handy river Alne where I've been trying to bank a <3lb trout. 

I've mentioned before I've hooked two that size and lost two that size, mainly because they have taken me surprise and the hooks haven't been set correctly. 

With their kamikaze fighting style sadly as quick as they were on, they were off again. So it's no wild-goose chase this as I know the fish are there I just need some photographic proof to prove the doubters. 

Who would have thought Warwickshire would hold some nice Grayling ? but that was quickly ticked off far quicker than I thought it would !!!! Because I'm the only one of the syndicate fishing it in the coarse closed season the main mans brushcutter has been nowhere near it yet so everything in the past couple of weeks has been growing at the rate of knots. 

I could do with some snow shoes to wade through the long grass and trample down the stingers. To be fair it's only sections of it because the sheep are keeping most of it at bay, it just so happens that the best bit is the lower end where the larger fish tend to show. 

When I got to the river I didn't expect it to be as low as it was, but then with lack of rain recently not largely unexpected with a river like this. When it's as low and clear as this obviously the lure and the fish can be seen quite clearly but after a few swims without even a follow or a hit I knew what the outcome would be before the session ended.

The weir though in nine times out of ten you would catch a trout no problem but yes you guessed it this one one of those rare sessions where it was fruitless. There was nothing doing whatsoever !!!

Off because I did see a few rises too right smack bang in the middle of the oxygenated water. I assume they were trout but then there is some nice dace here so maybe it was those that were showing. I even scaled down the lure and also changed it to a more natural colour. 

So I got back in the car and headed to the top of the stretch where after about the 20th cast in this deeper area, out of nowhere a trout snatched at the lure twice in quick succession. 

I did hook-up sadly and after another similar attempt from the same small trout it never appeared again. Hmmmm and that was that, I tried a few more swims but they were just not having it at all. I didn't see any mayfly hatch on this session but maybe a dry fly is worth a go instead of the lure next time because it will be low and clear like this for a while I'd imagine.