Frequent rain turns Coquet and other rivers the colour of chocolate, making fishing tricky

Consequently all the local rivers were running very high and coloured like chocolate.

I had a friend staying in the Coquet valley from Lincolnshire. He comes to visit every year and enjoys fishing the river.

Unfortunately, with the river in the condition it was in, he had to fish the still waters. Visits to Sweethope and Thrunton helped to pass the time in between the showers.

The Coquet was dropping on Friday and by Saturday it was reasonable and the colour was clearing. It was like cold tea and ideal for salmon and sea trout fishing.

I fished on Sunday and managed to get four wild brown trout to my net. The trout were not that big, but they were chunky, probably putting weight on with all the insects on the water.

The wild fish don’t just look great with their red spots, but they fight hard, using the current and jumping high from the water.

My successful flies were all size 14 wet flies. I used a black spider, a black Pennell, and a winged gold ribbed hare’s ear.

On the still waters with my friend, I netted five trout. All the trout were tempted by dry flies.

I used a CDC Yellow Owl pattern, a top hat buzzer, an F Fly and a Suspender buzzer with a black body and a thin green rib.

One fish, around the four-pound mark, really made my Hardy Perfect reel sing as it peeled the fly line from the reel and into the backing line.