Retail Therapy on a Urban stream

I was in the mood for one of the local rivers that are fishing reasonably well just now, but last nights heavy rain put them up and coloured them so I decided to have a few hours on a tiny wee overgrown stream that runs into my local river. I love little burns , they require their very own skill set to be successful on them.

I tackled up at the confluence with the main river after the odd strange looks by  passing motorists, who either    don't share my passion  of fishing these streams most probably wouldn't believe trout exist there or perhaps  on there way to a local stocked fishery for their fix . I then went about fishing with a short 8 ft leader with a dry and nymph combo. The water was clear but running a little heavier than I would have liked, and water I was fishing was really unproductive, couldn't quite work out whether it was too early yet, or their had been a pollution incident, or was i too clumsy,  I had almost resigned myself for a blank when in a non-descript run I hooked my first little fish.

I was happy to see a fish after all my misplaced  suspicions. The next pool up I hooked the undergrowth and ruined my chances, but in the next again I took a brace,  the first a typically small trout similar to the first and the next again though  a little bit of a monster for the wee burn , which bent my 2 wt double , he was a heavily speckled trout.

Further up the flow becomes less as it loses a tiny tributary. Above that found me fishing in a retail park , between Lidl and Homebase  .

 Where i startled this colourful grey wagtail who obviously took advantage of the insect life the burn .

 

Looking at their colourful plumage you would expect them to be called yellow wagtails, thier colouration reminds me of the north country spider  the waterhen bloa . Continuing up past the retail park i had to go under the railway via a tunnel , gave me the creeps when you cant see what your wading over , through the tunnel i came to my banker pool , where another two trout fell to the charms of the brown wire nymph. After that i had a short walk over the rugby field to my home.