SPOTTING TROUT - PART 7

In this series of three different settings I will start with a sighting from a cliff path walking back after a day’s fishing. I often see fish on the walk out on this stream, sometimes – well, mostly actually – fish we missed fishing up through the runs! These walks out offer wonderful insights, aided, of course, by the advantage looking down from a height gives you. Study the pool carefully and then move through the next few pictures. You will definitely spot the fish in the last picture, but if you don’t, I will circle it and add it at the end of the article.Note that the only reason you see this fish in the last two slides is because it changes its position. That's why taking your time is so important.

The next run is a shallow, quick water run where you would expect trout to be. Have a careful look at this run, decide where the best – the only - water is for a fish to hold in, what decide what you think might be a trout. Again I will give you the answer at the end of the article. Be careful, though, there’s a slight barb here, though just a whisker barb!

This last sighting illustrates some of the most difficult water there is to find trout in, those runs in dappled light, the sort of late afternoon conditions we get when the sun is coming in low and at an angle. The easiest sightings are always when the sun is at its peak and coming at 90 degrees to you, for the simple reason that’s when your polarisers work best. A practical tip in dappled light is to always look at a run with your dark glasses on and then again with them off. Polarisers rob a lot of light and if the fish is in shadow it can become more difficult to see through polarised lenses.

(The trout in this slide is illustrated at the end of the article)

Right here are the answers!

Two fish not one!