CDC emerger...

I have been restocking fly boxes over the last few weeks.  One interesting aspect of that is by inspecting the various boxes I have it gives a pretty good review of what worked last year.  The box of mayflies and sedges   was pretty much untouched all year apart from the daddies.  The wet year meant that the crane flies had a bumper year and when the rivers were fishable the daddies did well. My  box of yorkshire spiders was virtually intact from last winter.  Whereas the small dries were largely unused apart from the tiny size 18 and 20 adams.

One box that was virtually empty was the CDC box.  F Flies and IOBO humpys were thin on the ground and my version of a CDC emerger had been completely exhausted despite tying some more misd season..  This fly has been a killer for me the last couple of seasons and seems as useful for Grayling as for Brown trout.  Tied in sizes 14 through to 18 .  It seems to be effective across the board.

Sometimes I include a light dubbing of rabbit around the root of the wing . It is a fly that has caught a very large proportion of all the fish landed by me this year.  A very simple tie but very effective .  I have recently started to reinforce the stripped herl body with UV resin .  The hooks can be the very light Varivas 2200 or my preference the Daiichi D900.  These are all tied with natural quill but of course dyed quill can be very effective...

Happy Christmas

I wish all my readers wherever you are a very  happy Christmas and tight lines for the new year....
I wish you all a spring and summer of perfect river levels and soft summer evenings filled with rising trout.

  My evening fishing was perfection, kingfishers buzzed me and swifts screeched. Columns of mayfly spun their magic. Casts were straight and fish rose.  The evening blessed me with 8 or 9 fish all various sizes of perfection.  Cocooned between the deep banks and wrapped in the clear water for just a short time, like the river. I became a part of the whole. 

 Andy

Autumn reflections....Amadou and floods

Well what a year we are having ,  our weather has been  even more unpredictable than usual for the UK.  At the start of the year I am posting a prayer for rain and the authorities are predicting a drought of biblical proportions and what did we get we got the wettest summer ever , as I sit here in my hilltop house three of the four roads out are flooded and there is water coming up out of all the drains instead of the usual way..
Fishing is something thats best read about at the moment and apart from fly tying none will be done for a few weeks .  Its an opportunity now to do some jobs and work some brownie points for next year.

Yesterday a reasonable day I indulged in one of my other pleasures , namely walks with my lab. We started out in the morning down my local beck which was fining down nicely .  I spent 15 minutes trying to get a shot of the sea trout taking a weir their struggle is fascinating I can sit and watch them for ages.  Anyway in the end took a short video as I couldnt capture a still.   As well as these smaller fish there were some in the 6 or 8 lb class going through.

Later in the day I decided a proper walk in the woods was in order ,  We went to a part I visit only a couple of times a year it is the area that has yielded the fungus for Amadou for me  I found a few poor specimens and some on a tree in a completely different area.

The interest around this amazing fungus is astonishing since posting about it on here a couple of years back the number of views the post gets and the number of emails asking questions is amazing .  I guess mainly driven by the Ray Mears type program and using it for fire lighting . As for drying flies which is the reason I started looking for it 30 years ago buy it.. Plenty available now at low cost.  Certainly its better than any I ever made..

.Mature broad leaf woodland is a special place.  Unlike the sterile conifer plantations around here these woods are a rich diverse place.  

Full of wildlife and a fascinating place to be .However one other thing that occured to me yesterday was how much damage the mountain bikers are doing to the forest tracks especially with this wet weather the erosion and damage is worrying .  There are deep rutted tracks in areas that didnt even have footpaths a few years back.

Last night it rained all night and taking ruby out in the half light this morning this is the state of the local beck.  Sorry about the pics it was very dark.  I couldnt even get to the weir on the video above the bank footpath was under water...

Our new fish pass is under that lot lets hope it survives.  There was nearly a metre of flood water on the gauge this morning if it survives this it should be ok for years...

Pleased but irritated .......

Recently I  posted on here showing the completing of our fish pass. Following its completion there have been many anxious hours waiting to see if fish can use it.   I am now assured by several members that fish have been seen ascending the ladder.  Something that I am very pleased indeed to report but bloody irritated that despite visiting it on a number of occasions I am yet to see anything using it......

What I want now is some pics of fish jumping out of that top box.....

October Grayling and winter comforts.

Shorter days and colder nights foretell the coming of winter there has been a frost and this week has seen mornings with shrouds of fog and fallen leaves starting to carpet the roads and verges “Taking of their clothes before going to sleep” was how my Grandad described autumn trees to me when I was a small boy. It is a time when all angling opportunities need to be seized, the slide into winter offers less and less opportunity for fly fishing. Both myself  and the grayling become lethargic once Christmas has arrived. January and February ..tend to be the time when more than any other I tie flies and contemplate the forthcoming season.  March is keenly anticipated but to often does not realise its is spring time

Regardless of the calender I view the first of October as the first day of Autumn, the trout season has now finished and the ladies of the stream the Grayling become my target for the next few months. I have come to regard them perhaps even more highly than the brown trout. Present in the local rivers since the last ice age they are a fish of simple beauty and offer an enigmatic quarry to pursue through the winter. They really do offer the river fly angler a quarry that reaches its physical peak as the rivers head into winter.

A recent weekend was my first in pursuit of the ladies. I started with dry fly but catching three brown trout on the bounce made me switch to a nymph to try and find the ladies. Above was the first Grayling of the season , small but showing the beautiful markings and delicate lines.

This out of season brownie was one of the few I caught that day . I do not recall a season end where the brownies have been in such superb condition some of the local becks seem to have been brimming with above average fish.  

So far this month I have fished little a solitary trip to the Yorkshire Dove and a visit the Ure with a guest when the river was high and coloured .  The wading was challenging and the fishing hard but a few fish were caught.   For the next few months fishing is confined to weekends and short visits.  Restocking depleted fly boxes is now a priority .  One recent development is courtesy of my good lady who after suffering years of me spending winter evenings in a different room to her tying flies has bought a new bureau for the lounge its tucked away in a little corner and half of it is all for me After years of working at the dining table I now have a fly tying station . 

as she sees it 

As I see it......

 Its next to the wood burner and comes with its own bottle of malt. Suddenly the winter doesn`t seem so bad

At close of play take two....

last week I thought the weekend trip would be my last trip of the season but becks like mine that flow quickly can run of as fast as they rise. So on Sunday when I was out doing the monthly invertebrate monitoring I saw rising fish, which together with the clear water was enough reason to fit in one last visit, without it been the last day of the trout season .  I reckoned I could escape for maybe three hours down my beck.

I decided to fish an upstream section a part I only ever fish into Autumn /Winter.  The beck had recovered completely  from the spate of earlier in the week.  This time of year trout can really switch on to feeding and I reckon after two or three days of hiding out of the current they were certainly in the mood.

There was little surface activity a few fish were rising even though lots of small needles were on the wing .  I fished with a small klinkhammer a fly that has proved time and again to be as good at searching for fish as any. A good few decent brownies came to hand.   In fact several of them were as good as you can expect from this stream. For this beck a 1lb fish is a good one and all fight with a tenacity born out of the tough conditions.

An unexpected bonus was catching a Grayling in a stretch that I had long suspected held fish but so far I hadnt located any.  The fish was returned quickly without a picture today was about brown trout.  I will return to that swim further into the Autumn.

 Winter is fast approaching,  but unlike previous years the summer is ending with good water levels. The last spate has helped to clear the summer algae from the rocks and gravels with spawning approaching it has to be a benefit to the river.

The first signs of Autumn are clear falling leaves are now starting to scatter the stream bed.  It wont be long before the first frosts will fill this little stretch of river.

The few hours went quickly aboout a dozen brownies were the result.  The day finished when I needed to change the tippet but when I looked up saw the dimples of rain and looked at the time I realised that the season was finished.  The season had run its course and it was the time to leave the trout alone till next year.

Home water at the close of play

The trout season is just about over now,  in fact looking at the weather forecast and my diary for the next weekend I think its unlikely I will be fishing for trout again this year.  As visitors to my blog may have already learned I do like to start and finish the season on home turf.  This little beck is 5 mins from my door and has been a companion either as a playground or more for nearly half a century.  It is very very low at the moment but I felt it had one more days fishing for me it was a day for soft footfalls and long leaders...

I like nothing more than to start on the beach and walk upstream I have caught many trout in the first pool up from the beach a freshwater pool full of sea weed from the high tides. But working upstream the beck changes from an almost upland beck falling quickly along a rocky valley to a tumbling stream hidden in a tree lined valley all that in less than a mile.

The trout here are small but beautiful.  Rising freely to a well presented fly but soon hiding from a careless footfall.  Usually you get one chance at each little pool , the leader should be the only thing that lands on the pool in fact I often aim to drop the fly line on a rock at the tail of the pool so as not to disturb these tiny little oasis.  If you miss the first rise you rarely get another chance so you have to keep moving ...


 Within half a mile it chances from the beck above to the one below. Here it fishes like a totally different stream .  The fish hiding in the roots and dubs that are often no more than a yard wide.  The wildlife and plants change from  the wild orchids and slow worms of the open banks to the dragon flies and deer of the valley sides.

Pools like the one below start to develop after a few hundred yards into the woods the resident fish here are small rarely over a pound but they test the reflexes of anyone rising quickly . Today the fish rose well to a size 18 red tag. I reckon I hooked a third of those I rose.

When you do manage to persuade one to join you this is what they look like :  Perfect small wild brown trout  full finned and beautifully spotted. just as nature intended.

 Personally I cant think of a nicer way to sign of another trout season . A good match on home water. On a beautiful September day.  Now its Grayling time bring on the lady of the stream....