Home Waters...

A pre-night shift fishing session beckoned, and I fancied fishing a little closer to home, rather than driving across town to the Don. Within half a mile of my house is the Sheaf, which is home to many small brown trout. Millhouses park was busy, with school holidays and kids everywhere enjoying the park, so I wandered to my hidden gem of a stretch - the ultimate in small stream technical trouting!
Prepare to do battle with the undergrowth - my flies spent more time in the trees that the water.
I started near the bottom of the "tescos" beat, and worked my way upstream.

I started on a duo setup, fishing a small goldhead PTN underneath a Para-Adams. This accounted for my first trout, a tiny specimen taken in about 6 inches of water!

Not even a handful!

I then fished up to the first pool, which there were fish rising in.

If you enlarge the above photo by clicking on it, then clicking on it again, you'll see a rise just right of centre.
Still using a duo rig, I had a few casts. I had a take on the para-Adams, but didn't connect to the fish. A bit more inexpert casting and the fish were not playing any more. These small stream trout are super wary - every cast has to count. I changed to a F-fly, but by now the fish were hidden away.

I moved on, and fished up to the next big pool (with the "interesting" mud feature).

The big pool, covered with falling blossom

There was nothing at all rising here, so a few tentative cast covering likely lies with a klinkhammer with a hares ear nymph underneath produced very little, until I fished the inflow of the pool. Here I had a trout dart up from the bottom, and have a go at the klinkhammer - however, it was gone before I even had chance to strike.

Next section is the walled river which is tight and shallow - I had not previously fished this, having been drawn to the pools before. I used a Klink and hares ear nymph, casting to rises that were happening in every little glide and run.

Looking back down the walled section

I was soon into another fish, again taking the nymph.

I fished on a little further, enjoying the challenge of tight technical casting to super wary fish. Waders are pretty much essential here, but mainly to protect your knees when kneeling to keep a low profile, and get low to the water to side-cast effectively.

A couple of hours spent on a sunny morning, fishing for wild brown trout for free half a mile from my doorstep - can't complain about that!

Casting round trees - an essential skill!

Before leaving I had a look at the next section of stream, which I haven't yet fished. There looks to be a couple of likely looking runs.......

On another note, I must try and organise a day on the Wye - I have not yet fished the Wye, and keep meaning to book a day on the Peacock stretch. It's only 20 minutes drive away so I really should make the effort!