Sunday 10 April 2011

The River Ure and spring brown trout

Yesterday saw my first trip on the Ure for brown trout.  This year I will be fishing the Ure through all the seasons and not just in the Winter for Grayling.  The river holds many attractions for me, The stocks of grayling were the main thing initially but the size and scale of the river is such a change for me after years of the smaller becks and rivers of the vale of York. I will now enjoy its company throughout the year.  

The Ure is different to the other Yorkshire dales rivers in that it does not share its name with the dale it runs through.   As do the Wharfe and Swale for example.  It is river that flows fairly swiftly throughout its length and for the angler has a lovely combination of deep pools and shallow ripples.  Lovely water for the fly angler.  Wading is "interesting" the bottom is pretty much all round boulders certainly care is required.  One section today seemed to have a river bed almost entirely made of smooth round boulders like bowling balls . 


There was one fish rising to the right of the pic and I reckoned I spent 15mins trying it with various patterns. But it showed no interest in what I offered it.  The river always carries colour most references refer to this as carrying a tea stain. It certainly is the closest I could come to with a colour. 


Today the water was a little higher than summer levels and was still very cold.  There was little surface activity there was a few LDOs hatching but not in sufficient numbers to interest the fish. A couple of the anglers who obviousley had some years experience of the river were warm with their welcome and free with advise.  A team of soft hackled spiders and a selection of wets will be in the armourment for future early season visits.


The Grannon are starting to show in the bankside foliage here is one drying on a leaf.  ( sorry about the quality of the pic) . It was the best I could get as they flew of as soon as I got close. But in a couple of weeks they form the first real hatch of the year on most Northern rivers.


The day was about exploration and of course Brown trout.  A few did come to the net this one was spotted rising under a overhanging bush tight into the bank perhaps the odd grannon was been taken . Who knows but this was one was fooled by a red tag. One of my favourite early season patterns .  It put up a good struggle in the deep water.



1 comment:

Kiwi said...

Nice brown, good job.

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