last week I had a very short session on my local beck. very few fish were rising but I rose three and hooked and landed them all. Gratifying and immensely enjoyable. All the fish were rising in the tails of the white water under the wear. However It took me a while to work out what they were rising to , Eventually I realised it was to tiny midges that I spotted drifting in the surface. This was even though there was a smattering of LDOs drfifting down. After spending ages casting to rising fish without moving any with an Olive imitation a switch to a tiny size 20 f fly brought a pretty immediate response. Three came in pretty rapid time and I called it a day. The day worked out as the books say it should happen . Identify rising fish, work out what they arising to select an imitation and bobs your uncle. Not often my days go like that.
Now Sunday was my first day that I had ventured over to the Ure this year. The journey went fine, on arrival the river looked well. The usual colour and at a good level when I tried to take a picture though I realised that my camera battery was still in the charger where I had placed it the previous night. So you will have to take make do with this nice spring scene taken on the beck. Fishing wise the day was a contrast to the beck trip I started with a duo and had an early success when a decent brownie was landed on the klink. Things got a bit frustrating after that , I dropped a thumping Grayling of at the net after it took the nymph. It would have probably been my best graying from the Ure. Then brief hatches of olives kept bringing the fish to the surface and and I switched to an olive imitation all my patterns were treated with disdain until I tried a quill bodied CDC paradun pattern this seemed to do the trick and I managed three more although I missed many more. The fish splashing at the flies but not taking them cleanly. It was as if the fish had forgotten how to rise and take. Perhaps they were as rusty as me. So two trips now with rising fish. The weather is settling and I have a holiday in the dales soon things are looking up...