Wednesday 29 August 2012

Pilgrimage

A trip to Dartmoor and it's myriad network of sublime streams I feel is set to become an annual pilgrimage for me, my own piece of Nirvana revitalizing the soul. Even the deluge which ensued over the two and a half days there did nothing to detract from the areas captivating beauty.
Langstone Manor Campsite was as welcoming as always and it was great to catch up with the staff and hear about and see all the improvements to the site made over the winter months. Saturday saw torrential downpours which scuppered fishing plans, however a walk to the atmospheric Wistman's Wood was a great albeit very wet outing.


Sunday dawned bright and partly cloudy resulting in a hasty move to Bellever Forest and the East Dart via Princetown for a permit.


Unsurprisingly the Dart was flowing strongly in comparison to this time last year, thigh deep waters in places where only ankles were covered. Clear waters flowed however, tainted with a brown hue caused by wash off from the surrounding moorland. The tell tale sign of a fish rising assuaged fears that the rain and high waters had put paid to any dry fly action. To my surprise a hatch of small olive upwings kicked off - on went a #20 olive paradun and several small browns came to hand.




A solid four hours of fishing ensued before the weather once more closed in. Twenty minutes saw me at the car and heading back toward the campsite during which time the weather lifted. Driving past the Upper Cherrybrook at 14h30 was too much to bear - waders back on and a fly tied onto the line followed by a few more precious hours on a Dartmoor classic.


All good things must come to an end as the saying goes and the move back to the campsite was made, avoiding any other potential fishing distractions - not without one final stop however - there's only one way to finish off a day like today :




Tuesday 21 August 2012

A few from the weekend

Another outing resulting in more surprises - I love this stream ...









 Bank Holiday weekend coming up - destination ... Dartmoor.

Thursday 16 August 2012

And Further Downstream...

In true adventurous spirit and break in the weather, exploration continued this last weekend further downstream the stretch of water recently discovered (see earlier post 01 July 2012 "Something Old, Something New") - and it just keeps on getting better.









And there's still more to come - watch this space ...