All Creatures Great and Small

Today having the afternoon off I decided to reckie a small trib of the Erewash called the Golden Brook. I followed a lovely little stream, well where I could get access, mind you I did a little fence hopping and garden creeping as well. Assisted by 1 or 2 locals I found some lovely spots with some small truly wild browns (90% sure) darting for cover, all very small and disappearing quicker than a speeding bullet. I fancy my chances of a picture but with neither my camera or a net to sweep the clumps of weed they used for cover, I had little chance. To be continued.............

After getting my juices flowing I decided to have a crack at the Erewash for a few hours at a location where I've been noticing rising fish in a totally unfished location shown below. With no access across the bridge (shown below) and the river running next to factories on one side, with an empty field on the other, only dog walkers catch a glimpse here and there. Today being overcast and a little cold there was little insect life around so there wasn't any movement on the water but what the hell I was here now.

Wading is dodgy through this stretch with industrial waste, metal fences, motorbikes, shopping trolley's, breeze blocks etc so slowly placing your feet was the order of the day. I did manage a few takes on a small olive but couldn't connect, probably due to my inadequacies but I suppose at least I gave the fish a laugh. I noticed the odd olive float by and scooped the one below to have a butchers, this was probably the reason for the odd rise in the distance but I wasn't going to benefit any how and went for a walk further upstream. No fish to show for my efforts but not for the want of trying I can tell you.

Arriving at a more rural section there was a few small fish rising around the riffle shown below, things were deadly quiet apart from a Heron who'd kept just in front of me for some distance, moving like a tenner blowing in the wind everytime I got close. I may have been in the wilderness, quickly forgetting I was fishing an urban river with towns on either side, today was a real challenge for a change and preventing a blank was gonna be tuff.

After sneaking about and frantically casting at some small rises for some time, I became totally frustrated but still determined to catch something. I tried many tiny flies to induce a solid take but floating on the fringe of the riffle was a problems for the flies I had chosen and I'd began talking to myself out loud (mental). Sod it! on with a small Klinkhammer ginked up to the max. I began getting some interest and eventually hooked into this little beauty below which was harder to catch than anything I can remember, laughable it may seem but I was totally overjoyed at not blanking. This minnow was one of my greatest achievements to date and truly appreciated no matter how small he was, today I had been tested and walking home I realised I'd had an excellent warm up for my switch back to some much easier river fishing.