At last a rising fish

 It has been by all accounts and also by some considerable margin. A depressingly long , wet and miserable winter.  There has been no proper winter weather ie hard frosts and some proper snow.  We had a couple of bits of the white stuff .   But nothing to speak of ,  Truth is it started to rain around last October and it has hardly let up since . The springs that feed my new chalk stream came up quickly and have stayed up and indeed put the river over the banks and across the fields .  I went for a walk along the river a week or so ago , Not to fish but to see what the level looks like .   To me it looks like I will be fishing sometime mid may...

My other spate streams have been up and down like the proverbial all winter ,  The farmer on one stretch , whose family have been there for generations has commented that although he had a couple of times seen the river higher . He did say that he had never seen the river so high for so long .  The high water has caused some damage and our work parties have removed three fallen trees and there is considerable bank damage in places .  But the river is still there it is still full of fish and god willing if it stops raining and the water fines down then fishing can recommence . 

So far since the kick of on the 25th march , I have had three trips The first resulted in no Trout but a couple of willing Grayling so no score there then a week later saw a return to the same venue and had my first couple of trout both on nymphs. 

Then on Saturday I had my first trip to a brand new stretch of river,  After having an introductory chat to the guy who runs the little syndicate I wanted to give it a whirl.  The stretch is a couple of miles of very wild unstocked interesting upland stream.  Challenging wading but delightful at the same time . There will be no big fish but first impressions were that there will be plenty of fish.  A small light rod in my case on the day was a 6ft 9 inch light bamboo job.  So with that and a wading staff clutched tightly I set of ..

A small bead head on a long leader would have been an obvious choice but the reel I had with me had a silk line and a furled leader. So not ideal.  So the usual 4ft of tippet of the furlie was replaced with 8ft and I started prospecting in likely looking seams and pockets with a 3mm size 16  beadhead nymph.  plucks resulted with a finger sized sprat that dropped of then I had one slightly bigger .

The water looks very promising with nice variation glides and pocket water in abundance and I worked my way upstream and had a few more then after noticing a few olives I saw a sight to gladden the heart , I spied a splashy rise in the tail of a fast run .  A CDC F fly drew a response but no hook up . Two casts later a little plump brownie came to hand after throwing a couple of cartwheels to brighten the day ( the fish that is, not me.) .  It was at that point I did what all sensible folks do. I got out and sat on a tree stump and took stock of my surroundings .  I am always amazed that more folks don`t fly fish , It is hard to imagine a more cathartic experience than to sit watching a river , listening to the world .  After a carton of ice cold latte and a chocolate bar it was time to resume the season.

Tackle for the day was American Jim Becker bamboo rod.  An English Hardy reel and an Italian Terenzio silk line ,  As near as I get to embracing foreign influence.  I am going to enjoy spending time here. But as a I type this the heavens have opened again and the rivers are back on the way up.  A good few years ago on this blog I prayed for rain.  Within a week we started a wet summer of biblically wet proportions , So I hesitate to pray for dry weather with my luck we will get a biblical drought and a plague of locusts . 

Month by Month Highlights

 January was a slow start

February was gloomy 

March no fishing fly tying , walks and work parties 

April season start but no trout only grayling 

May my favourite month 

Flaming June 

July low rivers 

August not much fishing 

September trout season closes 

October , Grayling starts 

November more grayling 

December much needed rain and then it bit more foreign sun….. but just had the word that next year I will be fishing a new Yorkshire chalk stream…..

 Happy new year everyone 

Things you learn..

 It is an interesting truth that the best why to learn is from someone who is better than you either from listening or observing .  It is also an interesting truth that having to do things differently and getting you out of the routine of a comfort zone can reap rich rewards too.  In the last few weeks I have had the pleasure of the company of two fine Grayling anglers. The first reminded me about fishing the Duo.  

To be honest I never much liked the duo I never really liked fishing with the Klink as a dropper, on larger open rivers ok but on small streams with many overhead snags I found that tangles were to much of a hazard.  and with the New Zealand style of the hook bend I never could bring my self to trust that the dropper would not drop of.  Anyway I had seen the patterns with a 2mm rig ring caught in at the bend within the dressing so tied a few and gave it a go. I was impressed by the rig,  easy to cast and delivery was more accurate.  On my next trip out that rig brought me some success and the change of presentation was I am sure part of it allowing me to fish a section of river more effectively , but the point is more that I am as guilty as the next guy of getting into a routine ,  Yes I do fish the usual methods and catch enough but it does demonstrate that I and I suspect others get into a rut and we all need the proverbial kick up the arse

As well as getting into a rut method wise for those of us that fish the same water regularly I would hazard that there are many like me who on every trip fish pretty much the same runs and pools .  Now on Sunday a friend accompanied me , now the truth is he is a more experienced and much more efficient grayling angler than I am and so doesn`t need my assistance but as a guest in my book he gets to fish the favoured runs and glides that I would prefer,  So that leaves me steered towards the  areas that usually I walk past because the access to the river was poor or historically its an area that hasn`t really delivered .  I have fished this stretch of water now for about 15 years so I know it fairly well.  

Anyway the point is I found myself fishing different areas in different ways and actually caught my best of the day from a corner that I had not really tackled seriously for years as I figured the wading was to deep and the silt too soft  after trying it a few times over the years.  But I guess as most of the river changes constantly that little area had shallowed of over a winter and what was head high was now just above waist high but wade able. The lesson is keep things fresh and your catch rates improve.  

I am definitely a pleasure angler , a keen one I grant you but truth is I know that my casting needs to improve I also have been told my work rate needs to improve, My answer to that at the time was If I had to work hard to catch fish them my advisor at the time could stuff it where the sun don`t shine , these days stopping and watching wildlife and even better a chat with another angler is all part of the day for me. Another friend has a successful angling business , so successful he hardly ever fishes himself, that to me would be the worst result imaginable but I also appreciate that his success is down to the effort and time he commits. But after saying all that I love catching fish anyone who knows me has my permission to kick my arse if I claim that blanking doesn`t matter.  It does matter but just not as much as it used too and it amazing how little extra effort is needed to improve your catch rate and enjoyment ,

 I have spent the last few years working hard to build a small business and that is what working hard is for.  Fishing is so I can keep my head sane to keep working hard.  As for fishing hard generally I have found that for me less is more, on the rivers taking your  time and casting less often has increased my catch rate,  If I had to give any prospective small stream angler advice it would be just stand still and watch for a bit,  it is amazing how often that single bit of advice helps. Usually when I wade into a new river section before I start to work upstream I stop and take of the fly, change tippet well you know the rest but its amazing how often in that pause you spy a rising fish or even just notice an interesting current, even before that its a good rule to stop and look a minute or two before you wade in , How many times have we waded into a stream to see a bow wave of a fish that you had missed speeding upstream spooking everything else?. My very first fishing mentor 50 years ago told me of for always just trying to cast to the far bank, he pointed out that from other side this was the far bank. It was a lesson I never forgot. 

 Fishing should not be hard it should be leisurely and pleasurable or at least it seems that to me. It is also something that is aesthetically pleasing.  I think part of the reason why I have fished so much with Bamboo and silk during the last few summers is more about the quality of the experience and less about technical excellence and the numbers game.  It could of course be that I am simply getting older and have fished for so long that there is simply no urgency any more also cane rods and silk lines do seem to slow everything down and enhance the experience.  

What a strange back to front Season

 So that`s it then the 2022 trout season done and dusted.  " dusted" being the operative word. Never have I seen so little rain and the rivers so low and here we are in October with warm dry weather still.  local wetlands and ponds are in many cases completely dried out .  It has been a strange old year and my first trip of the Trout season resulted in a fine catch of ....out of season  Grayling all of which were caught on dry flies it was a perfect opening day except that I couldn`t catch the correct species.  Now here we are a couple of days after the season has ended and my first trip of the season started on a local river and all I could catch was trout .  

In fact if I continued I could have probably had my best days trout fishing of the season .  I reckon the recent rise in water levels had triggered them to feed.  They certainly were beating the Grayling to the nymphs. In the end I decided to up sticks and move to another favoured stream just 10 minutes away .  This stream is small , overgrown and like the other is completely un-stocked. In form though quite different the first has a bed of slab rock limestone .  High water quality but not a lot of silt and fine sand . Where as this stream flows through clay and gravel beds .  Lots of fine aggregate in the water course with lots of good invert and spawning areas. It can have an amazing mayfly hatch and has a lot of BWO.

The first couple of runs didn`t show any fish and was initially taken aback on how much colour it was carrying , I did catch a couple of trout but kept moving to known Grayling lies and eventually got into some small fish,  finally hitting on the fish below which was the first proper fish of the day and then on on the very next cast  the fish at the top hit. At 15 inches and at about a 1lb a very good fish for the river. 

It was an enjoyable day ,  but I fear that even on the following day the extra water was dropping away fast,  We really do need some serious rain quickly it needs to last a while as successive dry years have depleted the aquifers . ideally a month of heavy snow would be good. then a long gentle thaw ,  Then maybe a very wet spring just be certain.  So if you are listening God, lots of wet weather please. I know you are close as you are still working from home.. In Yorkshire ,,,

At last we have some rain so my first and last trout session.

 

This summer has seen the worst drought for many decades, for the last couple of months the rivers have shrunk alarmingly , however a week on the Greek island of Crete did remind me of how even in a drought year the climate here is still very green and temperate.  This last week or so has at last seen some rain and the rivers have settled .  So awarding myself a day out of the office for good behaviour I went to one of my favourite little Yorkshire streams.  As you can see from the pics it was still carrying some colour ,  in fact the first river I visited had a couple of cars already parked up and as I had other places that may be quiet I moved on , then the second was very coloured , I decided that another main feeder must have had some serious water in it , Luckily for me I have access to four stretches of river within a ten mile circle.  

The season generally has been pretty poor for trout fishing the first day of the season started amazingly apart from the fact all I could catch was out of season Grayling.  Anyway this week there were no rising fish so nymphs were the order of the day and a little size 18 bead head did the trick larger nymphs were ignored.  This fish was the prettiest and also the hardest scrapper these wild fish are very strong and it needed a big bend in my old Hardy featherweight to keep it out of the roots . When i saw that the little nymph was right in the neb as I drew it towards the net I blessed the soft action of the fly rod .

I guess saying that about the fly rod people will immediately say its rubbish but The reason why I use such soft rods for this close range fishing as they do allow you to apply good pressure whilst also protecting fragile tippet and tenuous hook holds ,  I am not a great fan of hardy rods but this one is exceptional.  For the same reason I am a great fan of the Sage Circa range ,  they are a bit to marmite for many but I love them. 

I was expecting that the day would end up being about Grayling ,  I sometimes think that there are more grayling in the river than trout ,  this season it has certainly felt like that , today only two showed there face . there were plenty visible as many sardine size fish were rising in the skinny water areas. 

In the end today the day was about trout I was surprised getting into double figures of fish  and the two shown were very welcome .  Generally each season I expect a good few of this quality but this year even the mayfly failed to wake them up. 

As the pic shows the river was still carrying some colour and it was dropping in level fast as the dry ground soaked up the water ,  We need a month or two of serious rain to refresh the ground water . lets hope we get a wet winter ,  

I have to say that seeing that trout makes me think I should make it the last trout trip of the season ,  So the first really decent day of trout fishing may also be the last of the season.  but that would be a very hasty decision. Lets see what the last couple of weeks of the season brings ,