Back amongst the lovely ladies

Finally after all this time (2 December) did I managed to get back out onto a fish able river,  and the river produced the ladies.

As I walked down through the wood I seen the snowdrop and daffodil stems starting to protrude up through the soil, it wont be long before some of them will be in flower. I wanted to get onto the river early as I expected others would have the same idea so was on the river by 8am to find I was the only one, which was a welcoming start to the day.

Being the first trip of the year I had the memorial Stanton with me which is now a bit of a habit for me to fish the first trip of the year with it, combined with the new float which I was using for the first time I sensed it was going to be a good day.






The day got off to a bit of a slow start with nothing happening for the first hour, The float was fishing a lot better than I had expected and I was really pleased with it,then finally the float dipped away and fish on....for all of 10 seconds, the same happened again and then yet again! I was using a hook which I was not  familiar with and was trying them to see how they fared,  after a switch back to my trusted brand we were soon back in the swim with more self confidence of getting the fish to the net. It didn't take long till the float disappeared again and this time a small Grayling came to the net.

The first for 2013.

 It didn't take long before I was catching quite a few of this sized grayling and it was nice to see that the Cormorants hadn't done as much damage as I had feared after frequently seeing 10 or so cormorants on the stretch last year. As the morning wore on the odd one or two fish was of a slightly better stamp.

It wasn't long after 10am that I heard someone from behind ask if I was doing much and turned around to find another angler walking down the river, we chatted and he walked down stream another 500m before I seen him making his first cast, the first of many anglers I thought as the day was shaping up quite nicely, the sun was even making an appearance.

The grayling continued to oblige all be it the smaller ones again but from time to time the odd better fish kept making an appearance up until lunchtime when it was time to get out the water, get some circulation back into my legs as I had been up to my waist in water for most of the morning and it was beginning to takes it toll, the flask was calling.

Not being one to sit around for long whilst walking around with my cup in hand, took a few arty pictures of the gear.

Fed, watered and circulation now back in my legs, it was time to see if the ladies would continue to show and it didn't take long before the float dipped away again and we were back amongst them.

 The fish were definably getting bigger as the day wore on, not as many bites but decent sized fish

 I was very surprised that none of the trout that frequent the river had showed up but before long I was eating my words with a couple in quick succession this one being the best of them and fighting fit with lovely colour to it.

 With the trout showing I decided to move back to my original swim and have the last half hour before calling it a day and on the first trot through I hooked into a fish, I knew instantly that it was a better fish, sure enough a lovely grayling of 2lbs 8oz, I thought I had some good photographs of it only to find when I got home that the ones I did take were all water marked from water on the lens!

Well all in all a very good start to the new year and hopefully the weather will be kinder to us than previously and we can get back out on the water next weekend. A fitting sight to end today's entry a shot of the beautiful colours of the ladies.