Sunday 22 January 2017

Water....What water?

Quite the opposite of last week where I had a rising river, this week it was a struggle to find water at all, the local rivers were well below summer levels so this prompted me to head a bit further afield to old hunting grounds in search of deeper water.







I arrived just after 8am as the red coloured moon was dipping behind the hedgerows.








The first sight of the river looked grim, where had all the water gone!


It looked more like a babbling brook than a river and the sight of 5 cormorants lifting off the shingle as I exited the wood really did sink my heart, for goodness sake Im high up in the middle of the Pennine's nowhere near any estuary. Its about time these birds were brought into line as the powers to be certainly wont do anything until our rivers are completely devoid of all natural fish.








Anyway with that aside I started making my way upstream and stumbled across the first snowdrops I've seen this year about to flower.






Almost 3 hours had gone past and not a sign of any fish, not even a pull and I was fishing hard and looking in places where I wouldn't even bother about if there was water in the river but alas nothing. It was time to sit and have a coffee and absorb the surroundings if nothing else. A couple of dippers joined me and were hopping from rock to rock and bathing right in front of where I was sat against a tree, I love these little birds and the show they put on for you.




Whilst sitting having my coffee I noticed that there was a lot more oak moss around than normal, probably due to the lack of a cold winter so to speak.

The fish might not be in the mood but that certainly didn't stop the enjoyment of the day on the riverbank.






After a coffee and a short walk up to the next pool which had some water in it I was rewarded with a Grayling on the 2nd cast. A very welcome sight indeed 


Continuing on through the pool no more fish were found so almost back at the car I decided to cut my losses and head back earlier than normal as there was nothing happening at all and the sun was bright making a bad situation even worse, It was so hot walking I had to take off my neck warmer and woolly hat.

So that was it for another week but certainly not disappointed in anyway, it was hard work but thats fishing, as for the Grayling well that fell to a spider pattern that I tied up midweek and had on as a dropper whilst the nymph searched the bottom this searched the middle layers.




























Dont you just love spiders patterns for producing the goods on a hard day.

4 comments:

  1. Hello George

    Tough going there and you probably did well to catch one. I'm half glad I never ventured out now.

    It's a queer time of the year on the rivers.They can look very inviting but there's no fish to be seen. Still, it's always nice to be on the bank finding it out for yourself.

    Regards

    Dave

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    Replies
    1. Hi Dave,
      Oh its hard going country wide I think, I keep in touch with a lot of guys north of the border and they are having the same troubles as us, Im not too fussed though as I've not had the trotting rod out this year and everything has came to artificials I've tied myself so I knew it was going to be tough, just a little more than I had anticipated though but still nice to be out no matter what.
      cheers George

      Delete
  2. Tough conditions. All seems better after a cup of coffee.
    Beautiful spiders. That first one has been working well for me lately.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. certainly were tough Alan but as you say a sit down and a coffee brings all into perspective and I still enjoyed myself no matter what. The spiders have produced for me over the last couple of trips, I dont normally fish them this early in the season but this year it has paid off for me. Hope all is well.
      regards
      George

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