River dove Ellastone (Losing out to a proper clunker)

If people wonder why i get out fishing so much, well this is down to being self employed and a rather easy going mrs, i could go and work my heart out and work every hour under the sun, but i am am not made up like that, as long as i have enough money to pay for my family and fishing i am happy, 'its a long time dead'
Well the fishing...
Decided to go to my favorite Ellastone which i have not given much time to as recently joining LADDFA, this river has been very good to me and has my best fishing memories that i will never forget, i had great sessions last year landing 2lb rainbows and my never to forget first 9lb 14oz Salmon.
Arrived around 1 oclock and waded in a the bridge section, Fly life was very quite and the odd rise here and there, the wading is quite deep here but i deceided to try and wade the whole strech which i have never done, I am 6ft and the water was coing about a 12 inches off the top of my waders which is about as far as i dare to go, i know i am out of my depth when you start to bob! which is not a nice feeling..Wading takes some learning and a good knowledge of the river is a must, Kev Harrision off the forum is the best wader i have seen, he knows every rock and deep hole through his rivers..
I started with the trusty adams which did not get me any rises but the fish were down and not showing much interest, the weather was cloudy and a touch nippy but the sun came out which started a lovely hatch of those Mays, rises started with trout taking emergering mayfly then onto full blown slashy rises, i started to take fish all the way up, most fish around getting on for a pound, i have started to hammer into the fish and land them as quick as possible due to having to revive some of my trout, but this is causing me to lose more fish as they are thrashing around when i get them towards the hand..
Having waded half way up the strech i was fishing spots i have never fished before due to staying in the river, there is a lovely deep hole with a overhanging tree just up from the water pipe, this must not get fished much and i took a cracking brownie of around a pound and half, I have never seen a bad looking fish at Ellastone and all were fin perfect, i had taken lots of fish so calmed down to see if i could cast to bigger fish, the fishing was getting too easy and this somewhat can spoil it for me, i have seen so many fly anglers out on may fly who never fish at any other time which i find quite wrong, each to ther own but my 4 year old girl could catch around Mayfly,
Around March i have seen a hole that holds a very large trout which never even looked at my fly, it was there rising freely today, on my third cast i hooked it, you know its special when the run is 20 yards and hugging deep, i managed to get some sort of control and it came around me downsream, i knew i was in trouble but got it 4ft away from me and saw it was a huge brown, bigger than anything i have seen in the dove, After shouting 'F*uck me' noticing the size, the fish shook it head and the hook pulled, i was gutted, a fish i dream of and it just showed its huge tail and drifted off slowly as to say f*uck you,
Well my aim is to catch a proper clonker this year but i think that was my chance, i know some fisherman always say fish were bigger but this was a proper lock jaw i estimate to be 20 inches or bigger..
I went on to catch lots more fish and one getting on for two pounds, driving home i was happy with the great fishing but gutted about the loss of a clunker..
I know where its home is and where it feeds so will get him this season, In a funny way i cant wait for the mayfly to end and get back to normality, i bet there are some that think i am mad saying this but thats how i feel..

Thanks

Glen