Jackson Branch

A stream rewards stealth over tackle. The water is small, clear and shallow, and every fish has seen the bank a thousand times; approaching from downstream, staying low and keeping your shadow off the water matters more than the rig you tie. Trout and grayling sit in the deeper pockets: the plunge pool below a small fall, the outside of a bend where the current has scoured a hole, the slot beside an overhanging root. Chub hang under bushes and where a tree shades the surface. Dace, minnows and gudgeon fill the shallow riffles and are the main food for everything else. Look for foam lines on the surface — they mark the current lane that carries food and a fish is usually just beneath it.

Fly fishing was built for this water: a short rod, a dry fly or a small nymph drifted through the pockets and along the seams. Light spinning with small spinners and micro soft baits is the other natural fit, cast upstream and worked back faster than the current. Float fishing with a light pole or a short rod, a single maggot or a worm trundled through the deeper runs, takes grayling, chub and dace. Anything heavy or bulky is out of place — on a stream the fish spook long before a feeder lands.

Spring is clear and cold, and fish take small nymphs and baits deep in the pools. Late spring brings the first hatches and the dry fly comes alive; early summer is the peak, especially in the evenings. In high summer low, warm water pushes the fish into the shaded, oxygen-rich riffles and the fishing turns to first light. Autumn colours the stream, the grayling feed hard and the trout move up for spawning. Winter is low, cold and quiet.

Fish every stream upstream, casting into the pool ahead from below, because fish face into the current and cannot see you coming from behind.