water #4
You may be wondering what all these pictures of water are about. The answer is Willie's Hole. I was invited for a day's fishing a few days ago, and decided to go, despite a backlog of work which had piled up during last week's spyware wars. The forecast was for cloud and drizzle, which would have been good for salmon fishing, but when we arrived at the river the clouds evaporated and the midsummer sun began to beat down. We decided to head downriver to a spot marked on the fishing map as 'Willie's Hole', which the weasely little man who sold us the permits assured us was the best place to fish. Well, we'd already fished some of this stretch of river last year, and searched in vain for Willie's Hole, but undeterred we headed off downstream once more. It was a long hike following a rough path along the riverbank, then skirting round a seemingly endless field of barley, now and again returning to the river to check for Willie's elusive Hole (the map was practically useless), but we eventually got there.
To my relief it did indeed look like a good fishing spot, with the river falling several feet into a deep pool of churning water before gliding off through long flat pools separated by smaller weirs towards a sharp bend where an impressive sandstone cliff face rose vertically above the river. However, by now conditions were so bright that it was hardly worth fishing, so I amused myself by collecting odd shaped stones - as you do - and occasionally casting a hopeful fly into Willie's Hole. By late afternoon the sun was low enough in the sky to start fishing in earnest. I walked down towards the cliff face and tried a pool below one of the weirs. No fish were interested - or perhaps none were there - but I did notice a beautifully curved spout of water where the river slipped over the rim of the weir. Unfortunately I'd left my camera a fair distance behind, but later on I decided to try to wade back across to where I'd seen this incredible natural sculpture. It was too deep to reach it so I had to turn back, but I decided to take some photographs anyway. The contrast between the flow of the water above and below the weir, along with the unusual late evening light which made the smooth water seem like oil, was extraordinary.
You may be wondering what all these pictures of water are about. The answer is Willie's Hole. I was invited for a day's fishing a few days ago, and decided to go, despite a backlog of work which had piled up during last week's spyware wars. The forecast was for cloud and drizzle, which would have been good for salmon fishing, but when we arrived at the river the clouds evaporated and the midsummer sun began to beat down. We decided to head downriver to a spot marked on the fishing map as 'Willie's Hole', which the weasely little man who sold us the permits assured us was the best place to fish. Well, we'd already fished some of this stretch of river last year, and searched in vain for Willie's Hole, but undeterred we headed off downstream once more. It was a long hike following a rough path along the riverbank, then skirting round a seemingly endless field of barley, now and again returning to the river to check for Willie's elusive Hole (the map was practically useless), but we eventually got there.
To my relief it did indeed look like a good fishing spot, with the river falling several feet into a deep pool of churning water before gliding off through long flat pools separated by smaller weirs towards a sharp bend where an impressive sandstone cliff face rose vertically above the river. However, by now conditions were so bright that it was hardly worth fishing, so I amused myself by collecting odd shaped stones - as you do - and occasionally casting a hopeful fly into Willie's Hole. By late afternoon the sun was low enough in the sky to start fishing in earnest. I walked down towards the cliff face and tried a pool below one of the weirs. No fish were interested - or perhaps none were there - but I did notice a beautifully curved spout of water where the river slipped over the rim of the weir. Unfortunately I'd left my camera a fair distance behind, but later on I decided to try to wade back across to where I'd seen this incredible natural sculpture. It was too deep to reach it so I had to turn back, but I decided to take some photographs anyway. The contrast between the flow of the water above and below the weir, along with the unusual late evening light which made the smooth water seem like oil, was extraordinary.
posted by alan at 24.6.05
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