Back at the hotel I bemoaned our predicament to our host Nigel and told him we were planning to head downstream to Lazonby where apparently, the water levels would be better.

 

After much whining from me and a good deal of deliberation from him, he eventually offered something. “I know a very special place that you can try, if it’s available” This was just what I’d been waiting to hear!

 

A few frantic phone calls and a speculative drive later, we were following the river keepers down a dirt track through dense woodland to a private Salmon beat on the middle reaches of the river Eden.
Luckily for us, the Salmon angler who’d booked todays rod had decided not to bother so we were allowed to fish the beat instead.

 

This really was a little piece of heaven. Wild deer, A Peregrine Falcon, evidence of Otters and Mink and plenty of pristine Wild Eden Trout all set against a stunning backdrop of a sandstone gorge.

 

After a couple of hours of frustration and several fly changes, we eventually solved the puzzle of what was causing the occasional feeding frenzy. Midges! My size 18 and 20 imitations were being snatched off the surface with such ferocity, that I lost 2 very good fish that simply took the fly and a couple of inches of 2lb tippet with them. These same fish had earlier ignored the much meatier Olives and Sedges that were in the air and that I’d tied to my line. Fish, eh?