A Yorkshire Dales Diary

I have just returned from a weeks holiday in the Yorkshire dales,  refreshed and inspired . Refreshed as it was just me and the long suffering Mrs T and boy did we both need a holiday .  Its amazing that the poor woman never complains that our holidays in this country involve rivers or even countryside that may include rivers or Lochs .  That the car has to include space for fishing gear ( just in case) as well as 5 stone of labrador and possibly some fly tying gear as well.  This time however I only fished for a couple of hours in the whole week .  As for inspired well...

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After fishing the Ure for a few seasons now I have become a huge fan of the river and whilst the vale of York will always contain my home rivers and  the Dove , Rye and Derwent and the many becks will always be my first love . The Dales rivers are becoming an increasing fascination . The rivers have a character which is totally different and are wrapped in a countryside which is stunning . 

During the week we did a fair bit of touring around , some great walks across stunning scenery and I did a lot of bridge leaning and trout spotting not easy on rivers that were largely swollen from the frequent rain ,  as a result a list of rivers have now gone to the top of my "must fish list" these include the Wharfe , Cover,  Bain and others , What you you say ? I have never fished the Wharfe well its a mistake I hope to rectify soon. Its at the top of the list.

Despite looking beautiful the Ure was running very high and in a couple of hours of fishing very few fish were rising, I saw two decent fish rise in two hours , both were well out of reach .  Small parr were rising in the shallow pool tails and after catching a couple I ceased , I always feel guilty catching parr . A bit like the older school bully picking on the first formers. 

The valleys and rivers around here are about as perfect for fly fishing as I could imagine , thank god they are in Yorkshire.  Its a strange thing but despite visiting the area many times whilst walking , cycling and just driving I cant say they have ever left such a positive impression..

I will leave you with a view from Wharfedale ,  At the time I was eating a pork pie from Kendalls butcher in Pateley bridge and the sound of a Curlew was echoing over the valley .  A moments perfection ? well maybe not quite but damn close. 

Chasing wildies....

Following my Saturday trip down the local beck , my bank holiday weekend plans changed and the Monday afternoon became free so as a fishing opportunity cant be turned down some rapid plans had to be made. As I had fished the local beck on Saturday and I really didnt fancy the traffic to go far . Venue choice was important.  

I had a guest ticket for the Yorkshire Derwent and decided that today would be a good time to use it.  The river is only ten minutes from my house. So it meant no fighting the traffic jams.  I have been a member in the past so know the water pretty well but knew that low water and sunshine would combine to make it a tough day fishing for the little wildies. . 

The day was a day for delicate tactics so my chosen gear was the little Hardy featherweight 7ft 3wt and little  BBS  reel.  On this gear little wild brownies can put a decent bend in the rod.  The whole lot only weighs a few ounces and the very full flex allows for effortless close range fishing.  It isnt to every ones taste but I find it  tremendous fun on small streams.

The day ended with 8 of these little fellas all perfect this being the smallest ,  but a couple of others werent much bigger. Nearly all on the little size 18 and 20 adams .  

Around here at the moment we are in drought conditions, rivers are already at Summer dead low levels as we have had virtually no rain for 6 to 8 weeks. This time last year we had similar conditions and then I foolishly prayed for rain.  We know what happened then it didnt stop for 6 months so despite the drought I am not going to pray for anything...This is a winter wheat field at the side of the river , there was cracks in the ground you could get your hand in....

The Derwent  is a pretty pretty little stream and a belting way to hide from the traffic for a day.  One day I may even re join.......

Bank Holiday parking and bagging a keeper........

This weird year continues and today has been no exception when the wind dropped it was almost like summer and when it picked up again it was like a blast from Siberia.  This had the holiday makers scuttling back and forth like crazed yoyos and at the moment we have them here a plenty  in equal numbers they were out in shorts and T shirts and in scarves and overcoats.  I hate bank holidays , well hate is perhaps a bit strong but living in a tourist resort means that at the first whiff of sunshine and fair weather all the roads round here are clogged with tourists and parking spaces are as rare as rocking horse shit, at times it gets a bit trying.  But I do appreciate that I live in a beautiful part of the world and can understand others wanting to see it.  Its just a shame they cant space out their visits and not just turn up on a few weekends a year.  Personally I think the beaches are superb on a frosty February morning its a shame other dont see the attraction.

Winter or Summer a weekend morning routine for me is a long work with my ever faithful hound ruby the wonder dog.  This year our spring has been dreadful the cold has hung on like the proverbial on a blanket.  Fishing has been slow and it has been as if winter has just warmed up a little but spring hasn`t actually arrived.  Usually by this time of year my winter hunger has been satisfied and I am settling in to the routine of early summer fishing. But not this year. So this morning I made the brave decision to combine the dog walk with taking a  rod along for the of chance that ruby the wonder dog decided to play ball and actually leave some water undisturbed .Labs are fantastic dogs but I have to admit my normally pretty well behaved dog becomes deaf to all commands when faced with water.  

Anyway feeling brave and getting out early I managed a  parking space and the two of us headed upstream.   Down near the sea the beck is exposed and the wind whistles up the valley making casting a line an interesting challenge.

First to fall for the klink was a tiny sea trout smolt Ruby wasnt impressed by me catching something by now she had made her first catch a fine example of a tennis ball god knows how she sniffs them out. 

As we worked upstream the Sea trout smolts threw themselves with abandon at the little klinkhammer.  After catching a couple I moved up stream looking for the wild brownies that are here as well its odd how the smolts appear I can fish here one week and see none and yet a week later the stream feels full of them.

Only a half a mile further up the valley becomes tree lined and more sheltered and a series of pools and waterfalls makes for some wonderful fishing scenery. This is one of my favourite litttle pools and dont ever remember fishing here and not catching.

Today this was one of three that came from the head of the pool.  All on a tiny size 20 Adams the fish treated the klinkhammer with disdain .  Generally the trick with catching these is fly size and presentation almost all patterns are taken but a heavy leader or splashy cast sends them down very quickly.

 Whilst I am fishing the pool Ruby the wonder dog waits patiently , well when I say wait her lead was looped around a tree root .  I reckon she needed a breather anyway.

I love catching big fish as much as the next bloke but I dont think the charm of catching these little gems on these beautiful becks will ever leave me.  Anyway after a few hours we had done enough and breakfast was calling so all that was left was just a chance to show of our catches I had to admit Ruby had managed to bag herself a keeper .  

A tale of two rivers

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...

Size really doesn`t matter

Well ladies and Gents let me introduce you to a very special fish.  After nearly 7 months of gales, floods , snow and freezing temperatures loosely described as the 2012/ 13 close season  this leviathan was my first brown trout of the 2013 season.  Magnificent ? perhaps not .  But oh was I glad to catch it.  A brief hatch of Olives persuaded it to rise. In fact I was less than sure that it was a trout.  I was half expecting yet another grayling. But for all its diminutive size a trout has not looked as good for a long time. As although a couple of bigger trout followed this one as we men are constantly told size really doesnt matter and today it certainly didnt matter to me.

However with next week forecasting gales and floods it seems things will once again go on hold for a few days .  But soon the first real hatches will arrive: hawthorns will blunder about and crash land in the river. The grannom will be making there ungainly flights. Surely the warmer days are close now we can only wait and see.

Rising fish......

Sunday was the first day the temperature reached the dizzy heights of double figures,  10 deg to be precise .  I had the opportunity to escape to the local stream.  So with the hope of rising fish I ventured forth.The river is still in its winter guise.  There is no sign of green other than the snowdrops and the first shoots of wild garlic.

As I walked through the farmyard the bleating of sheep and lambs reminded me it is spring. The sheep are all in the process of lambing and have been brought in to the sheds for protection.  Whilst chatting to the farmer and his wife they thought it was the latest spring in living memory. Everything was at least a month behind. 

For two or three hours over lunchtime it felt like a spring day should feel.  Entering the stream the sunshine was just doing enough to persuade trickles of Olives to emerge and come sailing down.  I was enjoying the feel of sunshine when I spotted the first rise.  The next two hours brought seven fish to surface flies  all out of season grayling though.  All released quickly.   Not one trout put in an appearance .  Every time I spotted a rising fish I hoped that the culprit would be a brownie but as yet they are still laying doggo. 

It was great to see hatching flies. It was wonderful to cast at rising fish in sunshine and to feel the bend of a rod and the pulse of a fish.  At last I feel the season is underway all I need is for the brownies to wake up and join in...

Its bleeding cold.....

Well the season has started pretty much as I feared …. Badly . The biting easterly wind has not stopped all week . The water is bleeding cold and over two short trips the only fish that I have got to the net are a few ever willing Grayling.  I managed to hook two small trout but released both at distance.As it says in the books the LDO have appeared during my visits hatching promply at two thirty, the only problem was the fish aren’t reading the books and I appeared to be the only one that noticed them.  I have only seen one rising fish. Simply put , as yet the fish are not looking up.  On a brighter note the rivers look stunning as clear as I have ever seen them. At good levels and looking good for some warm weather. 

I did have a short chat with a guy enjoying his first ever trip on the rivers.  Well enjoying was probably the wrong word.  He was struggling with the breeze and his new gear. He was struggling for a few reasons. Firstly his new three weight rod which was a fastish action job. In the “breeze” the three weight line was hard to control and he did say he was going to get a four weight line for it.

Apparently the shop he bought it from had said he may need to over line the rod. Now to me habitually over lining is nonsense.  Surely you decide what line weight you want to use and buy a rod that will fish it at the ranges you want.  As for three weights , well yes on their day for dries they are great fun but as an all round fishing rod give me a four weight any day. 

Whilst we were chewing the fat he commented on my “old fashioned “waders.  A fine pair of PVC Ocean chesties. They form my Spring and Autumn wardrobe, I have breathables for summer and Neoprene for silly season fishing.  Now I cant understand why so few people wear them now. Tough / comfy / warm and getting in and out of them isn’t like the 20minute aerobics session neoprenes put me through.  Sartorial elegance they aint but they are blackthorn proof and great for sliding down banks on your arse.  But the clincher is I looked a lot warmer than he did after standing in that river for half an hour.  It doesn’t matter how dapper you look if you aint comfy you aint going to concentrate……..