I Had an invite to fish the upper Don today on a beat I've never fished before which I eagerly accepted. I had had a few days on the lower Don this week and had caught a few trout up to 1 Lbs but had seen no salmon or sea trout about.
A couple of the trout from the lower Don.
I met up with John and we headed up to our beat. The conditions were good, overcast but breezy at times, so we were both looking forward to getting started. After a quick look at the bottom of the beat we headed up to the top to start. I decided a single handed rod and SLX line was the order of the day due to the river being quite small up there.
We fished through the first pool, I had a brief encounter with a trout which didn't stick and John saw a salmon jump above him which gave us hope. Further down I connected with a nice trout of 1 Lbs.
First trout
Nothing else was caught except a few 6" trout so we headed down to the middle of the beat and after a quick bite we started again. No sooner had I started I was into another small trout which was quickly released after a photo.
Second trout
Continuing on down a few more small trout were caught but nothing big. Both John and myself fished through one pool without success but john had had a trout have a go at his fly so he suggested I have another run through. Just as I was getting to the spot where he had had the bite my line went tight and I initially thought I was into a good trout. A few seconds later all hell broke loose and I knew this was no trout. The fish ran up and down the small pool and after what seemed like an age on the SH rod, I managed to beach a fairly fresh fish of 11 1/5 Lbs. A quick photo, measurements and couple of scales were taken then the fish was released to continue its journey.
My fish
Pool where caught.
John fishing down same pool
We finished down at the bottom of the beat where John caught another small trout then called it a day and headed home happy. I finally broke my duck for this year.
