A definite Nip in the Air

This morning when I was putting my gear in the car there was a definite nip in the air, and as I drove up the Dale there was a carpet of mist covering it which looked like the Dale was still asleep with its quilt of mist over it, really quite beautiful and looking very wintery.

 The river was in perfect condition although the water was cold and no fly life was around so we set about trying the couple of gold heads I had made up and almost instantly I released 3 fish at long range, like the weather  I was a bit cold on the strike.

As the day wore on things started to come to life and warm up and on the path down through the fir trees the light was lovely casting shadows on the trees, the camera never quite caught the essence of the moment.






The first fish in the net came mid morning a lovely wee brown trout which greedily took the goldhead with a vengeance.

I was sitting with a cup of coffee watching the river go by when I seen one fly then 2 then 3 and all of a sudden the river sprung to life, fish began to rise everywhere and I was actually which amazed as to where these fish were rising as some of the places I wouldnt even glance at casting a fly to. The hatch on the river went on for about an hour and fish were gorging themselves on the flies as they passed.

 One thing I'm not and that is an entomologist but these were hatching out everywhere and the Trout and some lovely large Grayling were concentrating on them and ignoring everything I threw at them.

I've since found out by way of the FFF its either a Blue Winged Olive Dun or a Palewatery Olive, either way I didn't have an artificial that they wanted.


I tried for almost the full hour the hatch was on to entice one of the rising fish but to no avail as they really were pre occupied in wolfing down these little guys, to say I went through the fly box would have been about right, as my spent fly case where I keep flies to dry before putting them back in the box was brimming.

Almost as quickly as it started it finished again and the river fell silent apart from the odd rising fish which this time decided it liked the look of my dry fly as an after dinner dessert and ended up in the net.

All in all a very enjoyable few hours on the river and it wont be long before I'm digging out the neoprenes as the breathables arent that good at keeping the cold at bay and the water today was exactly that.
Winter is most definitely coming, and I'm really looking forward to getting back out with the pin and trotting for the lovely ladies on those crisp cold mornings.