New Season New river same old weather .....

This season I will be fishing on a new beat of the river Dove ( The Yorkshire one) and despite the current wayward water levels and the variable weather I needed to be out on the river today so I decided that it was time I fished my new playground.  On arrival and parking the car the skys decided to drop another heavy shower this time with a little hail mixed with the rain and cold in fact a typical british spring day when you experience all four seasons in the same few hours. About then  dozens of sheep in the field decided that I was worth investigating and galloped across to greet me.  As I battled with  the chesties in the ltd space of the drivers seat  I warmed up  nicely so the first cup of coffee of the day was the next priority.

 The beat is a lovely beat of the upper Dove nestling in farm land away from the main roads here it is a delightful small stream as nature intended , it has never been improved by the EA and the  bankside vegetation is gloriously unkempt.  Its is a combination of deep pocket water and long fast riffles . With some very deep holes on bends just for good measure .  First impressions are that I will be very happy here....

The countryside here is pretty unruly in fact for a few minutes I was kept company by a curious fox you can see him in the picture below left he is just to the left of centre. He kept a careful eye on me its strange that previous encounters with foxes , badgers and otters convince me that a human half buried in water loses much of its fear factor. Weather wise today was a day that was typical of a an English Spring I saw hail , rain and felt warm sunshine and biting winds all in just a few hours.  There was the briefest hatch of Olives at around 2.30 PM but so brief that the trout remained oblivious to the treats on offer.  

During the day I saw not a single rise , my tactics were varied including trying a nymph spider set up . To explore the backwaters and eddies.  The river had only just settled after a substantial rise and was still coloured so the fish could still be holed up in the eddies .  The next choice was the klink and dink an approach that can often present that best chances at this time of year,  First taker was a small grayling on the nymph followed by a couple of its even smaller cousins.  I moved upstream to try and avoid them this time of year they need to be left alone to build up strength for spawning.  

Next up was three small brownies that took a fancy to the klink. It never ceases to amaze me how this fly can bring fish to the surface when seemingly nothing else can get them to show interest .  Whilst fishing up along a glide about 2ft deep I hooked into the best fish of the day, a chunky  battle scarred veteran grayling he took the suspended nymph , a size 18 PTN with a tungsten bead head.  He looked as if he had survived a recent heron or sawbill attack and I handled him gently and he swam away strongly .  But a promising fish to catch on the first visit to a new beat . A decent fish around 17inches.

 

The few brownies all took the klink took with the fearless splashy rises that the fly seems to arouse. So the day ended with 4 grayling and three brownies over a three hour visit fishing fairly hard ,  what surprised me is that in that three hours I reckon I fished only about 400 yds of the river such are the opportunities  that it offers in terms of likely lies .  Roll on those warm summer evenings...