Letort Spring Run

The river

The Letort rises from a limestone spring near Carlisle and runs 26 km through farmland, and for about 10 km of that it is a wild brown trout fishery of extraordinary difficulty. The water is 60 cm deep, weedy, and clear enough to read a newspaper through. Charlie Fox and Vince Marinaro fished here and invented half of modern terrestrial fly fishing doing it; the fish themselves are as spooky today as anything you will find anywhere.

On this river

Fishing to one visible fish

On the Letort the correct unit of fishing is one fish, sometimes for an hour. Find a brown holding in a weed lane, get 20 cm of elevation so you can see it, and make a single cast every five minutes. If you cannot see the fish take, you will not know it happened — the rise form on this creek is a 3 mm dimple.

Terrestrials as the primary plan

This creek has more ants, beetles and crickets than mayflies, and the fish key on them from June onward. Fish a floating beetle or ant with a dead-drift, then let it sit at the end of the drift for a full ten seconds before lifting — most takes come after the fly has stopped.

Why short casts win

The Letort is 10 metres wide in most places and the fish live within 3 metres of the bank. A 6-metre cast made from a crouch beats a 15-metre cast made standing up, every time. The skill being tested here is not casting distance but the ability to move quietly along a bank without sending a pressure wave down a 60 cm deep channel.