Reflections

 

At the moment it’s all a bit surreal, the new trout season is upon us.  the weather is sort of like springtime.  Well, it’s cold enough with regular morning frosts but we have nearly finished the month and the April showers have been pretty much non-existent. As I start this post today it is the 27th of April and last night was the first time for many weeks, I have heard rain on the roof.  Fairly short lived but rain none the less. At the weekend the rivers were as low as you would expect in August at the end of a long hot summer.  So, we need rain and a fair bit of it.  

 

At the weekend I had my first day when I saw a reasonable number of rising fish, Well thats sort of true its the first time I managed to catch because actually about 10 days ago I had a trip over to the Yorkshire dales with my Son. We saw rising fish, but I managed to drop 5 on the bounce releasing them at distance not the example I wanted to set him.  He has fished before, but he is still a beginner and struggling somewhat with casting and I am a rotten teacher, I have also explained that he is probably learning to fly fish the hardest way. Small unstocked wild streams, difficult casting, spooky fish and under very difficult conditions but he is enjoying the experience he is already an outdoors fan.  So, trying to instil the whole holistic fly-fishing bum thing isn’t really an issue.  I reckon he was born an angler I just need to help him develop the skills.  Apart from that the places I fish are so pretty I can’t think of a better place to struggle to learn new skills. 

 

When I have been fishing then the bamboo  rods are getting a workout, I apologise I should have used the English term"split cane" I am reading Gierach at the moment and I guess I am been Americanised .  I have a few Cane rods now, a pretty mixed bunch but all very enjoyable, one thing I have realised is that for a long time I sort of dismissed cane/bamboo as a bit of a nostalgic exercise and not really a serious fishing tool.  But after fishing them for a while now.  especially with silk lines I see them as a serious alternative and not just some sort of romantic throw back.  Over the last few years, I have sought out and fished with rods that aid delicate presentation and good close-range casting, rods like the Orvis superfine series and the delightful vision cults, using them sometimes at 2 wt.  These rods are sometimes stated to offer a classic traditional action but with the benefits of up-to-date materials.   The truth has dawned on me that they do some of that but not nearly as well as the real thing.  For sure if I am down the river at night after sea trout or putting out longish lines on big rivers with a 9 or 10 ft rod, I will be sticking to Carbon. But on small streams I am rapidly being converted to cane, it seems to me that the sweet spot for them is from 6ft through to 7ft 6inch in the 3 to 5 wt range.  

 

Alongside that the silk lines have been a revelation I have bought a few but the Terenzio and Phoenix are superb. brilliant straight from the box.  I hadn`t realised just how good they are for roll casting until I started using them they are better both in terms of casting efficiency but also much less water surface disturbance the fact that silk lines repel water due to their coatings and therefore sit on the surface film and are also smaller diameter, whereas the thicker plastic lines use displacement as old dear Archimedes.  For overhead casting they cut through the wind far more effectively.  The downside is that they are more expensive and need a little more care but will last for very many years. Although after seeing the price of the new Rio lines the price difference is not that huge anymore.  They have created an additional problem though.  I have a modest collection of carbon rods that I have honed and perfected covering just about every option I need.  In the past I have tended to move on a rod every time I got something new. This is now complicated by Son and Daughter needing gear but also the newly arriving cane rods are duplicating Carbon but offering something different.  I guess I just need to get better at hiding rods from the Mrs .

 

Yorkshire Day. The river Ure, Flyfishing and Yorkshire Trout and Grayling

Yesterday was "Yorkshire Day"  .  A day to celebrate our County and its heritage and Beauty .   By coincidence I had planned a day of fishing .  To the river Ure in Wenslydale.  A more Yorkshire fishing destination is hard to imagine .  I had invited a friend along for the day .  Part of the fun of membership of Fly fishing clubs or syndicates is that it gives you the opportunity of sharing days with friends .  Apart from good company  on the day the cries of lapwings , curlews and the occasional buzzard overhead added to the scenery.  As for fishing conditions , well low water , bright sun and a cold downstream wind made fishing challenging .

We both were hoping for dry fly fishing but on the day the conditions told us"Nymph" . But after a bit of fruitless Nymphing in the faster runs I switched to a duo .My fist decent fish was a Grayling which came up and hammered the Klinkhammer.  After that we both pretty much reverted to dries occasionally casting to the sparse visible rising fish but mainly casting to likely lies and holding places .  here is my Guest for the day happily exploring the Skinny water 

My first few fish were dwarfed by a pretty average Cuban Cigar this was the first decent fish to show .   On a dry fly despite both of trying nymphs extensively all fish came of the top  despite there been very little evidence of rising fish .  It was a case of putting a fly where you thought a fish should be .

Apart from a couple of little wildies the other trout that showed up was this one and one a good bit bigger .  Pretty sure that despite the colours this was a stocked fish .  Pulled well though and was welcome on a pretty slow tough day. 

I suppose the winner on the day was Wenslydale . Tremendous scenery a beautiful river and the sounds of Curlews , lapwings and Oyster catchers , even a kingfisher put in an appearance.  On the day we sort of ended honours even I had six trout and two Grayling ,  my guest did the opposite with six grayling and 2 trout. He has a well deserved reputation of been able to sniff out a grayling in a puddle. 

Ure brown trout and fishing fine and far of....

I reckon as fly anglers go I am not to prone to impulse buys.  Although I must confess that when faced with a rack full of fly tying products I usually buy at least a couple of things that dont seem to get used quickly. A week or two ago I did however give in and buy a little Vision cult , an 8ft 2 wt with free line at a very tempting price.

A typical river Ure Brown Trout 

Rods in the 7ft to 8wt are the perfect range for me for the local streams and already have a fair collection but these days I do seem to be fishing with lighter gear and it looked like a nice addition  to the armoury. Incidentally moving to lighter set ups over the last few years has not been all about lighter lines but longer leaders and finer tippets .  Even toying with french leaders and leader to hand which both have been great on their day.

The Cult

Anyway the rod arrived and paired with a little Orvis BBS2 and the supplied cortland line I wanted to give it a try.  As it happened we had seen some rain over the last couple of days and the rivers were mostly up and coloured,  so the only place fishable with dries was the little section of the Dove.  A 8ft is a bit tight on there but just about manageable .  

The rod was a delight it really impressed as my first venture in to 2 wt territory.  The action I would describe as an easy middle tip, not as all through as my Hardy featherweight but a lovely action for a small stream rod.  

It had enough flex to work with virtually no line out and yet could cast surprisingly tight loops .  Yes the liitle cult impressed me it has won a permanent place in the rack  and two weight?  well on a summers evening on a tight stream it will be great fun.

The recent largely dry spell has lead to many rivers running very low, that was how I found the Ure one evening after work.  It was very low perhaps half of normal levels.   When rivers are like this not only tactics need to change but in a sense the river has changed to.  Normal holding places are empty and the fish are holed up in new pots and runs you have to find them . But low levels can work to your advantage too.  Runs to deep to wade can now be approached and lies fished that perhaps are normally out of reach.  A couple of stretches normally full of fish.  Are totally empty when the river is this low.

This run up the side of the trees is usually almost impossible to fish due to the depth for wading but when the river is this low its perfect, the deeper water can be waded but still offers fish overhanging trees for shade and  protection.  Today this run of about 70m offered me two hours of slow wading and fishing and accounted for    eight or ten fish both Grayling and Trout. 

A few of these came from the run.  All on the little CDC .  The longer rod allowed me to roll cast and control the fly nicely.  

I was intending to fish leader to hand as it has proved its worth as a tactic when water levels have been very low. Today the stiff breeze seemed to always be blowing in my face so I swapped pretty quick and fished my 10ft 3 wt with a long leader.   Just a plug here for Barrio fly lines ,  I have tried a few of these now and have found the DT Mallard and the GT90 both to be superb lines and equal to lines of two and three times the price.

Later on I headed of to a river section that I have found produces in all water levels,  Several Grayling came first then a smaller trout .   The last fish of the day is pictured below .  I cast to it thinking it was a small fish it seemed to be sipping flies of the surface.  Under a overhanging branch.  A gentle rise and a tightening of the rod lead to all hell breaking loose,  

it launched itself from the water and momentarily the line was in the branches amazingly it came loose and the fish shot right across the river luckily the long light rod and line allowed my to hold the rod high and keep the line of the water and after a bit of time playing chase around boulders and tree roots the fish and I decided I was the winner.  The fish looked like a stockie but the big full tail told me it had been in the river a long time.  It was released to play with another angler. 

French leader / leader to hand

Readers of this blog will perhaps remember that last year I spent a day on the Ure with an angler who fished leader to hand . The guy is a damn fine angler and I was comprehensively out fished  I think I would have been even if he had been using a cane and a bent pin,  what it did do however was to demonstrate what an effective tactic it was.  Over the last year I have used the same tactic a number of times when conditions have favoured it and have found it very effective.  Like fishing traditional spiders and the upstream nymph Its a tactic that on its day is deadly and is something that will have a permanent place in the armoury.


Its not often I post a link to websites or other blogs but I found the following series of articles so good that I have no qualms of offering a link .  I actually printed them of and took them on holiday to Portugal with me last year and they were my holiday reading .  What was refreshing is that I find that 99.9% of so called instructional or "new" tactic writing on fly fishing found on the interweb. Is just the same old stuff re hashed or in many cases just reprinted,  These were an exception and actually offered some new ideas.


http://www.fishandfly.com/our-world-of-fishing/3038-fishing-on-the-frontier-part-37-leader-to-hand.html


A year or two back the Author published an article or two in fly fishing magazines his critics were pretty ruthless under a series of letters " wheres the mass" where a few very notable "experts" stated it was impossible to cast such a rig. To be honest at the time I didnt take a whole bunch of notice.  But I can say that although my casting skills are pretty average I can say that this average angler can cast a 10 m  leader with a fly on the end and its a bloody effective technique. its also a very easy ( and cheap )  form of fly flishing to get into.  Many anglers who fish rivers have a 10ft 3/4 wt for grayling fishing .  That is the rod for the job.  The leader, well I used 10m of copolymer as suggested.

Apologies If you have already read the articles, but if you havent I think they are worth a read.

A River Ure spring day ,,,,

This strange year moves on .  Here we are nearly half way through it and the usual rythm of the seasons seems to have disappeared,  by now evening sessions should be the main pastime and yet not one evening has been spent by the river. The cold and windy weather has meant that the evening rise has become only something that is read about, the mayfly hatch shows no sign of appearing. It should happen any time soon and around here any time means  from the last week in May to the second week in June .  But as it should be its gloriously unpredictable.  Meanwhile I shall wait patiently for the summer to arrive and herald the start of the evening rise.  

Today was a chance to get over to the Ure .  The river had dropped to a nice summer level and on arrival was seen to be extremely clear. Its normal strong tea stain replaced by the clarity of spring water.  Bright sunshine a gin clear river and low levels are not a usual recipe for success.  But a french leader and a 12ft 2 wt rod gave me confidence that I was equal to the conditions.  The 12ft 2 wt is a result of an impulse at the tail end of last season a bulk buy opportunity on an online forum encouraged me to invest in the blank and Chas Burns did an impressive build to produce a rod which certainly offered the capacity for a different approach.   A  french leader well more leader to hand ala Jeremy Lucas allowed for a delightfully delicate presentation and the ability to hold a 10m leader clear of the water allows a drag free presentation across multiple current lines. The approach certainly worked but the 12ft ? well we will see .

I show this matched pair of out of season Grayling only for their perfection. They were in the very peak of condition and rose to the dry with abandon.  I had six grayling during the afternoon these two and the lower one were the best of the bunch . Just a shame they dont realise its their close season.  The two fish summed up the day. No fish of real note came to hand but those that did were bright solid and very very welcome.

There is something about the green of spring that is enchanting it has a newness and freshness that fades all to quickly,  combine this with bluebells, wild garlic and bracken you have a delight.  What is it about a unfurling bracken that makes me think of sea horses ? .  

It was a good day finishing with around 8 brownies and perhaps the same grayling , all on the dry fly .  The largest fish of the day was this Grayling which appeared to be still recovering from spawning and was returned quickly.  

The best fish of the day should have a been a brownie that fairly screamed line of the reel .  Jumped once to show me that I wasnt messing with a kid then in a final flourish threw the hook. I am sure that it was blowing a raspberry at me at the time .  At least it seemed that way to me.

A fellow angler was on the bank today ,  it was good to see you Richard check your emails.......

What sticks in your mind...

Its a been a strange couple of weeks.  I have had quite a few trips out since last encountering Mr and Mrs Perambulator . The weather lately has been kind and the fish have on the whole been willing.  The rivers are on the low side but not as yet on their bones , which considering the amount of rain we had this year is to be expected. I fished the upper Dove once more and I guess probably for the last time until the leaves are once again telling me winter is on the way.  In my view the upper waters and small becks around here are best fished early and late, the dog days of summer are a time when they should be left to survive the lack of water.  This year through the deluge they were my season savers and have earned a rest now.

I visited the Ure this week with a guest there were a few things that stuck in my mind from the day.  Firstly having not been for a while I remembered why I bother to make the 90 minute drive .The place is stunning, a river that even low as it was at the weekend had the ability to make you stop at the bank top and just lean on the wading staff and stare a few minutes. A Yorkshire Dales river in its perfect state sufficiently matured to have a certain tea stained grandeur but still bustling enough to have the riffles and glides beloved of the fly angler.   Much as I love the small rivers and becks, I have taken to this river big style and dont intend to give it up in a rush.

Sadly after hooking and landing a big raggy rainbow trout and dispatching it for the freezer and hooking and losing another that would have weighed a good 4 or 5 lbs, ( I had previously heard a rumour that about 4000 had been accidentally released into the river ) .  I wonder how anyone can be so bloody careless to do that, the rivers are under enough pressure as it is without someone dumping a few tonnes of fry eaters into the equation.  It beggars belief how such things can seemingly be so easily done. And pass of with so little comment.

Lastly on the day I took a guest ,  I hope he wont me saying it but he is an accomplished angler.  It does me good to fish with such people he caught many more fish than me but I enjoy watching fine anglers at work its like beating yourself on the back with a stick.  Watch them fish the places you fish and watch them do a better job of it than you. I would advise anyone who wants to improve to do the same.  It is like being prodded in the ribs with a stick much as the teachers at my Quaker boarding school used to do.  A pointed reminder that effort and application are more important than anything else and that the route to angling nirvana is through chanting the mantra....................achieve a drag free drift...........................and not through if only had that new 9ft sage.....

I am hoping that the next few weeks will provide a few more opportunities for fishing in the run up to Sept when for me the cream of the grayling sport starts,  I have some leave coming up and planning that the Ure will not be such a stranger to me.

The Ure, Aphids and a lucky break....

As I wrote last time I have found at this time of year with all the fly life on the wing that it becomes confusing as to what the fish are switched on to.  Well the other evening was exactly like that .  I went to the Ure for an evening ,  the river looked fine, a little on the low side but running clear and clean and there was plenty hatching I always have a wander along the banks to check out what is on the wing and just get a feel for the river and to try and see where the fish are rising .  

The fish were rising, not in huge numbers but when you stood and studied a length of river you started to see rising fish ,  the fish seemed to be in the faster smooth glides the faster riffles seemed to have little surface activity.   but they looked just right for the spider approach and I would give the method a try for a while.  A close examination of a few back eddies revealed little fly debris there was this mayfly and a few olives but little else.

On the wing were a few Mayfly some Yellow mays lots of olives and even the odd sedge , there was also clouds of small stuff midges and the like.

So I started large and floated a mayfly dun over a group of rising fish the lack of response generated a switch to a yellow may , followed by an Olive then progressively smaller through CDC F Fly,  IOBO humpy and small JT Olive .. All met with a singular lack of interest ,  So I enrolled the Americans to help, the Adams is a pattern I have always liked and have found in small sizes 18 and 20 is a superb general imitator of just about everything .  It also a fly which even in small sizes is very visible. This brought my first success of the evening actually the nice trout at the top .

My early success with the Adams probably ended up costing me as I persevered to long and should have realised that fish was just a lucky break.  During the next hour I switched to fishing spiders mainly because I like the method and have not used it much this season,  There are a couple of stretches of the river that I love using the spiders both across and upstream.  Tonight I quickly realised this was not the the approach.  As I changed back to the dries I had to use my reading specs which I have hung round my neck putting them on I was aware of a big speck on them as I examined the speck it turned out to be a green fly, an aphid.   The first I had seen.  Smiling realisation dawned and a switch to a small greenfly imitation in an 18, third cast and a fish.  The next hour or two resulted in about 6 or 7 more ...  Some small wildies up to about 8 oz and a few larger fish like the one above.

I wonder how long I would have persevered with the Adams had I not seen that lone Green fly.  I saw no evidence of any more during the whole evening I reckon they were just coming from the bankside trees...
We all need a lucky break once in a while....

First trout of the season

Sunday was a strange opening day.  Usually an opening day on a Yorkshire river means donning Neoprene chest waders a waterproof wading jacket lots of warm clothing and wondering if the rivers are low enough to fish. On the day the weather was warm more like  mid summer and the water levels were lower than at any time during the whole of last summer.

 The water is usually at least a foot and a half higher..As you can see from the exposed bank here :

Also added to the low levels the water was as clear as I have ever seen it .  I was even able to watch the minnows shoal round my feet as I kicked up food for them.

The warm temperatures did not seem to encourage either flies or fish to be active. There was little evidence of hatching flies the lightest dusting of Olives around lunchtime aroused little interest .  There was a couple of larger flies seen at a distance  march browns perhaps  but surface activity was zero.

I started with spiders in what was left of the the faster water but this raised no interest the usual runs seemed empty of fish.  I searched the deeper margin areas that were sheltered from the sun with nymphs but apart from a couple of small tweaks and plucks.  It was as if the river was empty.  I dont think the swimming dogs and all the walkers on the banks helped.

Eventually I located a feeding fish, a few yards downstream of the road bridge there is a very deep scour pool with a big back eddy.  A good fish was feeding steadily but without any great enthusiasm , it was lazily taking something trapped in the surface film.  Despite scouring the surface I could not see any sign of fly life so was to fish blind. Also  the only place I could get to near enough to make a cast meant I was effectively casting downstream into the back eddy.  So it was a long cast then I had to feed line to allow it to drift in.   Not very correct I grant you but I wanted that fish.  I guess I must have spent 30 minutes maybe 45 just swapping flies and casting and allowing the drift. Its amazing how you lose track of time when faced with such a puzzle.  Until I eventually had success.  A little size 18 emerger did the trick. I think I just got lucky and the fish and my fly ended up meeting at the right time.  But my it was good to see those red spots on brown and cream coming towards me in the clear water.


  The low water is a real worry lets hope we get some serious quantities of rain soon.  The ground is dry now and if we have a dry summer then some serious damage could be done to some rivers and streams.  So please God send rain...Tight lines to you all .

A time for reflection.

Last weekend saw me out on the bank again after Grayling .  Trips to the river now are a two edged affair, will a mild day encourage the ladies to flirt with a bit of surface action ?, or will cold or unstable water levels send them skulking to the depths?. I will plumb the depths with the czech style heavy nymphs when I have to but much prefer to see that lovely boiling rise as the fly is snatched from the surface. and if I am honest I struggle with the nymph and know its an area I need to improve.

What that means is that  I can be guilty of neglecting all other  approachs and try to cling on to the surface fly when Autumn is here.  I am not a dry fly snob but I will often persevere with the dry when I could catch more with a nymph. 

This weekend saw such a trip the fish above was the only one that I could persuade to come to the surface . The last hour I resorted to a heavy pink shrimp and caught three more.  I feel sure fishing the nymph sooner would have given results.

Thinking about this and seeing the threads on forums and other blogs  about what you have achieved this season has made me think again as to what it is that presses our individual buttons about this sport.  Plainly there are those for whom the fly tying has almost become the overiding passion ,  for others its the collection of rods and reels.  Others still the pursuit of that elusive target weight specimen. Or a larger number of fish than last year .  There are even those whom I am convinced just talk about it .

 Certainly for me all those things are important although my gear is a pretty motley collection and my flies are somewhat variable in quality and I certainly dont keep any sort of record of my catches other than on my blog. I guess more than anything the quality of the fishing and its surroundings is top for me and if such a place has good fish then even better.  I live close close to several high quality stocked fisheries.  Holding large high quality well finned fish but for me they have limited appeal because they are man made featureless lakes.  I have several friends who love those places and am glad for their enthusiasm but I am dissapointed when these same friends accompany me to a small hidden gem of a stream but do not share my enthusiam for the wondrous markings on the specimen 12oz wild brownie they spent 20 minutes catching...

I guess all this is just defines why fly fishing is such a popular and adictive pastime.  Should you  be a collector or  an obssesive a born again hippy or even an ultra competitive type the sport can become what ever you want it to be.  Even if you just want to talk or write about it...

Anyway following that reflection here my idea of a lovely river...

The soft autumn light does make the countryside look its best so even when the fishing is slow the surroundings can help.  The leaves are really turning now and a windy day or two will see the river surface covered with rafts of leaves

One good windy week and the river will be full of leaves and perhaps with all the bugs and flies that live on them...

Thirty or forty years years ago I would not have given all of this a thought all that was important was catching fish, lots of them. The pleasure arose from the capture and not from the method employed or the surroundings.  When I was eleven I fished with a teacher at my school, it was due to him I first held a fly rod, He showed me how to catch chub with a black gnat on his split cane rod with a silk line.  I was fascinated and that day lit a spark that smouldered for years till I was able to take up the fly rod for myself. 

When I met him many years later he revealed he had given up fishing he said that he still loved fly fishing but that for him the climax was to get the fish to rise and the subsequent playing and landing and unhooking of the fish was merely a further distraction and had even become an unpleasurable experience.  I dont beleive that my own thoughts will ever head to that conclusion but I find it fascinating that one sport can generate so many views and feelings.

Late Summer grayling on the Ure,,,

At this time of year I I think that a good few hours out on the river is especially precious .  Days are shorter now and short days mean the end of my preferred evening fishing.  So when I saw the weather forecast this week and it was predicting Thursday to be a day when the recent winds will reduce and the days leading up to it been dry a half day was booked at work and after lunch I headed to the river

The river surprised me when I got there.  There was about a foot more water in it than I was expecting but it was running pretty clear .  Very coloured as usual but clean.  It was also colder than expected, I made a mental note that next time it will be the neoprene waders and not the lightweight breathables.

After starting of with  tan and then olive and brown coloured klinks and not getting a sniff of a fish.  I swapped to a black klink. Actually I had a few that I had bought as my fly box was very thin and tying time has been sadly lacking As I prepared to lengthen line to cast again I dumped a few feet of line on the water surface and had a take almost at my feet , a tiny grayling showed me I had found the right fly.

I had about 8 or 9 nice Grayling of a respectable size in about 90 minutes of activity in three different runs.  Nice fish including this one with a most unusual scale pattern.

The water was pefect for the dry fly .  It has better clarity than the pictures would suggest and the extra foot of water put some real pace into the runs.  I am gratefull that the grayling will rise for a fly well into the autumn. I will fish with a nymph for them but I love fishing dry fly.  Saying that one of my aims this year is to increase my knwledge and capability of fishing the deep nymph , czech style.  I am particulaly interested in the use of braid long leaders to aid bite detection, a method that is been discussed on various forums at the moment.  I will be reporting through the winter on how my efforts are rewarded.

The Grayling were of a nice size and offer much optimism for future years .  The fish were in fine condition , they are my favourite game fish. With the  benefit to us of extending the fly fishing season well into the winter months.

This is the black klinkhammer that did the trick,  I have carefully retained one and my fly tying will in future include this variation , they look to be about a 16 with a thread body although I find klink hooks a mystery as the sizes from different manufacturers to vary by an enormous amount.  I have also purchased some aerowing material to start using for posts.  I reckon I can tie a reasonable klink but not a really good one.. That is work in progress..

After a couple of hours the grayling ceased activity but odd trout were rising in the slower back eddies , I ended up with three , a daddy long legs accounted for this beautifully coloured fish.  Although the daddies seem to have been thin on the ground this year I wouldnt venture on to an autumn river without some in my fly box

Autumn is on the way the Grayling are here

Surely the Grayling is amongst the most impressive of our fishes. The grace and colours make the description " the lady of the stream"  richly deserved. It is my favourite fish.

The Ure has now reurned to a sensible level and colour after weeks of extremely low water thanks to  the spates of a couple of weeks ago the river is now at a nicely fishable level.  In the pic below A couple of weeks ago the stones were dry out past the overhanging tree now we are showing a river at a healthy level..  The water now has a deep brown colour but not cloudy.Just like a good strong beer.   

The grayling are in the faster runs but fishing with a dry klinkhammer was difficult the water was so turbulent keeping sight of the fly was a problem . I had to resort to a klink with a bright red foam post.  Not a fly I would pick naturally but given the circumstances,,,

There were were many Olives hatching . You would describe it as a heavy hatch. but surprisingly hardly a fish was seen rising.  I fished a klinkhammer into the faster runs the result was four grayling three of which were of the " three to a pound" variety the fourth a better male fish pictured here.  Not a big fish but a good fish none the less on a day when fish were hard to win.  I didnt see a trout rise all day.

The foam post klink. Not a subtle fly but  workman like and now well chewed .  The Grayling at least seem to enjoy it.  Great for fishing the duo but also good for just staying afloat.  However I muct improve my tying as from time to time the fly was stuck on its side in the surface film,  a position when its not going to fool anything...

The wheat fields shows that Autumn is on the way.  Much as I hate the winter the months of Sept and Oct can bring such great fishing ,  a late sea trout run and the Grayling fishing can make a stunning end to another year.