Beauty or the Beast.

On a recent trip before the Brown Trout closed season I had the fortune of taking another good Grayling on the Dry Fly up the Dale, which fought well in the current and when it came to the net my heart sank as it had been attacked by a predator at some point in its life, probably  a cormorant as I know there are a few that frequent that stretch I was fishing. The damage these birds do to stocks and fish is well known, but to see such a beautiful fish with scars like the ones below make you wonder why the Government cannot see there is clearly a problem with the balance of these birds.

 You can see the stab wound centre of the body just below the dorsal fin.










On having a proper look at the fish out the water the wound has healed over with no side effects that I can see on the fish, a picture of the fish on the other side.

 

I have to give the fish credit though even though it has been damaged in such a way, it fought well and swam away strongly when release. 

A couple of other fish succumb to the Dry fly that day also, luckily these guys escaped the stabbing wounds of the predators.

Whilst there a couple of walkers sat up on the hill taking pictures of the general scenery then started on me, I often wonder where these pictures end up so asked the couple when they asked if I had caught anything, they informed me they were for a book they were writing and the pictures of me would set off the river nicely.....Now I'm no model but I have to say I was a bit taken back when they gave me that answer, I asked if they could send the pictures to me and today as I checked my email they kept their word.

I wont bore you all with pictures of me but I quite liked this one she took of me whilst on the back cast.